 to share this exciting news with you guys for a very long time well it felt like a long time and I'm finally able to share it with you guys I had to keep it a secret for a little bit because it was so new it was so fresh and like I don't know this is not a lie this is for real I don't know if we mentioned anything about family I feel like we've hinted at things but we literally we could not talk about this because it just came up and the past two months have been wild because Mariah used to not have any family really extended family because her dad is adopted because you know my dad is adopted he's been adopted ever since he was kid never got to meet his real parents real blood family ever in his life and he's 50 years old and it's crazy because I would always ask my dad like do you ever want to meet your family like do you ever like wonder who your parents are who your siblings are like do you do you ever wonder that my dad's always like yeah I just never had the like want to like go do it I think it's crazy because I feel like your dad is the last person to ever do a DNA test no I know but the reason my dad did a DNA test which I'm gonna read this little thing that my dad sent me a message of like like his story and I kind of want to share his sister's story because that's how it all came together and unfolds but it's just crazy that we're meeting this new family and it's seeing everyone and how much we all look alike seeing how my dad looks like his brother like it is all just so crazy and it's so hard to like wrap our heads around this it's like such happy and exciting news like I never thought I was ever gonna meet my real blood family ever like ever in my life I never thought this day would actually come because you know my dad's already 50 years old like it's just it's just crazy yeah so make sure to stay tuned to watch this video all the way through because we are going to be sharing footage that we took a couple months ago that nobody has ever seen and it's a super quick but simple video that I filmed of Mariah meeting her whole blood family most of them for the first time and we have it on video so make sure to watch this all the way through so you can see that see how they react it's wild I'm gonna try my best to explain as much as I can and like give you guys better understanding I'm like also fried from wedding planning so I'm just so thankful my dad sent me like a tax my but we've been wanting to do this video for weeks now we just did not know when to do it because if we make this video her whole blood family they need a time to like tell everyone like hey like we found out that we have a brother and we wanted to make sure that everyone was like comfortable with the idea and like so let's get into it okay so my dad sent me a tax I'm gonna literally read what he sent me to kind of give you guys a better understanding on what happens so that's a long text yeah but it all makes sense all right so my dad said I did a 23 and me so that's the DNA test they did was a 23 me in 2019 when I was turning 50 so I would know if I had any health risks that I needed to be aware of that I was turning 50 so he didn't do it to find no any family not even thinking about it he did it for his health and he wanted to see like that makes so much sense I never knew that what his like bloodline is or whatever yeah but he's like I always knew that I was Italian and Irish because that's what my mom and dad always told me which is his adopted mom and dad his adopt mom and dad always said that he was telling him yeah which he is grandma grandpa told me as far back as I remember that I was adopted so I was so young that I remember thinking that being adopted meant that I was put together like in a kit like a model like a model he thought being adopted meant okay they basically built me like a like a kid like they bought me from the store and built me that's what you yeah I told me that my biological parents were young and in college at the time that's why they chose to put me up for adoption when I did the DNA test in 2019 the only close relatives I had that showed up were two first cousins once removed a kind of distant not first cousins directly so nobody really crazily close when he did the DNA test he didn't really match with anyone yeah and then it says they were from Cook County Illinois just like me so I knew if I ever wanted to find out stuff about our family I could probably try to contact them but I chose not to so years went by nobody ever popped up that we're drug family that November 9th he got an email November 9th of 2023 so literally three months ago yeah he got an email from his sister Kristin and she told me that she just got her DNA results back from 23 and me and it showed that I was her full-blooded brother of course you know she had no idea about me which would be Verizon yeah the first thing I did was call you and then told you and then I called grandma and asked her if she'd be okay with me answering Kristin's message and I remember when my dad set called me and told me about this I was like dad are you sure I remember I was there too I'm scared like push since we do social media I'm scared it could be someone faking it like I'm just scared like I only because her dad always gets like phone calls from random people like something like he gets like hit up by so many random people are like you know even fans and thinking that's Mariah and stuff so like we were like skeptical like okay well is this someone that's trying to act like their family but that actually but no it was actually on the 23 yeah so that that's what confirmed it yeah that's where she messaged of course grandma was very supportive I knew from Kristin's message she sent me that I had to contact her she's so excited to find out about me as a sweetest message ever I used my initials on the 23 me site so if this ever happened it would be my choice if I wanted to answer whoever wanted to know about me so Kristin did not know what my name was it kind of like Facebook ready to send someone a request and if you answer them and accept it they can see your info so I answered her request and of course when she found out what my name was a lady looking up on Facebook when Kristin saw my picture she about fainted because I looked exactly like Brett which is Kristin's brother brother let me just explain really quick how DNA tests work is you don't just see your whole extended family like you don't just do that they have to take a test as well on the same DNA site in order to match with anyone so when her dad only matched with those two cousins or whatever she wasn't on there so when she did go on there it immediately said oh their dad from 2019 matched with you for not just like random like DNA like 25% which would have been like non-fully blood you know it was like 50% DNA which means they are legit brothers and sisters and my dad's brother that's what it's insane of how much they look alike remember actually they never met they never met they live about an hour away from each other and they look almost identical all right and they're 50 like 40 something 50 so literally like 50 years of life they have not known about each other and the moment that his sister matches with her dad and sees that her dad looks exactly like the sister's brother she like almost fainted so it's crazy because Kristin when she took the DNA test I wanted to hear her story too and she sent me a message but she's like I'm not sure if it's a story when we talked about me finding about your dad but he didn't answer me right away and I was freaking out because I didn't know if he was dead or alive she's like I had no clue if he's ever gonna check his 23 me again because my dad did it back in 2019 and then Kristin did it in 2023 so it was like she was like oh my gosh like I got linked to this person I had no idea about and this could be my brother and I have no idea and remember a little background Kristin and Brett never knew that they had a brother your grandparents right your like blood grandparents decided when they were really young that they were just gonna kind of go about life and not talk about it really which is totally their decision so the fact that they found out that they could have a brother was just like super crazy crazy like you would never like think of anything like that like that's even possible her dad like wouldn't respond for a little bit she's probably like literally was like going through a high school yearbook she was literally she has pictures right here of her like putting everything together like okay this person kind of like a detective but it doesn't look like my brother the strings on the wall like okay this he leads to here my dad yeah like she's like really like she could not sleep she was like couldn't believe it and she was like I look at pictures from 1986 for his junior picture and then sophomore a year and I found anybody with the initial CC and then she would go on Facebook Instagram Google them whatever my just so she could find a picture just to see if they would look like and it's crazy because she No sure fine thing but my dad answers and then she got the information but the crazy thing is my grandpa actually got to talk to him on the phone and he was telling us that he even like would look when he would be out in public and look and be like oh my gosh I wonder if this is my son I would always like look and think and I guess Kristen brought a guy home once and he looked very similar into the family this is that that's crazy and my fear that that they're brother eating their brother but they had no idea but it wasn't but it wasn't thankfully but it's just crazy cuz my grandpa always looked and thought about like oh my gosh this could be my son I can be standing in front of my son like 50 years that's like what you thought about yeah and I have not met my grandma yet but I've heard so many amazing things I still have so many family that I haven't met yet but I met my dad's sister and her kids I met my dad's brother we can put a video right now so we're gonna show you a little big peek of the clip I'm sorry it is very badly filmed but it was in the moment and you know it's new family I didn't really want to have a camera in their face because I feel like that's just like weird you know like if you're not used to being on camera and like y'all are meeting for the first time like I didn't want to be like oh let me get the angles so I really cared more about you guys you know we're getting my dad and my twin sister have already met them the only person that my sister didn't meet was my dad's brother so Megan meeting my dad's brother with the exact same moment that I met his brother so this is a clip of them meeting Kristen Dan and their cousins now all right babies how do you feel good all right little babies how you feel we go it's Mariah's dad by the way Mariah's little sister obviously everybody knows me the annoying one okay and then little brother and twin sister ladies ladies first we so cute oh my gosh y'all look like Nicholas and then that's my husband and then this is all the crew I know you know you guys know Mariah and Megan right okay and then there's Cassie and then behind is Jake all right it's just crazy cuz like this family just feels like home like they're like everything that I've always imagined and pictured and like it's just crazy cuz we are all so much alike the similarities like the way we like it's like sad I didn't know them sooner like it is like that feeling but then it's also like now we live in Florida like y'all could have like known each other but don't know it's also insane if they only live an hour away and we were all around that same area like I bet you there was a time that either your dad crossed paths with his sister or you crossed paths with your cousin maybe it was that like a football game or maybe it was at Target and we were randomly in the same one like I bet you there was a point in life when you guys actually did come super close but like you would have never not know I was just insane to think about like and also my dad and Kristen hit it off in the second they got on that phone they were crying they just couldn't believe it she just couldn't get over the fact that my dad looks so much like Brett only pop up some pictures okay so it's crazy cuz my dad because Brett looks more like my dad than my dad looks like Brett because my dad lost a lot of lead and that is literally when you look at Brett that is my dad in a spitting image like literally my dad's the one in the hat and Brett's the one the glasses and what's crazy is they even have the same glasses yeah it's insane like I when I know what's also crazy is they even work and do kind of similar trades when it comes to like construction so it's like it's so weird and when I was hanging out with them or when I met them I just kept staring at him and I accidentally called him dad because I thought he was my dad yeah I was like dad I'm so sorry I'm like you're gonna hear me say it like oh my god I just can't believe how I feel like we totally didn't I mean you said a little bit but I want y'all to know that they are like so nice like I know it's not my family I mean kind like I'm getting married but they are like all super nice their cousins your aunts and uncles and their spouses like every single person that I've met your grandpa seems super super and I'll meet a lot of them at the wedding I'll meet my grandpa for the first time I'll also be meeting my dad's half brother I think his name's Shawn I'm meeting him they'll be at the wedding it just feels right like I will be meeting my grandma very soon I'm not sure when that will be I think she's on vacation summer I think she takes vacations for like six weeks or something but we will be meeting her very soon and I'm honestly really excited because I've heard amazing things and my grandpa called me on my birthday well he texted me on my birthday he's like I know I'm not considered your grandpa like I might not be like you don't want to call your grandpa yet but I'm like no like I call them like hi grandpa and that literally made his whole year like he loved hearing that he called so you know you know the generations older when they when they think that they have to call you in order to put your number in their contact so he called me really early in the morning I was like oh my god he probably should call the wishes I have birthday so I call them back and that's when we said hi grandpa so happy and he was like yeah I just called because I wanted to add your phone number in my contact list well no you probably did that because it's an easier way of remembering it yeah I mean you could text I guess he's so cute he's just he and it's so crazy even looks like my dad like his nose like everything it's just like crazy like I don't know what it's like meeting like your twin sister for the first time he had no idea you had or just just like just meeting us it's just crazy because we talked about this I'm not even kidding I've talked about this with my dad for so many years I asked him when he thought and let me just say I do love my dad's adopted family yeah I wanted to say in the beginning of this video because I said that you never really had family I met like you never had family around when it came to like all of your dad's like aunts and uncles like she has a great family she has great cousins and aunts and stuff but it's different because there was always that like I know that I love my family but there's there's another family out there that you don't know and it's kind of tough cuz it's like who are they and I will say my grandma that is in my life now she has been nothing but like she was such a good like parent figure in our life like me and my ex like for a very long time you should sleep over there yeah and like we would always have sleepovers at my grandma's like my grandma's hosting parties always she's the best I could not ask for my dad to have better adopted parents like they really are the best it's just so exciting that now we have more family that came into our life more people we can talk to more we can connect with awesome like with your dad's parents like seeing like I know times were tough and different back then and like putting your dad up for adoption like seeing him go to such a loving caring family that really really like took care of like not even just your dad but like after your dad had kids everything like they're not the family like take care of you and like making you family like I'm sure now that everyone's kind of meeting each other it's like it's it's so awesome knowing that like no matter what everyone had a great life and now everyone's together and you can just make memories and here's some more pictures of the pop-up on the screen that's just like with me and my cousins this is with me and all of our family there's a lot of people that aren't in here just to give an FYI but these are all the people that we met so far it's just I'm like so over the moon like I I wish I could be home just to be able to make more memories but it's okay I will be on FaceTime and they go and hang out and like I'm very thankful that I have them and I was able to meet them you know it's crazy if you think about it like it's like once in a lifetime like this seems like a movie like a story it does seem like a story and I'm so sorry if this was so like back and forth I explain like it really is because it's it's so technical it's so like it's such like you can make a movie out of I wish we could I wish we could document them my dad I'm just walking about their story I can already see it like the movie starts with like with your dad like getting adopted going away and it's like the family and family then as the movie produces a movie no as the movie progresses it's your dad in different stages of his life growing up in maybe cross paths every once in a while with his family and then finally it's like he turns 50 and he's like maybe he has like some health issue and he's like freaking out takes a DNA test and then she takes a DNA and it's just like what about it all like you can just see it come together and I always said I'm like dad I'm like I'm always scared like what if we have like a medical like problems that we don't know about that isn't it's in the bloodline cuz you wouldn't know you wouldn't know like oh what are your grandparents do you have anything chronic like do you have anything I think that's all my dad took the DNA test to know for sure like if you had anything I do remember that now I forgot that's why he did it but yeah that is the update that I have been waiting to tell you guys I hope you guys enjoyed this video I'm so happy that I was finally able to share the exciting news to you guys I know you guys could be a part of this new journey of life my family if you have any questions comment not below because I know this is like super intricate a topic so like if you want any questions like answered I'll be answering she'll be answering some of the comments so we can kind of like maybe clarify things or just like tell you like how it how it works but we love you guys so much we'll see you in the next video but until then peace I love you guys