The effort of an Indianapolis lady to locate her family led her to a son she had never known existed.

In the fall of 2019, while searching for her real father, Kristin Schoonveld did a 23andMe DNA test and was shocked to see a “son” match in the test results…,

“I thought it must be a mistake,” Kristin, who had never been pregnant, said.

She recalls clicking on the profile and being startled by the fact that “he resembled myself”

As she continued to read, Kristin, 52, discovered that he was the product of in vitro fertilization and was searching for his original mother. She had donated her eggs in 1994, thinking it would be good to assist someone start a family. However, this altered her feelings.

Therefore, Kristin sent him a message, and shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic began, they met in person after conversing and texting.

“It was instantaneous,” she says of her first meeting with her biological son.

Decades previously, Kristin formed a quick connection with a small boy, whom she ultimately adopted.

Kristin, who has committed her life to helping people with special needs, met Nick Schoonveld, a 9-year-old with Down syndrome, when she took a semester out from college and worked in his second grade special education classroom 30 years ago..,

“We were instantly attracted to one another,” Kristin explains. We had an incredibly close friendship and adored one another.

They reconnected in June 2012, when Kristin stumbled into Nick and his mother at the Special Olympics, where she was volunteering.

Grace, Nick’s mother, was subsequently diagnosed with non-lung smoker’s cancer. Kristin began spending more time with Nick after his mother became ill, picking him up and accompanying him wherever she went.

She recalls that every time she pulled into his driveway, he would ask her, “What are we doing tomorrow?” I simply continued to pick him up the following day.

After Grace’s death at age 60 in January 2015, Kristin expressed concern for Nick and his father, Brian.

“I was just one of many folks who were concerned about how Brian and Nick would navigate life,” she explains. “My primary concern was that they would be overcome with grief,”

In an effort to assist, she continued to transport Nick to school daily, and she also began spending time with Nick and Brian at their house.

“Brian enjoys talking about how fortunate it was that I entered their life when I did, but I feel the same way,” she says.

“By the end of the summer, I knew I was in love with him,” she continues. “We all discovered each other through a moment of profound sorrow, but it was an extraordinary win, win, win for us to have found each other. And all three of us depend on one another in a way that is rather unique.”

Kristin and Brian wed in January 2018, and she adopted Nick in May of that year, making the adoption official in the same courthouse where she was adopted as an infant.

This prompted her to request a DNA test in try to discover her biological family.

She states, “I wanted to know who they were.”

Kristin did a DNA test and discovered her biological mother after uploading her DNA findings to the website My Heritage.

She initially went out to her birth mother’s sister for permission before making contact. “She had not told anyone about me,” says Kristin. “Nobody knew.”

She then got a 23andMe test in search of her biological father. (Her biological mother later confirmed the identity of her biological father, who had passed away years before, and stated that he was aware of her pregnancy.)

After all of that, she asked everyone for years, “Would you want to know if you had a biological child you were unaware of?” — occurred in October of 2019

Parker Erickson, who grew up in Santa Cruz, California, was 14 years old when he learned that his parents had used an egg donor to conceive him.

Parker, 26 years old, recalls texting a friend and saying, “I guess I’m not related to my mother’s side of the family.” I was aware of test-tube babies.

His peers made jokes about them, and he was shocked to discover he was one. Kaylee Green, who questioned whether he had any biological siblings he was unaware of, persuaded him to get a DNA test.

“There was always this sense of ‘Could there be someone else?’ in the air,” he adds. “Both my parents said no. But as optimistic as Kaylee and I were, and as optimistic as I was, there may have been someone.”

Initially, the 23andMe test indicated that he had a cousin called Tami Kennerson, but it was unclear how she was linked to him. However, she revealed throughout their conversation that she was adopted and searching for her biological mother.

Then, after Kristin took her DNA test, the new data shifted Tami Kennerson from being his cousin to his aunt. (Tami is the older biological half-sister of Kristin; her mother placed another girl for adoption prior to Kristin.)

In November of that year, Kristin brought Nick to Evansville to meet Parker, as well as his mother, Parker’s girlfriend, and Tami.

During the journey Kristin also met her younger half-sister,in addition to bothher biological mother and biological grandmother, who have both since passed away.

Parker questioned his mother about the identity of his egg donor for years. She was not aware. They were shocked and happy to realize they both have the same first name — and that they were even named after the same book character, Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset.

Kristin’s encounter with her biological son was wonderful.

She states, “It’s as if I’ve known him his entire life.”

Parker sensed a similar effortless connection.

“It felt like I was hanging out with folks I already knew,” he says of his first encounter with his biological family. It was instantaneously effortless for them to fall in love.

Kristin comments, “He was extremely kind with Nick and said, ‘I’ve always wanted a brother.'”

Parker and his fiancée eventually settled in Boulder, and Parker, inspired by his “egg mom,” volunteered to serve with the Special Olympics in his community.

“It just makes everything bigger and greater,” she says of having Parker in her life. It simply increases my delight.

She adds, “We’ve formed a bond that will last the rest of our lives.”