LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – A Lubbock high school teacher met his sister for the first time during the New Year holiday, after a DNA test revealed they were related only months ago.<\/p>\n
David Ring, who grew up in Idaho and New Mexico, has lived in Lubbock for the last 25 years. He always knew he was adopted from Seoul, South Korea, but didn\u2019t know much more about his birth family. About a decade ago, he submitted his information to Ancestry DNA, but for years only received matches from long distance relatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, you send an email or you do a contact or you look this up and then you don\u2019t hear anything back. And you just kind of like, well, forget about it and keep living your life,\u201d Ring said.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Ring found his mother\u2019s name in family records. But it wasn\u2019t until a few months ago, after Emerald Englert, from Pheonix, Arizona, completed her own DNA testing, he discovered they shared the same mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked and even then when it said, you know, it\u2019s like a 25 percent match, it didn\u2019t like click that that\u2019s, that\u2019s a big match,\u201d Ring said.<\/p>\n
Englert was raised as an only child in Missouri, never knowing she had a half-brother until the Ancestry DNA notification a few months ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe gave me some information, like where he was born and the timeframe. I literally was reading it and my mouth was dropping,\u201d Englert said. \u201cWhen I found out that I had like a brother, it was pretty emotional for me because it just feels like, I mean, this sounds kind of cliche, but I kind of like feel like I have someone that I could kind of depend on.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the DNA match, Englert\u2019s mother told her everything about Ring. She says her mother is excited to one day meet her son.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really think that this is going to heal her heart a lot,\u201d Englert said.<\/p>\n
The siblings started off messaging, then spent hours on the phone, and finally met in person, when Englert flew to Lubbock for the New Year holiday.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, it\u2019s fun, like figuring out the similar tastes or things we both did when we were like 15 years old or things we were into or how we acted,\u201d Ring said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of like time to make up for is the way I see it,\u201d Englert said.<\/p>\n