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What happens when you go from being an only child… to one of twelve overnight?

In this episode of Family Twist, and Kendall sits down with Elizabeth Barbour, an adoptee, adoptive mom, and reunion expert who has spent more than two decades living the reality so many are just beginning to face.

Elizabeth shares her story of searching in a pre-DNA era, making that life-changing phone call, and hearing the words many adoptees dream of: “I’ve hoped and prayed for this day.”

But this conversation goes far beyond the moment of discovery.

Together, they explore what happens after reunion. The emotional complexity. The shifting identities. The joy that exists right alongside grief. And what it really means to build relationships with people who are suddenly family.

Kendall opens up about his own ongoing experience with rejection from his birth mother, leading to one of the most honest and emotional conversations we’ve had on the show.

Elizabeth brings a rare perspective. She has lived reunion as an adoptee and as a parent. Through her work as a coach and practitioner, she helps others navigate this exact terrain with intention, care, and grounding.

This episode is about more than finding family.

It is about what comes next.

WHAT YOU’LL HEAR IN THIS EPISODE

• The moment Elizabeth found her birth mother and how it changed everything
• What it was like discovering 11 siblings after growing up as an only child
• The emotional reality of reunion after the initial excitement fades
• How Kendall continues to process rejection from his birth mother
• Why “family is addition” is more than just a comforting phrase
• What adoptees, NPEs, and donor-conceived people need most in reunion
• How to navigate identity, belonging, and grief all at the same time

WHY THIS EPISODE MATTERS

With more people discovering DNA surprises every day, reunion is no longer rare. But understanding how to navigate it still is.

If you are:

• An adoptee
• An NPE (Not Parent Expected)
• Donor-conceived
• Or someone supporting a loved one through discovery

This conversation will help you feel less alone and more prepared for what comes next.

Elizabeth Barbour, M.Ed. is an author, speaker, life coach, and shamanic practitioner who helps people navigate life’s most complex transitions with grounding and intention.

An adoptee reunited with her birth family for more than 26 years, Elizabeth is also an adoptive mother whose family is in reunion with their daughter’s birth family. Her lived experience, combined with her professional work, gives her a rare and deeply informed perspective on the emotional realities of adoption reunion.

Elizabeth supports individuals moving through grief, identity shifts, and relationship-building after discovery, using self-care, storytelling, and ritual as tools for healing.

She is the author of Smart Self-Care for Busy Women and Sacred Celebrations: Designing Rituals to Navigate Life’s Milestone Transitions, and is currently writing a book focused on adoption reunion.

She lives in Asheville, North Carolina with her daughter and two cats.

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What does adoption feel like for the person who never had a choice?

In this episode of Family Twist, Corey and Kendall talk with Leslie Pate Mackinnon, LCSW, a birth mother, therapist, and one of the most respected voices in the adoption and donor conception space.

As a teenager, Leslie placed her two firstborn sons for adoption during a time when young women were often given little say in the outcome. That experience didn’t fade with time. It shaped the course of her life and her work.

For more than four decades, Leslie has maintained a private psychotherapy practice, helping adoptees, birth parents, and families navigate the lifelong emotional impact of adoption, identity, and family secrets. She presents nationally and internationally on issues affecting families formed through adoption and third-party reproduction.

Leslie has been featured on Good Morning America with Robin Roberts, appeared on CNN discussing the impact of the internet on adoption, and was part of Dan Rather’s investigative report Adoption or Abduction. She also appeared on The Katie Couric Show alongside her oldest son, Pete. Her story is included in the book The Girls Who Went Away and the documentary A Girl Like Her.

This conversation goes where many don’t.

Leslie shares what it was like to lose her children without having a real choice, how that experience stayed with her, and what she’s learned after spending decades sitting with others navigating similar truths. She also talks about what therapists still misunderstand about adoption, and why education in this space matters more than ever.

This is a conversation about adoption stories, family secrets, and the emotional reality behind DNA discovery and identity.

If you’ve ever been part of an adoption story, an NPE discovery, or a donor-conceived family, this episode will hit close to home.

Listen now to hear Leslie’s story, and the truth she’s spent a lifetime helping others understand.

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What would you do if a simple DNA test revealed that the man you believed was your father wasn’t your biological parent?

In this episode of Family Twist, Corey and Kendall sit down with Laura Olmsted, founder of DNAngels, to talk about the moment a family history project turned into a life-changing DNA discovery. What began as a curiosity-driven test while building a genealogy scrapbook for her grandchildren quickly unraveled everything Laura thought she knew about her identity.

Laura shares the emotional journey of uncovering the truth about her biological father, confronting long-held family secrets, and learning that the answers sometimes come too late. But from that painful discovery came something remarkable. Determined to help others navigate the same confusing and emotional terrain, Laura founded DNAngels, a nonprofit that helps adoptees, NPEs, donor-conceived people, and others identify their biological families through genetic genealogy.

Today, DNAngels has helped solve thousands of cases around the world, reuniting people with their biological relatives and helping many finally understand where they come from.

Laura also shares practical insights about the DNA search process, why messaging your DNA matches matters more than you might think, and the steps people should take before beginning a search.

For anyone who has taken a DNA test and found unexpected results, this conversation offers both perspective and hope.

Learn more about DNAngels:
https://www.dnangels.org

About Laura Olmsted

Laura Olmsted is a world-renowned genetic genealogist and the Founder and Executive Director of DNAngels, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reuniting individuals with their biological families through the power of DNA. Since launching DNAngels in 2019, Laura has led the organization to remarkable success, with over 7,000 cases solved to date and thousands more people receiving answers about their origins.

Laura’s passion for genealogy began as a family project inspired by her Aunt Shirley. While creating a heritage book for her grandchildren, she took a DNA test and discovered a life-altering truth: the man she believed to be her father was not her biological parent. Determined to uncover her origins, Laura immersed herself in genetic genealogy. Within two weeks, she identified her biological father, gaining firsthand insight into the emotional complexities faced by adoptees, NPEs, and donor-conceived individuals.

That experience ultimately led her to create DNAngels, an organization that now helps people around the world uncover the truth about their biological families.

Topics in this episode

DNA surprise
NPE (Not Parent Expected) discovery
Genetic genealogy
Adoptee searches
DNA matches and family secrets
Finding biological parents
DNAngels nonprofit
Identity and family history

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What happens when a family secret rewrites your identity?

In this episode of Family Twist, Corey and Kendall welcome author Gail Lukasik, whose work explores the powerful impact of hidden family histories and DNA discoveries.

Gail reads a moving excerpt from her book What They Never Told Us: True Stories of Family Secrets and Hidden Identities Revealed, inspired by the flood of personal stories she received after sharing her own family revelation. At the Untangling Our Roots Summit, one stranger approached her with a brand-new DNA shock. The man who raised her was not her biological father.

Gail knows this journey firsthand. While researching her family history in 1995, she uncovered documents revealing that her mother had been passing as white despite having African ancestry. For 17 years she kept the secret at her mother’s request. After her mother’s death, Gail told the story in her memoir White Like Her, which eventually led her to reconnect with relatives in New Orleans she never knew existed.

In this conversation, Gail shares why strangers trust her with their deepest family secrets and why storytelling can help people rebuild their sense of identity after a life-changing discovery.

If you have ever wondered how DNA surprises reshape identity, family, and belonging, this episode will resonate.

About Gail Lukasik

Gail Lukasik is an award-winning author and genealogist. Her memoir White Like Her chronicles her discovery that her mother had been passing as white despite having African ancestry. Her follow-up book, What They Never Told Us, shares true stories of people uncovering hidden family identities through genealogy and DNA testing.

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What happens when a child asks a question the adults in the room aren’t ready to answer?

In this episode of Family Twist, Corey sits down with Dr. Vicki Sanders, a psychologist who has spent decades working with adopted and foster children, and the families raising them. Her work lives in the spaces most people avoid, the pauses, the deflections, the “we don’t need to talk about that right now” moments that shape identity in ways we don’t always see.

This conversation focuses on what children carry.

Dr. Vicki shares what she has witnessed again and again in therapy rooms:

• The questions adopted and foster children want to ask but are afraid to
• How silence, even well-intentioned silence, shapes identity
• The difference between protecting a child and protecting adult comfort
• What ambiguous loss looks like in children and teens
• How shame and secrecy can quietly impact attachment
• What it sounds like when a child tests whether it’s safe to be curious

We also talk about how adoptive and foster parents can respond differently, not perfectly, but openly. Dr. Vicki challenges the idea that love alone resolves identity tension. Instead, she offers practical ways to stay present when uncomfortable questions arise.

This is a conversation about courage, on both sides.

Catch Dr. Vicki at Untangling Our Roots

Dr. Vicki will be speaking at the upcoming Untangling Our Roots conference, where she’ll go deeper into:

• How to create emotional safety around hard conversations
• Supporting adopted and foster youth through identity exploration
• Recognizing trauma responses tied to secrecy and silence
• Practical language parents can use when biological family questions surface

If you’re attending UTOR, her session will offer tools you can take home immediately, whether you’re an adoptee, parent, clinician, or advocate.

If you’ve ever sensed there were things you weren’t allowed to ask, or if you’re raising a child who is beginning to ask them now, this episode is for you.

Family secrets are the ultimate plot twist.

About Dr. Vicki

Dr. Vicki is a licensed psychologist with decades of clinical experience working with adopted and foster children, adoptive families, and youth navigating attachment disruption and trauma. Her work centers on identity development, ambiguous loss, family systems, and helping children find language for experiences that often go unspoken.

She has supported foster youth transitioning into permanency, trained parents in trauma-informed care, and helped families move from silence and defensiveness to openness and emotional safety.

Through her clinical practice and public speaking, Dr. Vicki advocates for honest conversations that allow children to explore their origins without fear, shame, or secrecy.

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What does adoption feel like for the person who never had a choice?

In this episode of Family Twist, Corey and Kendall talk with Leslie Pate Mackinnon, LCSW, a birth mother, therapist, and one of the most respected voices in the adoption and donor conception space.

As a teenager, Leslie placed her two firstborn sons for adoption during a time when young women were often given little say in the outcome. That experience didn’t fade with time. It shaped the course of her life and her work.

For more than four decades, Leslie has maintained a private psychotherapy practice, helping adoptees, birth parents, and families navigate the lifelong emotional impact of adoption, identity, and family secrets. She presents nationally and internationally on issues affecting families formed through adoption and third-party reproduction.

Leslie has been featured on Good Morning America with Robin Roberts, appeared on CNN discussing the impact of the internet on adoption, and was part of Dan Rather’s investigative report Adoption or Abduction. She also appeared on The Katie Couric Show alongside her oldest son, Pete. Her story is included in the book The Girls Who Went Away and the documentary A Girl Like Her.

This conversation goes where many don’t.

Leslie shares what it was like to lose her children without having a real choice, how that experience stayed with her, and what she’s learned after spending decades sitting with others navigating similar truths. She also talks about what therapists still misunderstand about adoption, and why education in this space matters more than ever.

This is a conversation about adoption stories, family secrets, and the emotional reality behind DNA discovery and identity.

If you’ve ever been part of an adoption story, an NPE discovery, or a donor-conceived family, this episode will hit close to home.

Listen now to hear Leslie’s story, and the truth she’s spent a lifetime helping others understand.

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What if your father’s childhood was a handful of strange fragments, a “castle,” a room with 25 beds, hunger, silence, and a single forbidden question.

Filmmaker David Quint grew up sensing his dad was different, but nobody explained why. His father, Urban, had been raised in a 700-year-old Swiss castle that served as an orphanage, then at age 12 received a letter that changed everything: “You’re not an orphan. I’m your mother. You’re coming to America.”

He arrived in Philadelphia alone, not speaking English, looking for a woman in a pink scarf, and learning in real time what a mother even was. When he asked about his “real father,” his mother shut it down, and the subject became off limits for life.

Decades later, David made one decision that changed his relationship with his father forever. He emailed the castle.

What came back was proof, records, a name, and a path that led David and his dad back to Switzerland, with an old iPhone recording every moment. The trip brought long-buried memories to the surface, reunited his father with the boy who slept in the bed next to his, and ultimately uncovered answers that no one saw coming.

David’s documentary, Father Unknown, will be screened at Untangling Our Roots, and in this conversation, he shares the real story behind the film, what it meant to watch his father become fully human in front of him, and how discovery can heal what decades of silence could not.

Also, full transparency, we recorded this episode during an emotional week at home. Our beloved 11-year-old mini Dachshund Frankie was hospitalized and undergoing two surgeries, he is deeply bonded with Corey, and you’ll hear how tender this moment was. David met that reality with kindness and grace, and we’re grateful.

In this episode, we talk about

• Growing up with “fragments” of a parent’s past, and no context
• A Swiss orphanage inside a 700-year-old castle
• The letter that sent a 12-year-old alone to America
• The forbidden question, who is my father
• Returning to the place it all began, and what it unlocked
• Reunion, revelation, and the relationship shift that followed
• Why stories like these land so hard, even when you know the ending

If this episode hits home
Please share it with someone who’s navigating adoption, donor conception, NPE discovery, or any kind of identity rupture. And if you’ll be at Untangling Our Roots, add David’s screening to your must see list.

Guest Bio: David Quint

David Quint has worked in the film industry for 30 years as a director, cinematographer, and aerial cameraman, filming projects for Netflix, MTV, NBC, ABC, CBS, and other networks, along with feature films, documentaries, and commercials. He discovered his passion for storytelling as a boy growing up in Western Colorado, and after decades of working with state-of-the-art motion picture cameras, he never imagined he would unintentionally capture his most personal film on an iPhone 3. That film became Father Unknown, a deeply human story of family, identity, reunion, and the questions that echo across generations.

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Reunion is not always soft.

In Part Three of this powerful late discovery adoptee story, Alicia Sharon Denise Williams steps into the aftermath of truth.

After learning she was adopted, after uncovering sealed Michigan adoption records, after discovering both biological parents had passed away, she begins reaching out to siblings.

The first response is rejection.

A phone call to a biological half brother’s mother ends with harsh words and a door firmly shut. But that is not the end of the story. It is only the first chapter of reunion.

Soon, another connection appears. A name that had shown up repeatedly in her DNA research suddenly becomes a real voice. A nephew. A sister. A family that had known about her all along and never stopped searching.

Within hours, Alicia finds herself walking into a townhouse filled with siblings, nieces, nephews, a stepfather, and decades of stories about her. They knew her birthday. They celebrated her existence. They had promised their mother they would find her one day.

This episode explores:

• DNA sibling rejection and acceptance
• Discovering biological half siblings through AncestryDNA
• The emotional complexity of adoption reunion
• Faith, forgiveness, and generational secrecy
• Medical history revelations for late discovery adoptees
• What healing looks like after decades of silence

Alicia speaks openly about secrecy in adoptive families, the cost of silence, and the difference between adopting to give a child a life versus adopting to complete an image.

She also shares how her own late discovery changed the way she parents her adopted children today.

This is not just a DNA surprise story.

This is a story about identity being rebuilt. About faith being tested. About whether truth can redeem what was hidden.

And Alicia’s answer is yes.

About Alicia Sharon Denise Williams

Alicia is a NAAP Board Member, speaker, storyteller, and adoption truth advocate. As the founder of From Hidden to Healed, she shares her late-discovery adoptee journey marked by silence, spiritual awakening, DNA revelation, and the sacred work of untangling identity after truth emerges.

Her message is not about blame, but about belonging. Not about shame, but about healing. She reminds us that what was hidden can be healed and what was silenced can be spoken.

Hear Alicia Live at Untangling Our Roots

Alicia will be speaking at Untangling Our Roots, the national conference for adoptees, NPEs, donor-conceived individuals, and families navigating identity discovery.

After hearing this three-part series, experiencing her story in person will land differently.

Learn more at untanglingourroots.org.

This concludes the three-part Raised on a Lie series.

If Alicia’s story resonated with you, share it with someone navigating a DNA discovery, misattributed parentage, or adoption reunion.

Truth changes everything.