A woman finally met her long-lost dad who didn't know she existed, thanks to a stranger on Facebook who turned into a sleuth to find him.
Adrieanna Tyler, 33, thought she knew her father until the age of 13 – when she overheard him referring to her as his stepdaughter.
She wanted to know who her biological father was, but wasn't able to find out anything about him. She tried to track her him down by herself but struggled – so asked for assistance from strangers running a Facebook page dedicated to uniting estranged relatives.
Thanks to the help of an amateur detective, Adrieanna was able to track down her aunt, Kathie Johnson, 47, and from there, her biological dad, Joseph Frank, 53, a police officer – who lives 1,000 miles away in Maitland, Florida, US.
Adrieanna says he 'had no idea she had ever been born' - and was thrilled to learn he had not only another daughter, but that he was a grandad to Adrieanna's children - Maximus, four, and Preslee, two.
Adrieanna met dad Joseph for the first time last week at a local festival near her home, and now they're already planning a family holiday.
During the emotional meeting, she also discovered she has two sisters – Nicole Frank, 29, and Alyssa Frank, 26.
Adrieanna, a stay-at-home mum – who is married to Brian Tyler, 40, a truck driver, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US, said: "Ever since I found out the man I thought was my dad wasn't, I was desperate to find my real dad. It always mattered to me.
"This year I ended up looking again and ordered a DNA test kit and ended up on a Facebook group where people help strangers find their long lost relatives. This wonderful lady called Suzanne on the group helped me build my family tree and after doing another DNA test we found my aunt.
"She said she'd put me in touch with my dad and I was suddenly ready to puke. I was so nervous – how do you just call someone and ask 'are you my dad?'. But when he found out about me, he was so excited, and it was such a relief - I felt so vulnerable before in case he wanted nothing to do with me.”
Adrieanna said she spent some time with her father getting to know him before they finally met in person.
"We bonded right away, and I finally feel I can start to heal now - everything ended exactly how it was supposed to."
Joseph said: "It's been pretty amazing. God works in mysterious ways. At the time when Adrieanna came into my life, I was going through a tough break-up and I really needed that.
"That part of my heart got filled again when I found out about my daughter."
The pair are already scheduling to spend Thanksgiving together - and are even planning a holiday together next summer.
Adrieanna said: "I had vowed I would spend the rest of my life searching for my dad – I didn’t want to die knowing I hadn’t tried. I just kept thinking that there is a man out there who deserves to know he has two grandchildren.
"I feel like I can finally start to heal now I'm not wondering why he didn’t want me - when all this time it was because he didn’t even know I existed. Everything happened the way it was supposed to."
SWNS
