Local women star in 'Relative Race' series

A cross-country race for $50,000 with long-lost relatives waiting at every stop. And that is the reality show Relative Race. And two local best friends are along for the ride. So, Miette, I am your brother. Oh, my gosh. I have a brother. Mind if I hug you? Yes, of course. Inglewood's Miette Branch and Huntington Beach's Nakia Lane have been best friends for most of their lives after learning as adults that she was adopted, Miette wanted answers about her biological family. So Nakia joined her for support, never expecting to meet an older sister of her own. Both women are here with us to talk about this experience on BYUtv's Relative Race. Welcome to you both. Thank you. Thank you, ladies. thanks for having us what an amazing concept for a show it really is it i mean wow i mean we never heard of the show until they called me yet and then we were like let's go exactly we were like 17 seasons yes where's the first one oh right right sign us up so um and so you made a pretty amazing discovery of your own i did i don't want to give any spoilers because there's more to come but yeah I was able to meet my brother on my mother's side that's incredible I mean I was raised as the only child so to find siblings was like one of my major things besides everybody else so it was really important and shocking yes I don't know if you could tell but we were really surprised yeah yeah what was that moment like for you wow um I was actually emotional but very surprised and happy all at the same time because the race itself is really grueling and it's fun at the same time but you're also nervous because you don't know who's behind the door and then when my brother walked out because we also don't know who's a relative it is right no idea no idea actually explain explain the whole premise right because um people might not know right how does it work okay so you remember the Amazing Race yes so it's four teams we're team black and there's three other teams and we're racing for fifty thousand dollars so each day of the race it's 16 17 hours of racing with with no phones no gps we have to use our paper maps paper maps don't know where we're going um when's the last time you use a paper map oh i mean can you imagine like unfolding it in the car and they give you 50 state maps yeah you don't know which state you're going to i can't even leave my driveway without a map like you just well she was my navigator don't give me the map we all have our strengths yes yes and she was the driver definitely but basically we'd have to complete a challenge once we complete that challenge in a certain allotted time they'll give us an address remember we're from the west coast so we were the only west coast girls going on the east coast so everyone else was from the east coast so we kind of had a disadvantage a big disadvantage that part yeah yeah so um it's a good honest troopers that's right as we do together yes yes so what what's an example of one of the challenges or or tell us like what the most challenging challenge was okay yeah i feel like the very beginning when we walked into that cave we were in the Luray Caverns we were in Virginia where we've never been before yes and just the beautiful the stalagmites and the stalactites all the energy and i was like thank you for knowing that i didn't that's my girl i feel really good at that moment that like just brought me back to like what grade school all of that yeah all of that so um me meeting a sister on the show i met someone i didn't even go on the race expecting to meet anybody yeah you're just there to be supportive there to be supportive but i met my sister and it was a shock to me but um meeting the family i mean really it's really enhanced our lives we've gotten to know them and we've actually spent a lot of time with the new relatives that we've met how many we have we have but they're on the east coast the relatives the relatives are all on the east coast yeah kind of everywhere without giving a spoiler the relatives are everywhere um but the challenges itself uh those were interesting too because say like we've had at least four different challenges or each challenge each day and the caverns was really was really fun to be in but we have to race in the dark cavern to get to the end to get the key to get the car keys just to get to the car and then the next race is something and then you go into these challenges yeah the last one was the teacups those are our funnest the teacups yes i mean because it's a mental strategy it is um it's physical but it's really more mental yeah and sticking together and working together as a team and you guys have your own sisterhood and each other we do right we do um i mean we've been through a lot together and this this race really showed that we can get through anything together i mean this is my girl we have our bucket list we do this was not on it right so this is the top of the bucket list okay so you guys have been friends for 30 years right oh my gosh look at your face oh that's us 90s how you guys meet we met in a dance troupe actually we were dancers a long time ago and um we were hip-hop dancers so the style is on point yes the 90s style yes yes yes we've got a lot of history together and it just keeps going and you guys have kids now we do are they like friends as well yes they are i have two children my oldest son he's 32 and my daughter she's 25 and i have a 22-year-old, and a 16-year-old. Wow. That's just like history repeating itself. It is. You guys met, you know, way back when, and now you're kids. Yes. Did this experience, I think I know the answer, the experience brought you closer? It really did. And I feel like it even brought us together closer spiritually. Yes. Because it really took us on our hands and knees praying every morning. You know, give us the strength to get through something this powerful. Yes. And then enjoy it. Yes. From that point on. And that's what we did. We tried our best. I mean, we might be tired, appearing tired. Yeah. But we had all the strength and energy because we're not quitters at all. No, that's right. I can tell. We're going to get to day 10. I can absolutely tell. So you discovered that you had a brother. You discovered that you had a sister. Yes. These are immediate relatives. Did you always have any kind of like suspicion or maybe that you thought that there was more of you out there? I mean, she had no idea. I knew that I had a sister that I never met from my dad's side. But I didn't have any contact with her. She didn't know she had anyone looking for her. Ah, yeah. Yes, it was a shock for her. Yes, my love. Thank you. My best friend bought me an Ancestry DNA kit for my 45th birthday. Yes. And that's what really started it all. It really was. It's really special. And she was like, among all the other gifts I gift you, you might want to open this privately. Because my adoption is private. You know what I'm saying? Right. My mom, my adoptive mom, which I never would call her my adoptive mom. Rest in peace. Mary Branch, when she passed in hospice, she gave me a stack of papers in a manila envelope and says, before I pass on, like, I want you to be free and be ready to find your family. I'm like, what family? You're my family. So I sat with this information for 22 years. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Yeah, and so once you did the Ancestry, I submitted my DNA, just so happened the show uses Ancestry DNA to help find those matches. And it just seems like everything just kind of meshed together, and this is where we are right now, right? Yes, absolutely, because you see these names in the queue, and you're like, hey, but you don't know who. But Relative Race is brilliant. They are. They put it all together. So there was at least a few names that I've already seen in my phone. I got to meet my grandfather the first day you understand like i've always dreamed of a grandparent and they knew about her her bio family knew that there was um a daughter out there but here's the thing her they didn't know where you were or it was a closed adoption closed adoption it changed her bio mom changed her name what was your given name tiffany tiffany and what how old were you when you were adopted five months oh wow yeah yeah so this is this is all you've ever known it's all I've ever known I couldn't even imagine I had the best childhood I have the best parents yes it's almost unbelievable but going on this journey um I'm led to be free my mom said you are ready my father is still here he's 82 he's amazing he is supportive yeah he is in it 100 percent when you met your brother and sister uh how quick was their connection or could you even see your resemblance or mannerisms immediately i just felt his hugs my brother lee day day two for us um he's just great energy it was hard for me to see the resemblance right away yeah because the tears in my eyes yes yes but yeah we have same mannerisms and then he was able to show me pictures of my birth mother so that's exciting and we were like your mother's still alive oh my gosh that's all shocking that everyone is still alive and willing to meet us your mother's still so so both your your biological parents are still with us yes this is your oh that's my that's my biological mom yes she was 23 on her wedding day ah yes yes but what a what a beautiful gift that your i mean your mom your your adopted mom right before she passed right exactly is the knowledge and the freedom to if you if you so choose then this is this is the information it's like she almost knew that this was going to come and the fact that she was selfless and saving this information for me yet but she could have chose to kept it literally to her grave you know what i mean that's right yeah that's true so she's watching down on us right now she's here with that i'm sure she is did you guys learn anything about each other you didn't know being as close as you are was there anything in this experience through that process my girl is very competitive okay i mean almost to a fault we're supposed to be only here to find family be happy i mean it was still a competition so when we did come in the bottom a couple of times it was not fun so this girl is very competitive so i had to i had to get on the board i had to get on board and suck it up but that's right have you guys been on vacation where it's not like high stress and like trying to figure out life on your own okay good yes i feel like you need that experience to just like unwind and right yeah and just relax something please um our last experience together vacation um my bestie and her family they go to Catalina every year and um one of our bestie bucket list adventures was to be zip lining so she took me zip lining yeah and then we did parasailing this past year but all within thoughts of let's prepare for the race yes let's go parasailing just in case y'all it was nothing like that i like that though you guys are so much fun great adventure thank you ladies so nice to meet you thank you thank you so much streaming free on BYUTV app or byutv.org and we'll be right back check us out And that's what I do.