Both siblings decided to take a DNA test through which they were able to find each other and meet again.
Christina Sadberry was just three months old when she was adopted. She always wanted to know who her biological family was and spent about a decade trying to find them, but little did she know that she had crossed paths with her brother several times over seven years.
Sadberry, raised in Austin, Texas, began looking for her family in 2006. Though she managed to find out who her biological mom was, she was unable to get any more information on her father. She didn't even know if she had any siblings, to begin with.
"She pretty much said that only her and her mom knew about me and she just kind of left it at that," Sadberry, 42, told PEOPLE, calling it a "dead end." But she was still curious to find out about her family, which prompted her to take a 23andMe test in 2014.
The results were a bit disappointing because all she matched with were distant cousins. "I was like, 'Okay, nobody is ever going to show up,'" she thought at the time.
Little did she know that everything was about to change in a few years' time.
Siblings Were Strangers Walking Past Each Other for Years. Then a Hospital Brought Them Together: 'Grateful' https://t.co/QqNYX8XslK
— People (@people) August 12, 2022
In 2021, Raymond Turner was gifted a 23andMe test for Christmas by his wife, Maria. His desire to take the test came from the fact that he wanted to know more about his family from Africa, and probably plan a trip there to visit his roots.
Turner grew up in Hempstead, Texas, and he and his younger brother were raised by his maternal grandmother. Before he took the test, he was aware of a half-brother and a half-sister, but he had no idea that he had a biological sibling.
"I had no inkling," he said. "I thought it'd be great for us to finally solve this mystery together," he recalled. He sent the kit off in January 2022 and received the results on St Patrick's Day. So, when he learned he has a sister, he was stunned.
"I said, 'This can't be. This is wrong,'" he said. "I was about to write off the whole thing thinking it was a big mistake." But, he found the courage to send Sadberry a message on 23andMe. They even got in touch with a mutual friend via social media to inform Sadberry about the message.
"I started shaking and got chills and freaking out and my heart started racing," Sadberry said, of the moment she learned she had a brother. They soon began texting and talking, and realized they have the same father. Then, they also learned they had crossed paths with each other, multiple times, in the hallways at Fort Worth's Cook Children's Hospital.
Sadberry's 11-year-old son Bryson has Nephrotic syndrome, a kidney disorder, and has been going to the hospital since the spring of 2015. That same year, in December, Turner began working as a Recording Studio Producer at Cook Children's Sparklefly Studio.
That's when the two of them realized they'd actually crossed paths with each other several times. In fact, the day they realized they were siblings, Sadberry went to the hospital to take her son for a checkup, and she observed a man in a red shirt playing the keyboard inside the studio that morning when they paused to view the LEGO sculpture. She had no idea that the man was Turner at the moment.
"It's unexplainable. Like you can't make that up," she said. "My husband keeps saying, 'This is some stuff out of a movie.'"
On March 25, 2022, they met for the first time. The first time they met, they both broke down in tears. "Hugging him felt like home," the woman said. "Just to be around him felt like home."
They felt they had an instant connection, and soon formed a bond with each other's families, also. Now they make sure to be a part of each other's families. "My world is complete now," Sadberry said. "This is what I was missing."
"We're both so grateful for what we have," Turner said. The siblings now hope that their story inspires more people to get DNA testing done.
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Representative Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Dimitri Otis
