Documentaries
Many people watch a documentary, and it can change the way that they look at life. Food Inc. has caused many people to reconsider their eating habits. Making a Murder has caused people to question the American justice system. If a documentary has the right message and the right producers, it can really hit home. This is what happened to a New Jersey woman in 2018.
Michele Mordkoff
Michelle knew for her whole life that she was adopted. Her parents didn’t hide the fact that they picked her up from an adoption agency when she was a baby, and they took her home. Michele’s parents made sure that she always knew that she was loved and wanted. They told her that they picked her which always made her feel special.
The Movie That Made Her Wonder
Growing up, Michele didn’t wonder about her birth parents too often. She was happy, and she loved her adoptive parents, and that was all that mattered. On a summer morning in 2018, this all changed. Michele was at work on her phone when she saw an article discussing a new move that had recently come out. The story really got her thinking. It was a docudrama called Three Identical Strangers. It was the story of three young men, who while in college, discovered that they were brothers. The three boys were triplets, and they were separated by an adoption agency and sent to different homes. The adoption agency was Louis Wise Services, and they kept the boys’ secret their whole lives, but why? The story had Michele intrigued, and she wanted to know more. This adopted woman inspired to take a DNA test by a movie gets a readout that upends her life.
Dr. Peter Neubauer
The movie revealed that the boys being separated was part of the doctor’s experiment to study the effects that different locations, different economic status, and other factors had on people who shared DNA.
Michele’s Shock
Michele watched the movie and couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She was adopted from the same agency as the triplets on the movie. She was born in the ’60s which was close to when the triplets were born. Michele couldn’t help but wonder if she had siblings out in the world that she didn’t know about. Michelle decided to contact a journalist named Lisa Belkin who had investigated the agency in the past.
DNA Test
Lisa helped Michele figure out what her first move should be. She suggested that Michele take a DNA test to find any missing relatives in the world. Today, there are plenty of DNA companies out there, and most put the results in a database so that people can find family members. Michele took the test, and she waited a few weeks for the results. According to Michele, it felt like years.
A Match
The genetics company finally called Michele and told her that there was someone with a full DNA match, which meant that they were her immediate family member. It could have been a brother or a sister. Unfortunately, there was no photo or full name available. All they had were the initials, A.K.
Turning To Facebook
Michele had to know who this relative was. A name, Kyle Kanter, had come up in her family tree, so she decided to look him up on Facebook. She looked through his list of Facebook friends, and finally found what she was looking for. Michele found the name, Allison Rodnon Kanter from Calabasas, California. The initials fit with the results from the DNA test. The name was intriguing, but the woman’s photo is what really hit home for Michele.
So Many Similarities
When Michele saw the photo, she says that it looked as though she was looking in the mirror. Next, she checked Allison’s birthday, and it was May 12, 1964, the same day that Michele was born. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She didn’t just have a sister; she had a twin sister. Michele’s son, Andrew, couldn’t believe that his mother had a whole family out there that they never knew about.
The Meeting
On August 10, 2018, Michele and Allison made plans to meet face to face. The two women met at a hotel in New York City. She brought her son Andrew with her to be there for the meeting. When Allison walked in the door, Michele recognized her immediately. Judging by their looks and their style, there was no question that the two women were twins.
A New Family
The twin sisters decided to stay in touch. How could they not, they were twins after all. The girls also got in contact with the producer of the movie that started her search in the first place. Michele is thrilled that she found her long lost sister and she is encouraging anyone who was adopted through that agency to take a DNA test.
YouTube Description
Can you imagine finding out when you are an adult that you have a twin sibling out in the world? This may sound like the plot to a movie, but it happened in real life. Twice. When a woman saw a documentary about triplets who were separated at birth only to reunite because they were at the same college, she decided to find out if she had a twin sibling out there because she was also adopted.
When she took a DNA test, she was shocked to find out that she had a twin as well. She couldn’t believe it. For this woman, it was a gift. She knew her whole life that she was adopted and she couldn’t have asked for better parents; however, finding the other half of her was the most amazing thing that has ever happened to her.
You have to see the video to understand how truly amazing this woman’s story is.
