I've Been Searching For My Daughter For 20 Years! | KARAMO

She ended up getting pregnant, but I had a fiancée at the time. When she found out, all hell broke loose. She gave away my own daughter. I had no clue who she was given to as a child. I had no information to find her. I didn't even begin to know where to look. I wanted to be involved in all my kids' lives, so her taking away Caitlyn hurt me tremendously. The first and only time I saw Caitlyn is when she was 4 years old. I have not seen her since that day. I spent the last 2 decades looking for Caitlyn. I looked everywhere for her. I looked in newspapers, kept article clippings. I even found out she was in choir in middle school. I was basically threatened not to look for my daughter. I've been looking for Caitlyn her whole life, but she found me. She found me on social media last Wednesday. I didn't even believe it was her. After 2 decades of looking, I couldn't even believe it was true.

But it was, and I'm here.

Caitlyn, if this DNA test proves that I'm your father, I'm gonna be there from now until the end of time. I can't wait to make up for all the things that I've missed. And I want you to know that I love you.

Everyone, please welcome Caitlin to the show to hear her side of the story. Hi. How you doing? I'm good. First of all, you look beautiful.

Thank you.

You're welcome. So he just says that you found him last Wednesday.

Correct.

Wow, so this is really recent. I wanna take a look at this message that you sent your father. So it says, "Hey, I know you don't know me, but my name is Caitlin. I tried messaging you on Facebook as well. Okay, nice to meet you." "Nice to meet you as well. I don't know how to exactly go about saying this, but my mom is blank and I was adopted at birth. I was recently told that you could potentially be my biological father," and then he gave your full name. Wow. "I am your father." Interesting. How does it feel to hear all of that?

It was really shocking. I didn't really know how to take it at first. I mean, as soon as I found out his name, and I reached out to him, I was like hopeful.

[Speaker:KARAMO] Yeah, yeah. I mean, the interesting part is that he answered even though he wasn't sure and then like went straight into it. When did you find out his name?

[Speaker] It was the day before my 20th birthday that recently just passed.

[Speaker] The day before?

[Speaker] Yeah.

[Speaker] Who told you his name?

[Speaker] My mom, my biological mom, yes.

[Speaker] Wow, wow. After all these years, why did she just finally decide to tell you?

[Speaker] I feel like It was petty, if you wanna be honest, because me and my sisters wanted to have a sleepover for my birthday, so I went over there to her house. We were speaking about someone who could, my sister's father. We always thought that we looked alike, we were always told that we looked alike, so we always thought that we had the same father, but when we were As I was speaking about it, my mom like peeked her head around the corner and was like, "Hey, that's not your dad. Your dad's name is Rodney." And I was like, "Oh wow, okay." I was really shocked, taken aback. I didn't know what to say. I just asked like where he was and she was just like, "Oh, I think he's in Atlanta." And then she goes to say that, He has been texting her on social media trying to get custody of me, but she blocks him every time he texts her, so.

Wow, wow, wow. I can see now why you said it felt like it was petty.

Yeah.

Because if—

She just said it like it was nothing.

Like nothing, just very callous with it. Yeah. So how did you first find out that you were adopted?

I was 6 years old. I would go over to my aunt's house. She would babysit me sometimes, or I would play outside on the swings. And 2 girls walked up to me. I've always seen them around the neighborhood. Like, we always play with my cousins or whatever. I always assumed that they were my cousins. She was like, we're your sisters. I remember going home that same day. My mom watched the news. Washing my hair.

This is your adopted mom?

My adopted mom, yes. She was washing my hair and I went to tell her that the two girls that I met had told me that they were my sister. And she just took a pause and she was like, "I need to tell you something. You are adopted. I'm not your mom. He's not your dad." But then she goes to tell me that she couldn't have kids and that my mom, my biological mom, I was her fourth child at the age of 20.

Was she supportive of you finding your father?

Definitely. I wanna say like my adoptive parents were like the most supportive people during this whole process.

Yeah, right?

Yeah.

Did she ever tell you who it could be?

My adoptive mom, no. That's the thing. And that's where all the confusion came in. But she was always told that my biological mom didn't know who the father was.

Got it. What's significance of your birth certificate?

There was a misspelling on my birth certificate. So my middle name isn't spelled L-E-E, it's spelled L-E-A. So I always thought it was weird. My adoptive mom didn't know until like a couple years ago when I got my copies back.

Got it. I want you to take a look at this message. It says, I never stopped looking for you or keeping up with you. Honestly, when I was younger, I thought I would never knew who my dad was, but I'm glad you did.

Yeah, that's so true.

Yeah.

At a young age, I always thought like I'd have to come to the realization that I would never know who my dad was.

Yeah.

And like there's other people out there that still don't know who their father are.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you think you and Rodney look alike?

At first I didn't. I didn't think so.

You didn't think at all?

At all. Yeah. Like I said, I've always been told I look like my sisters and my mom, but now that I'm getting older, I don't look like them. But I showed like a couple people pictures of us and they were like, "Oh, that's your dad, that's your twin." Like, so.

Have you and Rodney ever met in person?

Never.

So you've never seen him in person?

Never.

Other than contacting last week?

Last week was the first time I've ever texted him.

Texted him. And on this stage will be the first time you ever see each other in person?

Yes.

What happened the first time you and Rodney spoke on the phone?

Can I first say that I wanna thank you for this opportunity?

Oh, you're welcome, you're welcome, you're welcome. You don't need to thank me, you don't need to thank me. I'm glad I could be here for you.

And everything that you do for the community.

Yeah, oh, thank you, I appreciate that. Tell me something, so what was that phone call like?

It was shocking. I could, he had my grandma, his mom, and my cousin, which is his niece, on the phone. And like, I can hear the, joy and excitement in their voices like, "Ah, we finally found her." Like they were screaming on the phone. So it made me like bust down into tears 'cause I was like, "Wow, like I do have another family out there that loves and supports me." Yes, of course.

All right, and for the record, this will be the first time you are meeting Rodney, your potential father.

Yes.

All right, so everyone please welcome Rodney to the show. How you doing, sir? Nice to meet you. Thank you for being here. How does it feel to see your potential daughter for the first time?

I can't even put it into words, you know? I've been looking for so long.

Yeah, yeah. How do you feel about what was just said?

It's disappointing knowing that things were beyond both of our control and, Growing up without a dad, I did also. My dad died when I was a kid, so I know how that can be, you know?

How did you meet Caitlyn's mom?

I just got out the Army, I was in college. She worked at a restaurant and there was another young lady that I liked that I tried to give her my phone number, but Caitlyn's mom took the phone number and called me herself.

So you, were you already in a relationship at this point?

Yeah.

Sad to say I was engaged at the time.

Oh, got it. So did you want to keep custody of Caitlyn?

Yeah, I never wanted to give her up for adoption. I didn't even know she was giving up for adoption. Yeah, she did it behind my back. She moved and I found out later what happened.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We have a message. To take a look at. "I hope that one day you would look for me. Yes, I started looking as soon as she gave me a name. I never wanted you to be adopted." Wow, so this has been your truth always?

Yeah.

Yeah. Did you ever try to go back to try to see her?

Oh yeah, numerous of times. Once I found out where she was, I never gave up.

Yeah.

I would travel from Atlanta back to Texas like twice a year to try to find her. Tried to track her down.

Yeah, listen, I understand your story because somewhat similar to mine where my son, I didn't find out about him till 10 years old because mother wasn't— just moved to another state and I had no idea who— where he was. But, uh, y'all didn't know that? Oh yeah, that's how I found out about my son. Yeah, 10 years old. Um, but you know, one of the questions my son always asked me is like, you know, you came around now, Why didn't you search harder? Why didn't you look? And so like, even though I understand, I have to ask the question, like, if it took 3 days for her to find out, why in those 20 years didn't you try to keep searching? What was it about?

Good question. I didn't know her legal name, so I was looking under her mother's name or my name for, which I didn't know until I found out. Then I started looking under the name that she's under. And I thought it was spelled with a G instead of an N, so I was looking under that name.

Got it. So you looking under different names?

Yeah.

But I did find her in the newspaper.

I looked in the newspaper and I found out that she sang choir and I took the newspaper clip and then kept it.

Mm. So how did you try to stay in contact with Caitlyn?

Now?

Yeah. How did you try?

By phone. Yeah.

Yeah.

Social media.

How did you feel when she contacted you on social media?

Like the world had just turned upside down on its axis and a big burden of pressure was relieved on me.

Yeah. Caitlin, you said that your mom said he would try to contact her.

Yes.

And that she would block you. Is that true from your end?

Oh yeah, definitely. Numerous of times every year. I would contact her and say, "How is our daughter? Does she know about me? Have you told her she's adopted? You know, has she tried to find me or anything? And could you just tell her that I love her and I miss her?" Yeah. "And I just wanna be a part of her life. And here's my number, please pass it on. Let her contact me whenever." Yeah.

How does it make you feel hearing that from him?

It hurts, it really does. It hurts a lot. I feel like that's very like petty of her because like I am a child that felt like she was abandoned and neglected for so long. And then just to find out, like I said, she said it so petty, like it was nothing. Like, oh, that's his name. Like that's the one piece of my life that I've been searching for.

You've been searching for this entire time. Makes sense. Looks like we have a pin coming in and it's from your sister, Tyronda.

Yes.

Yeah, let me see what Tyronda gotta say.

I found out from my oldest cousin that Kaylin was my sister around 6 years old. Kaylin and I were best friends growing up, but I had no idea that we were sisters. When I told Kaylin, she did not believe me at all. We really do look alike, but as she started to get older, she started to look just like my dad. Now that Rodney has came into the picture, I don't know exactly who Kaylin's father might actually be. At the end of the day, I hope that Kaylin gets the answers that she needs because she will always be my sister.

Mm. It sounds like you got a lot of love around you though.

Yes.

Yes. All right, well, I think it's time to get to this truth. You've been waiting 20 years. In this envelope is the DNA truth that you've been waiting for. This is not my truth to open, this is yours. Okay, thank you. How do you feel?

I feel excited, nervous.

Yeah, makes sense.

So this will definitely help me a lot, just knowing.

Yeah.

Rodney is your biological father.

I told you. You got your answers.

Yes.

Yes.

Finally got my answers.

Yeah.

It feels great. It does.

Yeah. And I know for you as well, because I could see that you have been searching. You've been trying as much as you could. So this has to be a a great moment for you as well.

Yeah, my family is complete.

Yeah. You said you've been looking for that emotional support and it looks like you got a father now who's gonna be able to give that to you.

Literally, he's been doing it since day one that he's found out.

Yeah, yeah. Listen, you found Rodney last week and today you know he's your father. And you have lots of tomorrows together. Lots and lots of tomorrows together. I'm very happy for you both.

Thank you so much.

Seriously.

Thank you so much.

I was praying in my head. I was like, please let it be. And y'all look alike. Y'all do look alike. Listen, congratulations. I'm so happy you have your answers. Thank you for trusting me with your story.

Thank you for helping us.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you as well.