[Music]

it's hard to believe that

a one-year-old just vanished you know

there's no trace of him

my mother is constantly living in that

guilt and she struggles with that a lot

coming up on long lost family i'm

adopted and my birth mother was adopted

but my birth mother was a total secret

my maternal grandfather

had an affair and took the secret

of my mother to the grave having solved

the mysteries behind our own adoptions

so the police take your brother

and then do you know what happened no

okay

just like no child should go through

that you know

we know searching for the truth can be a

difficult journey

how does it feel to have some of those

questions answered

dizzying i wanted to just come by and

kind of update you

on uh what i've been doing oh my god

[Music]

send our good thoughts and prayers to

him

if

and well one day we'll find a mom my mom

my older brother michael

me and my sister maria have been

searching for my younger half brother

elaine

for 30 years it's hard to believe that

a one-year-old just vanished you know

there's no trace of him that's

what's crazy the only vision i have of

him is when he's in his diapers

i used to change his diapers my father

died when i was

young and when my father died my mom

didn't really have any

financial support she had recently come

from

cuba as a part of the marielle boat lift

she traveled in a raft for about two

days

taking a chance risking her life to come

to the united states there was no

guarantee that the raft was going to

make it or anything

but that's how strong and determined she

was to come over here

she wanted to escape her existence in

life in cuba

but this life that she had expected

wasn't really panning out

she couldn't speak the language she

couldn't write so it was hard for her to

find a job

she fell into drugs and her life just

kind of spiraled out of control

when my mother was arrested and she went

to jail

and we were taken from my mother's

custody and my older brother michael and

i went into

the state's care my younger brother

ended up going with her boyfriend's

parents

and i've never seen him since

my mother always prays for deadlines

return

hype

hello

she prays for forgiveness and

you know that he'll forgive her i don't

i don't think she's

you know forgiven herself though

if we found a lion i think that my

mother could forgive herself and kind of

move forward and let go

of what happened in the past because

she's constantly depressed and

constantly living in that guilt

and you know deep down inside she

struggles with that a lot

i don't know how you could live through

like losing a son

having my own son i couldn't imagine

that and i wouldn't want to imagine that

and sometimes

just the thought will bring me to her

it makes me

[Music]

back in 1988 a baby boy disappeared

his sister rayna has never forgotten

about him

and after decades of searching she and

her family hope that this nearly

30-year-old mystery

will finally be solved and they've asked

me

for my help

[Music]

hey rainey how are you nice to meet you

guys nice to meet you too

you want to come in thanks all right

[Music]

all right why don't you tell me about

yourself

how you grew up just tell me about your

family history okay well

um presently i'm 35 years old raised

here in florida

i have a 15 year old son um and

when i was about five years old my older

brother and myself were

taken from my mother's custody because

she just kind of fell into the world of

drugs

and then we went into the state's care

my younger brother was very young at the

time and so

he basically stayed with my mother's

boyfriend's

parents i always intended on getting he

stayed with them for a few months

and then they ended up giving him over

to just

some unknown woman i'm gonna stop you

real quick just so i can

keep all this in order right okay so

a line you say was initially with his

grandparents

right and at some point transferred his

care

to another person yes and do we know who

that person is

we i i mean i guess she must have been a

friend of theirs in a sentence of theirs

and she took him and kept him for about

six months

and the story was that she left

my my brother under the care of somebody

else who was on drugs

and the police were called and you know

found him and removed him from the

person who had him

wow yeah so the police

take a line and and

i mean that's where we are huh we don't

we don't know

yeah we don't know what happened to him

after that

no how do you know this like where did

you get this information from um

so when my mother was released from jail

you know the first thing she did was go

back to the grandparents and try to

get her son get my brother back and they

didn't have him

and they were the ones that told her we

gave him off to

no okay and they give my mother

the last known you know place that she

lived at and wasn't able to find her

where where was that last known address

at a hotel down in miami beach

18th and collins okay how does that make

you feel emotionally to know that your

little brother

was in this situation it you know it

just

it reminds me a lot of what i went

through and stuff which was painful

it's like resurfaced and stuff um

and he was a lot younger and so that

sucks

thank you

just like no child should go through

that you know

and it's hard to like you know know that

we went through it so

frequently and that my my brother was

alone going through that

you know at such an early age it's just

really soft

how has this entire

situation and experience been for your

mom emotionally

you know i i don't think my mom has ever

like you know

regained herself i think she's always

felt incomplete

and she's dealt with a lot of um

guilt depression

anxiety she's that yeah she she goes

through it a lot

if you could say something very much

i've always loved him

um and that i haven't stopped looking

for him

and that i hope he knows you know

that we're here in case he wants to have

a relationship with us
and i just i'd like to learn about him

get to know him

you know be a part of his life however

he would want that

[Music]

hands up wow all right

okay let's get your talk from a young

age

i understood what adoption meant because

when i was about four years old my

parents explained it to me

they said we chose you we prayed for you

and we found you

but what helped me to understand it more

than anything else

was the story of superman he had

parents who loved him but who couldn't

take care of him

so they sent him away to a new family

who did raise him

and the reason why superman is a hero

is not because he's strong and powerful

it's because he wants to belong he wants

to be accepted

the same way that i've wanted to be

accepted

my whole life good and to save people

because he wants to be one of us

and that's how i've always felt i want

to be

one of one of the tribe one of the

people

and what are you gonna draw next buddy

what do you think uh

maybe some left on the body okay that's

good

four years ago my wife christina and i

we had a son

when he was born um

[Music]

that was the first time i ever met

someone who i shared blood with

the first time he opened his eyes

i just i knew it was like cosmic like

you

you and me are connected buddy

[Music]

so once clark was born i decided man i

need to take this to the next level so

from

the non-identifying information that my

parents gave to me

included my birth mother's date of birth

and a rough physical description it also

included the information that my

my birth mother was adopted and that one

of the reasons why

she was comfortable giving me up for

adoption was because

she believed in the process it had

worked for her

through dna i made a connection with lee

tree

for the los stumbo family and so in

august of 2017

just uh seven months after i had first

found the los tempo family i had the

privilege

of attending a family reunion with about

40 of them

when i reunited with the los stumbo

family and i got to meet everyone

everyone really wanted to know what i

knew

about my birth mother because it turns

out that they knew

even less than i did my grandfather

tony lestombo on his deathbed

did tell a few different people that i

had a daughter

and i let her go and everyone assumed

that that child had been um

born over in europe during the war

somewhere in france

and it it turned out it was the opposite

that he had had that child in syracuse

and that child was my mother so

my birth mother was a total secret

so although i have found the maternal

side of my family

um i still haven't found my birth mother

that just makes me wonder even more like

okay i've got all these pieces i need to

have i need to finish this puzzle

the whole story it's weird to think that

i was here a year ago

and just meeting everyone and getting to

know you for the first time

yeah and then now i'm still looking

though

i think we still haven't found that yes

that one answer you will

you'll find something i'm sure well if

if i do

um we're gonna have a big party

if and when you do find her which i

think you will i hope that you guys have

a relationship

together some kind of relationship

together yeah

so i hope so too yeah i don't want this

to be a mystery that

lives for another generation or two or

three

like it's time it's time for people to

know the truth

like i don't know if if i do meet my

mother
if it will go well well there's there's

and i have to

i have to ability i have to keep that in

mind so that i don't get myself too

excited

but i know that at least that no matter

what happens that i have all of you

why i'm so determined to do it now is

because i feel

that i have not only the sense of my

own identity and myself defined

but that i have a family behind me not

just the family that i've created but

the family that i found

and really great family i feel really

really lucky

to be part of this family i think i hit

the jackpot let's go give me a hug

oh i love you honey coming up

maybe i am too late but i can't do this

again

i can't go to another funeral for

someone who i've been

dying to meet my entire life i wanted to

just come by and kind of update you on

uh what i've been doing oh my god

[Music]

i'm in west hills california outside of

los angeles on my way to meet shawn

who's been searching for his biological

mother

for most of his life now sean has dealt

with his adoption by using his creative

imagination

to sort of build up his origin story now

he's even more driven

to find the woman who placed him for

adoption more than 30 years ago

hi lisa john sean nice to meet you so

nice to meet you

welcome to my home come on in oh thank

you so much

[Music]

how are you i am uh i'm a little over a

while

pretty much my entire life i would say

the hardest the hardest moment in the

search

was that i created a list of names of

every woman

who had my mother's date of birth who

had ever listed an address in syracuse

new york or even onondaga county

that must have been a lot it was i

started making phone calls to

the women on that list i only made a few

of those calls

because afterward it was like yes

just all the energy all the everything

you just sink um it feels hopeless

yeah of course it does all these

roadblocks and you're doing everything

that you

know how to do yeah you said that you

did some dna tests right

yes it was using dna testing

that allowed me to find her birth family

i uploaded to ancestry.com

and it was actually by linking up with a

cousin through dna

that enabled me to identify my mother's

birth parents that she had never found

wow

my maternal grandparents were tony and

josie

so this is the first picture that i ever

saw of

tony la stumbo my maternal grandfather

and tony la stumbo

was married all right and he had an

affair

with joseph with josie ah and

the product of that affair the result of

that affair was my birth mother

here's josie dancing i love this picture

everyone said she liked to smile like to

laugh

she was good she was like good times

josie

um josie had my birth mother in secret

like total secret and because

of where i was born i'm pretty sure that

that baby was placed in syracuse

in their hometown wow um tony went back

to his first wife tried to make it work

four years later they got divorced and

as the family tells me very quickly

josie came into the picture

nobody knowing that that they had this

previous relationship

and this child together um they never

had other kids

but they married oh and they stayed

married

until his death and she never remarried

after that and

is she still alive she passed away in

september yeah

i really wanted to meet josie

but josie got sick and was in

hospice care and my cousin monica

said to me you have to come out and meet

her it's time

and a couple weeks later she died

and like my worst nightmare came true

and so i

flew out to phoenix and i went to her

funeral
um that was hard yeah

but josie took the secret

of my mother to the grave and that means

that if

i can find my birth mother i can

actually

give her all of the same information

that i've been searching for

which is i can tell her who her parents

were

and i can show her what they looked like

and i can introduce her to

an entire family that is looking for her

as well

and what an incredible gift that would

be

for me that would be so fulfilling to be

able to give something back to her

knowing what it's meant to me to be on

the same search

if we are able to find her and she is

willing to meet with you

what will you say

a lot of the things that i want to say

to my birth mother

i said over josie's casket

i was overwhelmed with emotion oh i'm

sure

i could have told her that she didn't

have to hurt

so much and i just wish

[Music]

i could have looked into her eyes and

held her hand

that was all i wanted

[Music]

there's a lot of healing that needs to

be done yeah

you know maybe i am too late

maybe she doesn't want to be found

but i can't do this again i can't go to

another funeral

for someone who i've been dying to meet

my entire life

[Music]

and cry over a casket saying the things

i wish i could have said

when she was alive

[Music]

to begin my search for sean's birth

mother i've traveled to syracuse where

she was born

what makes this investigation rare and

challenging

is that shawn's birth mother is also

adopted so finding any additional

information for her outside of place and

date of birth

is going to be extremely difficult

however sean has already made a list of

earth date but given the emotional toll

of making these calls

he hasn't reached out to everyone on the

list

hi my name is lisa joyner do you have a

moment to speak

do you live in syracuse unfortunately

no one on sean's list matches his

mother's profile

i'm going to have to come up with a new

approach if i'm ever going to be able to

locate his birth mother

[Music]

there are many obstacles to tracking

down rayna's younger brother a line who

vanished nearly 30 years ago

starting with the fact that there is

absolutely no paper trail

even though reina's mother did file a

missing person's report with the police

they were unable to find anything that

would lead them to his whereabouts reyna

has taken an ancestry dna test

and as we wait for those results i think

my best course of action

is to start at the last known location

of reyna's brother-in-law

a hotel on collins avenue in south beach

the hotel is somewhere here on collins

around 18th or 19th

i'm gonna widen that a little bit and

start my search here on seven

police archives are searchable by the

address at which an incident occurred so

what i'm doing is

walking up collins jotting down the

addresses of hotels

or buildings that look like they could

have been hotels

i'll then use these addresses when i

search the police archives

and possibly dig up the incident report

from the day that a line was put into

police custody

this report could provide key details of

where a line was sent next

[Music]

i'm trying to help shawn locate his

biological mother but after calling the

names on shawn's list

i wasn't able to find her however there

is a chance

that shawn's list is incomplete using

ancestry's public records database

i'm going to expand the list of names

that shawn compiled of syracuse women

born on july 26

1964.
[Music]

and after cross-referencing the new list

with shawn's

i notice a few additional names that i

can call

hello hi is this amy lisma

uh yes it is

my name is lisa joyner and i am

searching for someone i think you may be

able to help me with that do you have a

moment to speak

yes i do amy did you place a son for

adoption

yes i did but how would you know that

well i believe that the person that i'm

trying to help

so

[Music]

is your biological son it's been over 34

years

it's been a long time thank you

amy still lives in syracuse and invites

me to her home

she's shocked that we were able to find

her she says she always thought that her

own adopted past would make it more

difficult

she's never been able to find out

anything regarding her own biological

family

hi amy lisa hi so nice to meet you

nice to meet you please come in thank

you

first of all um thank you for speaking

with me because i know it takes a lot of

bravery

you know i was hesitant yeah because

i thought he's angry with me

let you rest assured he's not angry with

you

not at all tell me a little bit about

yourself when you got pregnant how old

were you at the time

18. it was a boyfriend um

but we had broken up

the one before i found out i was

pregnant

then what happens i told my parents

and i did what i always do i asked them

for their advice

you had a pretty good relationship with

them then oh yeah so you weren't afraid

to talk to them about your pregnancy or

were you oh no

so when did you make the decision to

place right there and there

at the kitchen table you said i'm gonna

place him for adoption

yes i'm adopted

my childhood was wonderful and i do not

believe in abortion

and i think it's hypocritical when i'm

blessed with

such a wonderful family by my biological

mother

and her choice do you remember the day

you gave birth

yes did you see him yes i did

i wasn't supposed to what did you see

when he looked at him

i just kept kissing him and just

checking out his fingers checking out

everything you know

i said i love you so much you are so

beautiful

i did more crying and just

looking at him for the longest time but

it was hard on me

because i couldn't i had to keep it

together

and i named him stephen michael

i was and

well he was your son

didn't have a good life as far as a

childhood

yeah and his adulthood

and his adult he did very well for

himself
started dating somebody when he was 21

fell in love and he got married

he has a son you have a grandson

how does that make you feel

very proud i'm very proud of him

he said to me that he has a lot of love

for you

and that when he became a parent he knew

how difficult

that must have been

and that really hit home for him

because his child is everything

he wants to meet you he's been searching

for a long time

his name is sean michael i love

that i'm so glad they did something of

their own but they did

keep them

you'll be able to hear your son through

his words

i apologize no problem

okay

to the mother i've never known

my name is shawn michael

i kittleson a father and a writer who

lives in los angeles

i was born in saint joseph's hospital in

syracuse new york

december 15 1983

i've been looking for you ever since

then because i'm your son

i've led a fortunate life

love laughter encouragement education

opportunity support we had it all

we had the same life

[Music]

that's why i placed it

to give them what i had at hand

[Music]

i found everything that i've ever

dreamed of finding

everything except you i think of you

on every birthday on every mother's day

i still carry the pain of having lost

you

i'm never holding your hand or seeing

your face

whoever you are wherever you are i

am your son and i love you

whatever happened in 1983 i am so deeply

sorry for the pain it must have brought

you

you didn't bring pain

maybe by reuniting we can both start to

heal

for all that's been lost between us i

have so much love and gratitude to share

with you

i hope that i've made you proud gosh yes

more so i hope that after all this time

i can finally get to know you

because my heart has never forgotten you

amy how do you how would you describe um

what you're feeling after reading those

words

it pains me to think that he's worried

about me

he was searching very hard for you

and during his search for you sean

was doing everything he could he went

online he

went on adoption registries he

did dna test and he was able to connect

with other biological family

on your side

and he found out who your

biological mother and father were

i'm speaking to sean's birth mother amy

who just received information on the son

she placed

she's going to learn about the

circumstances of her own adoption

which she knows nothing about during his

search for

you sean was doing everything he could

and he was able to connect

with other biological family

on your side

and he found out who your

biological mother and father were

wow i didn't even know if anybody knew

about me

you know you don't know they didn't oh

they

they didn't most of the family did not

know about you

oh apparently your biological

father was married

when he had a relationship with your

biological mother

you understand it makes sense like i i

always said

i knew there was a reason and to me

everybody has the reasons just like i

did

i never blamed her i never hated her i

never had

any ill will i always thanked her

i always prayed for her i was

she blessed me with life

any other children then you have one

brother

and that's from my father's

previous marriage so he'd be older than

me then right

yes

and this is you know at your discretion

at some point we'd love to know you

wow

sean found out all this for himself and

for you

wow that's amazing

and they're opening their arms and they

want to know who you are

and they want to meet you

[Music]

[Music]

there's no words to describe it there's

absolutely

no words right now only god knows what's

in my heart in my head that i just

[Music]

it's wonderful i'll tell you that much

but wonderful is not the right word

it's not and

[Music]

this this was a little bit too much to

process today

i mean this is coming from both

i don't i don't know how to it's a lot i

know that

it's whoa

but i do have to know

if you would like to meet sean

[Music]

it's a definite yes

i've been searching for reina's younger

brother a line but after scouring the

incident reports at police headquarters

i was unable to locate any documents

that reflect a child being taken into

police custody

around the same time frame that rayna's

brother was

and on top of that i wasn't even able to

find the missing persons report that

rayna's mother filed over 30 years ago

everything about this search keeps

getting more mysterious hey jen

fortunately jenn utley at ancestry gives

me a call with an

update on reina's dna results while

rayno's ancestry dna results just came

in

oh great she's got a match

could it be her brother a line well

the name doesn't match his name is

lavaro

but he and reina share enough dna that

they're most likely have siblings but i

contacted him to see if he had the same

birthday as

a lion and he does not huh

that's weird all right thanks jen i'll

call you soon

chris bye just when i thought i've made

a breakthrough in this 30 year old

mystery

i find myself with more questions than

answers

[Music]

coming up i got a phone call from

jen utley she told me that she got

what's called a close family match

oh my god

well for the past three decades

rayne and her family have been feeling a

void

the absence of their brother a line

after processing rayna's ancestry dna we

were able to find a close family match

to reyna

a young man named lazaro who lives here

in miami

but lazaro's name ended making this

anything but a definite match

i'll have to learn more about lazaro and

what he knows about his backstory

before i'm able to assess if this is

indeed rayna's half-brother online

hey lazaro hey good morning chris nice

to meet you nice to meet you

come on in thank you welcome it's good

to meet you in person yeah finally

how have uh how did you feel when when

you got my call

uh very excited yeah something that i've

been waiting for a long time to hear

something

right you've been trying to find your

birth family um yeah

i've been in the process um i didn't

have much information

um and just due to the fact that it was

so many years ago

i was having a problem from them finding

the documents in the courthouse they

kept

sending me one place go to another place

and um

it's real time consuming you know it was

stressful tell me what you know

about your life history from what i know

i'll follow the documents my parents my

biological parents abandoned me in a

hotel room in miami beach as a child

i was an infant i was about one years

old and

the maid came in and found me and as far

as you know you were found

alone in that hotel i was found yeah

alone and then

abandoned you were taken by the

authorities yes giving

child and family services yeah i always

figured maybe my mom was

you know a single mother wanted me to

live a better life she just wanted me to

live a better life that she couldn't

provide for me

you know and i you know hopefully

i'll be able to see her one day and ask

her and talk to her so you don't

know anything about yourself you don't

know what your name

was you don't know what your birthday

was i was basically what i know is what

i was given to on a

sheet of paper and is that this stuff

right here definitely

right here this is a copy of not my

original birth certificate

so this is your amended birth

certificate with your name on it now

that's what

you see yeah and then it has your

birthday that the state assigned to your

science

yeah they assign it they did actually

they took me to uh the hospital

when i was a child and they did uh

measuring they measured my

bones how tall i was so

january first has been my birthday since

then and

so you celebrate your birthday i

celebrate my very january first

does it feel like your brother never

felt like my birthday and then what's

this

uh these are actually documents that i

um i was just given i didn't have all my

documents i was able to get these for

you today

so this is all the paperwork from the

department of health and rehabilitative

services

that facilitated your adoption to your

parents

now this says date of birth

november 24th 1986.

and that's something you never submit or

if you were the person who i was looking

for because your name was different

and your birth date was different but

now after hearing you tell me

that you know the story of you being in

that

motel room and seeing your birthday

lazaro i'm fairly certain that you are

the person

who i'm looking for because i'll tell

you something

november 24th 1986 is the day that you

were born
no way

wow this gets better and better

now this document right here is

basically

the department of health and

rehabilitative services trying to

find out who your biological parents are

they had your birthday correct but this

was not the name that your mom gave you

your mom named you

a line no

wayne

angle things so that's your birth name

that's your truth damn

you guys

it feels good to have some closure

feels good to know right

[Music]

i want to give you some more information

you've been searching and i want to tell

you that i'm here today

on behalf of your birth family

who's been trying to find you and we're

able to put the two of you together

through

the ancestry dna database

i was originally contacted by

a woman named rayna

who is your half sister

that's a good feeling yeah not only has

your sister raina

been looking for you this entire time

for literally 30 years

but i also wanted to tell you that

your mom's been looking for you too

i'm speaking with lazaro reyna's

half-brother who is

overwhelmed that his family was looking

for him

not only has your sister reina been

looking for you

this entire time for literally 30 years

but i also wanted to tell you that

your mom has been looking for you too

[Music]

i felt so happy i wasn't i wasn't

expecting that

i'm i was not expecting that

[Laughter]

and you have an older brother named

michael

no way yeah and they're together

they are all together yeah

lazaro this is your sister reina

oh my gosh she's so beautiful

wow

i feel like we have same eyes

wow she's very beautiful

and ezra this is your mom

wow

this is my mom

wow wow

i've been trying to match that face

forever

reina sent me along with a letter for

you

if you'd like to see that yeah

this is better than christmas day huh

it's from your sister rayna

they're lying my name is rayna and i'm

your older sister

i have searched for you for a long time

i guess i'll start by saying

point that i have a little brother the

last time you were together you were

about a year old

and i was about five although our time

together was very

short and

and i am certain that you do not

remember me

i can say you always been very real in

my heart

and thoughts

our mom is still alive she is strong

passionate kind loving and

humorous and yet inside

there are parts that are broken and sad

she carried much pain from her childhood

and eventually she fell

into drug addiction as a way to cope and

she was no longer

able to care for us she left you

[Applause]

with people she thought she could trust

at the time

it was only me and mike when you michael

and i

went to foster care

when her mom was released years later

she eventually regained custody of

michael

and me but when she went to get you the

people

she left you said

that they had given

she was devastated and angry decades our

family has searched for you

i wanted to let you know that we will be

here

in whatever capacity you will have

us love you unconditionally

love your big sister reign

a queen that's right

pretty amazing man you were not

abandoned by your mom that's why i

always wanted to always give her the

benefit of the doubt

deep down

this this is probably like the best

thing i've ever had

in my life i finally was able to reach

where i needed to get someone

hey guys what's up how you doing hey

all right well i spoke to chris i have a

lot of information to share with you

guys oh

okay um to begin with

i found out my original name and my

birth date wow

my original name was alain alain yeah

wow okay and my mother

wow biological mother it's something

that you needed to find

i know you've been after it for quite a

while

and i i feel for them because they

they went through tough times

fortunately

you didn't we we adopted you

we brought you into our family you're my

son no matter what

i'm thankful i have all of you

and you guys always been here with me

and we're thankful that

you heard our life means a lot

and um i just can't wait to meet him

i can't wait to meet him and expand the

family

and i mean that from the bottom of my

heart

and we'll be there no matter what

nothing's going to change

no nothing's going to change with me

either you're my son

you know now you have two moms uh

i'm very very very happy we might

just add more family more family and to

the group

and to the group okay but you're still

my lasso

my last

always

i'm on my way to meet sean who i've

invited out to syracuse

to give him the great news that i found

his biological mother amy

but first i wanted to bring him to a

very important landmark

that holds deep relevance to sean and

his birth story

i know you left at a young age does

anything come back does it feel

familiar to you upstate new york feels

familiar

because i didn't grow up too far from

here yeah and when i come back here like

the smells

and the humidity that we're feeling

right now

like all of that feels like home still

yeah like i never

i never lost that how have you been

since we last spoke i mean you must have

gone over the conversation

endless times yeah um i've been

i've been good with it i've been trying

not to

allow myself to to get my expectations

up or down either way yeah i want to be

present for everything yeah

i don't want to be so hyped up that's a

great way to be because

this is like we said before this is a

journey yeah

you were a place for adoption here right

yeah yeah

well this abandoned building right

behind you is

the former agency really the adoption

agency yeah

no way yeah for you know

because you did so much work for so long

you had your suspicions that your

biological mother

you know because she was adopted may

have been placed for adoption

um i can confirm that she was placed in

the same place right here

through here that we went through the

same building

no yeah that's crazy

[Applause]

i wanted you to see this yeah i think

it's an important part

of your history um i do have an update

for you

sean so i want to know if you want to

grab a cup of coffee yeah okay

definitely okay

let's go

[Music]

sit over here that is a cute place yeah

take a load off

yeah that feels good right it does it

does

what has brought you to this point where

you have to find out

it's a couple of things and it's my son

and

to be able to share the whole story with

him and

it's also this uh sense that you know

time doesn't wait for us

and um time didn't wait for me to meet

josie
and like i look at that house in the

state that it's in

and it just makes me feel that things

fall apart and get left behind um and i

don't want this part of my story to be

left behind if i i don't think i would

ever

sleep well if i didn't try

yeah and a lot of it is trying yeah

but you know sean you can stop trying

we found your biological mother really

[Music]

like

really really really she okay

she's okay she's okay

so where is she she lives

near syracuse really yeah

i don't think i could stand up right now

don't do it

um when i told her that you grew up in a

loving home with two parents

that you were happy that you were

successful that you were married that

you had a child

she was overcome with emotion

that's the only thing she wanted for you

the only thing

she did it out of love yeah

she wanted it all and i had really good

parents to thank for that mm-hmm

but i also have her to thank for that

mm-hmm

let me tell you a little bit about her

okay yeah she was

18 years old when she got pregnant and

the biological father was not in the

picture so she made the choice to place

you for adoption

and um she says she's never regretted it

because she knew why she did it

so i could meet her yeah really

[Music]

i've never felt so relieved

as to hear that

[Music]

i feel so grateful

thank you you're welcome

what does she look like

[Applause]

there she is

[Music]

i'm so glad she's alive

[Music]

i think my worst fear was that she

wasn't

i didn't want to miss my chance

she wrote you a letter do you have it i

do

can't read it absolutely yeah

wow

first off i want you to know how excited

and happy i am to see you again

i've written this out dozens of times

because i'm nervous

and extremely anxious at the hospital

where i gave birth to you the nurse

brought you to me and we had the best

talk

okay so i did all the talking

i kissed you up and down stripped you of

all wrappings so i was certain you were

as perfect as i thought you would be

i couldn't stop crying because you need

to understand how much i loved you

and giving you up for adoption was the

most difficult thing i've ever had to do

i did it for you i wanted you to be as

blessed as i was and still am

excited i am to see you with all the

hopes i've had for you all these years

that you had a happy stable loving a

wonderful childhood

i'm also excited much loved with sincere

anticipation to be together

amy lisfo how does it feel to have some

of those questions answered

[Music]

dizzying

when i was growing up

my mom always told me

and i never believed her

she said wherever your mother is

she loves you and she misses you

and i bet she thinks about you

and i was always afraid to believe that

because if it wasn't true i knew it

would break my heart

so i've had this guard up

it's like she's saying everything i ever

wanted her to say

i just know it must have been so hard

to do what what she did to do what josie

did

and i'm just glad that this like painful

cycle

of people not knowing where they came

from or

who they came from it's like four years

yeah i can't wait to meet her i want to

see her and she's going to get a good

hug

[Music]

she's going to get a really good hug

[Music]

coming up i never wanted to get my hopes

up too much

because i knew that um if it didn't work

out
i wouldn't take that well i'd be pretty

crushed

i prepared for every worst case scenario

and never for this

[Music]

[Music]

well this is definitely one of the most

emotional compelling

and mysterious stories that i've ever

worked on

i can't imagine the level of frustration

that rayna and her mom have felt over

the past 30 years

simply not knowing can be so

frustrating but now i get to go back and

tell reyna that i found her brother

and hopefully those decades of negative

feelings will be washed away fleet again

how have you been feeling um i've been

good you know a little

emotionally tired i guess a little a bit

of out of this but

otherwise good right yeah i wanted to

just come by and kind of

update you on uh what i've been doing

okay um in fact

when i left you i got a phone call

from jen utley who i work with at

ancestry

and um she told me that she had

processed

your dna and they actually

got what's called a close family match

with someone

it was this guy named lazaro i actually

went to go see lazaro we connected all

the dots

and the bottom line is i found your

brother oh my god

thank you of course oh my god

i can't believe this

oh my god

this is crazy so this

30-year mystery is over i can't believe

this

oh my god

he lives here he does in miami

he does oh my god this is incredible

oh my god so he was adopted he was

adopted

by a good family i had a very good

family really mm-hmm

sir it's okay you let it out

i'm glad nothing happened to him no

he's absolutely fine i'm so happy to

hear that yeah

so i think the next person we need to

tell is

your mom yeah

[Music]

so i have good news for you

[Music]

encountered

[Music]

oh

very soon okay

[Music]

[Laughter]

can you tell her the rest he was raised

cuban and he's very proud to be

cubans

but he's very very happy that you found

it

i can't do it

he very much wants to meet you and to be

in your life and he wants you to be in

his life too

she said she thinks her life will change

completely

[Music]

it's the best thing that's happened to

her

oh yeah

34 years ago adoptee amy placed her

first born son for adoption

never knowing if their paths would cross

again to reunite with her son

not far from where both of them were

placed for adoption

hi amy how are you excited

[Laughter]

thank you you're welcome seaweed oh

good to see you after today you're

starting

another journey to really get to know

your son

and to get to know possibly your

biological family

the other part of it yeah that's that's

that's overwhelming

both are you okay um

yes open to a yes but of course

i want to know him first you know what i

mean

and i'm jumping out of my skin right now

because i just want to meet him so badly

so what i'm going to do is i'm going to

leave

okay so that you can be with your son

[Music]

you guys have waited long enough oh my

goodness i know that's why

after a while i i didn't think it

happened

by the age she was but my door was

always open

after all these years speaking of doors

he's gonna come through that door and

you tell him everything he wanted

him to know okay okay okay good luck

my whole life i never wanted to get my

hopes up too much

because i knew that if it didn't work

out

i wouldn't take that well i'd be pretty

crushed

and when i got the news that i could

feel like all the walls that i

built for my entire life like

trying to reject the news almost like it

can't be real

i prepared for every worst case scenario

and never for this

[Music]

hi lisa hi how are you good thank you

good to see you

oh boy i know don't forget to breathe

this has been a lifelong goal for you

yeah

i feel like i'm being born do you yeah

like um

it feels like the first day of my life i

don't know how else to put it

yeah well it is a fresh beginning you

know

you're always going to remember before

and after yeah

for sure when you walk through that door

just be with her tell her what you want

i'm so ready good luck let's do it

oh thank you lisa

[Music]

so

[Laughter]

i am so glad i found you oh my gosh

[Music]

oh you're real i am

and you start too

which i knew because i held you so

oh sorry

oh my gosh i look at your face oh my

gosh you're so handsome

believe this wow really see my eyes

i waited so long

i know i know it's been a long time i

know i'm sorry it took me a while

but don't ever ever apologize for that

that you know and and that was fine with

me

i had so much stuff that my parents gave

me

and then i had stuff that i got from the

state of new york when i called and

stuff

everything but my original name uh

and and you like and it was there was i

have
your fingerprint and i used to put my

finger at your fingerprint

see i just have your two feet prints and

i would just

yeah yes but

your birthday would come around and

everybody knew

when i walked away or

i want to take a drive don't ask

questions

yeah that was my time to talk to you

and wish you happy birthday every single

year

oh wait a minute to upset you

i was always afraid that you wouldn't

want me but you wouldn't want to meet me

i was like oh my mom i used to cry and

my mom would say she loved you

she loved you yes how could we know

because

i gave you a wonderful family see i was

in love

it just didn't work and i had to think

of you

not just turning 19.

you're welcome

thank your parents i mean thanks

i will never forget this moment oh

either will i
do you want to sit down i know that's

okay

so oh my i usually don't sweat like this

but no i'm sweating like mad we're just

too sweaty people

having some emotions oh my gosh

you know so i last august i was actually

out here

and i got to have a reunion with a whole

bunch

of the family yeah here in syracuse on

my mother's side

and so you're not the only one who looks

like you

and i'm we're not the only ones who look

like us

there's a whole lot more people and i'm

i'm just so glad to be able to tell you

that they they're good people

and they're welcoming us

they're glad that we're here and we got

that from

our parents and we got it from big

hearts

you know biological yeah

we got i think you and i got the best of

both worlds

[Music]

putting with joy after so many years

wondering where she was

and who she was to hold her and

know her is um

not something that i will ever get over

would you like to see a picture of your

birth parents

yes yeah yeah

we needed to find each other i'm so glad

we did

oh my god this is tony and josephine

everybody called her josie

[Music]

i'm speechless i'm sorry no you don't

have to be sorry

it's the people that

[Music]

blessed my parents and gave me blessed

me with

beautiful family it's

they came together over you

[Music]

because you were born of love too

oh come here

[Music]

there's so many people that want to meet

you and no

they have no idea well i had no idea

you know what i'm saying yeah i mean

it's crazy it's a crazy story

would you like to meet some people

not too many people but would you like

to meet your brother

and your aunt mary jane

are they here now they are

[Music]

so hey there's someone i'd like to

introduce you to

this is my mother amy

hello oh my gosh oh my gosh

oh so so nice to meet you

to also be able to introduce my mother

to

her brother brian and her aunt mary jane

so awesome oh god bless super fun

oh being there for sean your mom was

my closest friend

you know what she can hear us right now

oh i know she does i know she do too

yeah and

you look so much like her i've always

i've always felt so much love for my

family

and i just feel like today i've got

more of that i know just feel truly

blessed right now

i hope the love that i know she's going

to get from the los stumbo family can

help bring her the same kind of peace

that finding her is bringing me

this is an amazing day it is a very

blessed day this is really surreal

[Music]

coming up so how you feeling

a little nervous you take care okay

thank you so much

the mystery of what happened to reina's

younger brother has haunted the family

for over 30 years

today she reunites with her brother

lazaro hoping to build a more positive

family future this journey

has transformed me a little bit to see

everything

culminate into this moment feels like a

miracle and

after all the struggle and after

everything that my families

get to meet la sado is going to be

just kind of one of those moments where

i just sit back and

and and feel a lot of happiness because

this is something that i know

has really really affected her hey rina

hi chris how are you

nice to see you again you look lovely

thank you

step right on over here

so the day has finally arrived

it has how you feeling a little nervous

um but mainly excited and happy that

it's finally here and that

i'll finally be able to see my brother

yeah yeah how's your mom doing

uh my mom she's a lot more excitable and

like you know

ah crying and things like that but yeah

i think today she will

she'll be uh just happy well as this

chapter ends

another one is about to begin hey and um

i'm gonna leave you now okay you take

care okay thank you so much

good luck and when you're ready your

brother is right inside

[Music]

oh

[Music]

oh my little brother i can't believe

this moment i can't

look at your sister i always had one the

whole time you look beautiful

thank you that was funny nice to meet

you funny to see you and hear your voice

it's been our whole lives that we've

known about you and everything

i never i never was able to know the

whole story of what happened

and and it's a good feeling to know

you know the whole story i was told i

was abandoned and

you know you know it's terrible and the

whole time you know i had a family

looking for me i know

you know on mother's day i was i would

think like you know my mom my

biological mom think of me and my

birthday did she think about me

i'm glad you guys found me and we didn't

give up because while i was looking for

you guys

it's been never ending like our mom

went to new jersey to search for you

when we were younger i just remember

like

distinctively like she never stopped and

then i think she had got to a point like

where

she was like at a dead end and she

didn't think that there was anything

else that she could do and like when i

got older

it was kind of like i took the torch

over and in 2014 i was like looking for

you like

under like i did everything i could i

could imagine for her like you know

what what her her going through you know

knowing that you know she has a son

that's out there yeah

it's been really hard for her and i'm

willing to like you know i want to hear

her story

i want to get to know her

can i get her can i get her

okay

repeat

[Laughter]

oh my god

[Music]

oh

oh

okay

[Laughter]

[Music]

[Laughter]

would want their kids to have a good

life

[Laughter]

[Music]

that's

[Laughter]

[Music]

wow like this is what it should have

been all this you know 30 for 30 years

just the overall feeling of knowing what

a beautiful person he is

that sticks with me and it just really

delights me it warms my heart

uh i have some great news um i actually

bought my family here today to meet you

so everyone can meet together

and we can actually get to know each

other for the first time

watch out on the steps

[Music]

you nice okay meet you i'm here

thank you

[Music]

is

i feel complete now that uh i found the

truth it's finally uh

finally been answered for me so i

questioned

you know i feel like a brand new man i

know

happy endings do exist this is a very

special moment for me that i've been

searching for a long time

um took a few closure and find the

answers that i've been looking for for

for my entire life thank you for you

guys for being here and

making all this possible means a lot

all right goop hug everyone

yay we love you