A woman was shocked to discover she had five biological siblings and tracked them down on Instagram to reunite after 15 years.
Jessica Murace, 20, found out when she was 14 that she had been adopted as a baby. She had accidentally found social services documents after the family moved house.
She found a book she’d never seen before. In it, there were pictures of kids who looked like her.
She realized she had five siblings — Heather, 25, John, 24, Katy, 22, Nicole, 21, and her late brother William, who died last year aged 18 — after seeing their photos in the book.
Murace kept the revelation to herself at first. She was dealing with shock and distress. She didn’t tell her parents what she’d found.
”I cried a lot, it was a very lonely time, especially as I felt like I couldn’t talk to by adoptive parents about it,” she told SWNS.
But months later she decided to reach out to her siblings by messaging them on Instagram.
She said: “I just messaged them saying, ‘hey I think I’m your sister’ and they asked me to prove it to make sure it wasn’t someone pretending – so I sent personal information over and birth certificate.”
Murace and her siblings agreed to meet up with both sets of adoptive parents. They met halfway in a restaurant in Birmingham.
“My emotions were mainly shock. I’m not usually much of an emotional person, I didn’t really know what to say,” Murace said.
“It was just weird seeing them look so much like them. I saw me in them.
“It hasn’t always been easy, but I’m happy I’ve met them. It’s given me a chance to know who I really am.
“It was surreal. For the first time, I saw people who looked like me, it was completely overwhelming.”
The luxury retail worker said she’d always felt different. Even kids at school teased her for looking different. She’d been told she was adopted at five. But, she’s forgotten.
When she asked when she was older, they denied it. They didn’t want her to be negatively impacted by the information.
Her parents Gillian and Pietro said: “It is hard for us to talk about, but it was a selfish to keep it from her, and we do regret it so much and live with it every day.
“We love her so much and just didn’t want her to push us away.”
Murace has built a relationship with her siblings, visiting them several times a year and says it finally feels like they are really brothers and sisters.
She emphasizes the importance of honesty about adoption, and believes that being honest with children about their beginnings is important.
She said: “When I found out, I had a massive identity crisis, it felt like my life was a lie.
“But I don’t regret discovering the truth.”
Jessica says the discovery has helped her understand why she always felt a deeper connection was missing.
She said: “I am looking forward to building on our relationship.”
