He took a DNA test to look for his biological father, but found three girls

Ted Wood is a lawyer and lives in Sacramento, capital of California; She is 50 years old, she has a wife and three children. Or he thought. Now, he discovered that he had at least three other girls.

He always knew that it was adopted. In the 1990s, he met his biological motherwho was in high school when she got him and left her for adoption. But his biological father He seemed to have disappeared. I only knew his name: Linwood Gray. In 2013, a DNA test was conducted in Ancestryhoping to find it.

Instead, he found Melissa Daniels, 27, who happened to be his daughter. And who, in addition to an account in Ancestry, had another one in 23andMe, where he had found two other girls from Wood.

In his student years, Wood had been a sperm donor. At the time, it was not just a question of Anonymous actionbut did not imagine the possibility that DNA could reveal these links, let alone that studies were offered directly to the consumer, who popularized them.

For years, he only found distant relatives. When, in April 2018, Ancestry informed him that another correspondence had occurred, he imagined that she would be another cousin somewhere on the planetat. However, Daniels' message, which he received a few days later, said:

"I hope you feel good when you get this message, I call Melissa. I hope you do not mind being contacted. I wanted to thank you for making a donation. My father had a vasectomy after his first marriage, soin your contribution my mother could not have her own family. I found two other sisters at 23andMe which have also been designed thanks to you. Since you are here, I hope you are open to the idea that we can contact you. "

He was sitting at his desk and could not get up. "The only thing I could think of was how was I going to tell this to my wife", he reminded NBC News.

First of all, he did not answer. I did not even remember being a sperm donor. But as the days went by, the memory presented the facts, slowly, and contacted the young woman who had sent the message, a English teacher for foreigners residing in Arlington, Texas, and father of two children.

At the age of 14, Daniels learned from his mother that his father, who died at the age of seven, was not his biological father. Since then, he has sought answers to many questions that have aroused the fact of being designed with a donor.

"I was adopted, I do not know any part of my family's history," Wood told NBC television news. "I understand what is happening to Marissa and I've never wanted her to feel that there was a closed door."

They began to exchange messages, first with only biological details, then on all the little things in their daily lives, from politics to taste. Monty Python. In December, when the Daniels' mother died from cerebral palsy, the woman felt that, somehow, it became urgent to know his biological father.

Wood explained to him that he did not look like him, but that he had no problem knowing it and sharing everything he could about the family's story. thankful Daniels organized a trip.

In an hotel in Irvine, California, he met Alexandra Cheshire and Hannah Maitland, her donor sisters found in 23andMe. They talked about the fear of contacting him. "I told him that I had a family, a house, I'm not looking for anythingshe said, Cheshire asked how it would be fair to say hello: "Shake hands, kiss?"

Wood and his wife, SusanThey arrived at the hotel with their youngest children, Ethan, 14, and Olivia, 7. They kissed. "Welcome," said Wood to Daniels. Olivia gave her sisters a drawing that she had made for the occasion. Ethan said the situation made him strange, which Daniels also told him. "I'm trying to understand that I have a younger brother who is taller than me," he joked.

Susan Wood explained to each of the women the traits of the family she most noticed. Then Wood, his children and the girls he had donated began to Compare features, such as flexible joints.

Wood did not find any data about his fathere of the DNA. But another investigation, parallel, that he led, led him to Houston Police Department. He knew then the tragic story from Gray.

After finishing high school, his biological father had gone to university and then was married. But He separated from this woman and had a male partner. They fell in love and started living together in Houston. Until, a In the night of 1982, Gray was disputed with the man, killed him and committed suicide.

The revelation left Wood scared. "It's not the way you plan to take a life," he told NBC. But despite the disappointment, his father's search allowed him meet Daniels and his two other biological daughters. "When we saw each other, it was like a clique: we hear well, so it will be easy for us to keep talking. "