Lengthy-Misplaced Siblings Reunite After Practically 40 Years Due to DNA Take a look at (Unique)

• Sisters Darragh Hannan and Jee Received Ha had been born 14 months aside in South Korea, and grew up having separate lives in several international locations
• Many years later, the 2 discovered one another via MyHeritage DNA assessments — they usually met in individual for the primary time on Friday, Oct. 25
• ”Connecting with one another has answered a number of questions for us,” the sisters inform PEOPLE

Two long-lost sisters simply had a reunion that was nearly 4 many years within the making.

Darragh Hannan and Jee Received Ha had been born 14 months aside in South Korea, however spent most of their lives aside, getting adopted by separate households and rising up in several international locations. However on Friday, Oct. 25, the 2 sisters, now grown adults, met in individual for the primary time at an airport in Seoul.

“We had been emotional — crying, laughing, feeling joyful, and a bit anxious,” Darragh, a 39-year-old venture supervisor for a museum displays builder, and Jee Received, 38, who operates a knitting and stitching store, inform PEOPLE in an electronic mail.

“Since then, it’s been an identical expertise, in one of the simplest ways,” they are saying. “We really feel snug with one another and discuss deep issues like our feelings and the impression of our journey, however we additionally joke round and have enjoyable, laughing and sharing these distinctive moments collectively.”

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When she was 8 weeks previous, Darragh was adopted by an American household in Minnesota and grew up in Indiana, whereas Jee Received was finally taken in by a couple in Belgium.

“We each knew we had been adopted at a younger age, nevertheless it wasn’t till later, round puberty, that we began to marvel extra about it,” Jee Received tells PEOPLE, including that Darragh felt equally.

For years, their questions remained simply that, even because the sisters began attempting to be taught extra about their roots.

When Darragh took a MyHeritage DNA take a look at in 2018, it yielded no connections. “I used to be like, okay, so I’m guessing they don’t have an enormous East Asian database at that time,” she recalled in a information launch obtained by PEOPLE.

In the meantime, Jee Received was moved to take motion after listening to a neighbor’s unimaginable story.

That neighbor, Kim Haelen, discovered her long-lost U.S.-based sister, Christine Pennell, via a MyHeritage DNA take a look at, and their experiences turned the topic of a 2019 documentary The Lacking Piece.

“I heard about [Kim’s] story when she discovered her sister, and it was such an amazing feeling,” Jee Received stated. “I believed, I’m gonna name her.”

Then a number of years after her personal DNA take a look at yielded no outcomes, Darragh acquired an electronic mail from Jee Received.

“I opened my inbox one morning, and there it was: ‘Hey, I believe we’re sisters,’ ” Darragh stated.

Video footage shared by MyHeritage reveals the 2 sisters assembly for the primary time at Seoul’s Incheon Worldwide Airport and tearfully hugging one another. 

“Oh, you’re actually small,” Jee Received even tells Darrah within the clip.  

Darragh and Jee Received inform PEOPLE that they are “each very grateful for our lives within the U.S. and Belgium, however there’ll all the time be part of us that wonders what it could have been wish to develop up within the locations the place we had been born.”

“Adoption isn’t nearly saving a toddler from their nation of origin; it includes rerouting a toddler’s whole life, which may deliver a number of deep questions and trauma,” they add.

Nonetheless, the overwhelming feeling they’re experiencing proper now could be gratitude.

”Connecting with one another has answered a number of questions for us — it’s given us a way of who we’re related with and has proven us each the similarities from our shared nature and the variations formed by our distinctive environments, nurture,” they are saying. “Both manner, it’s been unimaginable to get to know one another.”