Jee Received Ha (left) and Darragh Hannan (proper) at Incheon Airport, assembly one another for the primary time after being separated quickly after delivery. (Hugh Hong/The Korea Herald)
Incheon Airport witnessed a heartfelt reunion on Friday afternoon as Darragh Hannan and Jee Received Ha, sisters separated at delivery and raised worlds aside, met face-to-face for the primary time. The 2, adopted as infants—Hannan within the US and Ha in Belgium—not too long ago found their full sibling connection by a MyHeritage DNA check, sparking this life-changing encounter.
Hannan, adopted in Minnesota shortly after her delivery in 1986, grew up in a loving and supportive house.
Ha, then again, skilled a difficult journey. Born in 1985 and initially adopted by a Korean household, her life took a dramatic flip after her mother and father divorced, main her to be adopted by a Belgian household in 1987. This household later adopted seven Cambodian youngsters utilizing falsified papers and doubtful strategies.
“Id theft, little one smuggling, little one trafficking. … It looks like my mother and father have been massive position in it, in order that they organized it and so they did it themselves,” Ha mentioned.
At 14, Ha left house resulting from years of bodily and emotional abuse, spending her remaining teen years in orphanages earlier than finally securing her personal house. Now fortunately married with three youngsters, she has discovered stability regardless of her previous.
Childhood images of Jee Received Ha (left) and Darragh Hannan (proper). (Supply: MyHeritage)
The journey that might finally reunite the sisters started in 2018, when Hannan took a DNA check hoping to uncover her roots. The check, nonetheless, solely turned up distant cousin outcomes and Hannan’s search appeared to have ended, till earlier this yr.
Earlier this yr, Ha’s brother prompt taking a DNA check, and Ha joined him for assist. Whereas her brother’s outcomes have been uneventful, Ha was surprised to study she had a full sister.
“I used to be fully in shock. I drank a little bit bit earlier than I may write an electronic mail (to Hannan),” Ha mentioned.
Ha’s electronic mail to Hannan, merely stating, “Hey, I feel we’re sisters,” modified their lives eternally. As they now navigate this new relationship, they’re additionally grappling with complicated feelings.
“We have talked about that a little bit bit, and we have seen reunions occur on TV, and we hear tales of reunions and the way comfortable they’re,” Hannan mentioned.
“We all the time see that half, however we by no means see the confusion and the questioning and all the massive emotions that occur after the large second. What comes subsequent? What’s our after the large second? What does that appear like for us?”
Ha added, “Discovering one another shouldn’t be solely the one massive comfortable thought. It is also the confusion and the unhappiness of all of the issues that you simply missed collectively.”
The sisters plan to spend the approaching days touring in Seoul searching for their delivery mother and father and attending to know one another. “For me, my journey to Korea together with her (Hannan) is … closure of asking who I’m, on the similar time, starting the search of who I’m,” Ha shared in an interview with The Korea Herald.
