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Man discovers biological parents through DNA kit
An at-home DNA kit delivered some life-changing results for one man
APOPKA, Fla. - As an ultrasound technician, Sean Hutchinson spent his whole career searching for things. One thing the Apopka resident never searched for, he found anyway: his birth parents. Hutchinson found them accidentally through an Ancestry.com DNA kit.
Hutchinson said he "just wanted to know what [he] was made of" when he sent the kit in. His That kit, a gift from his adoptive dad. Hutchinson did not know it at the time, but another kit was a Valentine's day gift to a woman in Chicago. Both kits were sent to the website within one week of each other. Eight days later, both Hutchinson and his birth mother in Chicacgo were alerted to the match.
"It was a one hundred percent perfect match, parent to child." Hutchinson later said.
The 38-year-old has two adoptive parents, and several siblings. He said he never tried searching for his birth parents, and because it was a closed adoption; they could never reach out to him either.
Not long after Hutchinson's birth mother found out about the match, she reached out to him.
"Right away, I saw a picture of her and it looked like me." said Hutchinson, "Her cheeks her eyes her nose."
It turned out that his birth parents had spent years trying to find him. Even hiring a private detective. Being only 19 when they got pregnant, it was the birth mother's mom who decided on the adpotion and opted to make it closed.
Hutchinson's adoptive parents John Hutchinson and Rebecca Rife, encouraging him to fly out to Chicago and meet the woman who gave birth to him.
"I would wonder to myself, who is she what she's doing?" said Rife, "Whether she thought about him, or did she want to meet him?"
Hutchinson then flew out to Chicago to meet his parents and siblings for the first time.
"I remember coming into the restaurant, walking around the corner and just seeing everybody and my legs were shaking, my heart was pounding." Hutchinson said.
The birth father, Mark O'Connor, said he knew it in his heart this was real. "It was magical. It was surreal. To think that this man standing in front of me is my biological son."
O'Conner married Hutchinson's mom Dawn ten years ago, after both had gone through a divorce.
"What do you think Dawn would say if she was here?" Hutchinson asked O'Conner via FaceTime. "I think she would add: it's a dream come true." said O'Connor.
Ancestry.com reports millions of Americans use their DNA kits to find their backgrounds. Hutchinson now forever greatful, for finding what he didn't know he was searching for.