• 4 months ago
A woman adopted as a baby tracked down her long lost parents after 25 years - and discovered she is half black.

Sydney Parkhurst, 24, was put up for adoption as a baby as her biological mum, Inga Coleman, was unable to keep and raise her.

Curious Sydney grew up understanding she was adopted but initially didn't know her biological parent's names, ages or location.

She started looking for her birth parents in 2018 when she took a DNA test and submitted a sample to 23andMe.

Two years later in April 2020, her half-sister on her mum's side, Kayla Hensley, 32, reached out and told her that her mum had sadly passed away in 2018.

In November 2021, after finding out her mum had died she knew she needed to find her dad and submitted another DNA test to Ancestry.com.

She then got a message from her first cousin on her dad's side, ChanDreas Barkley, 31, who put her in contact with her father, Lenton Mitchell, 53, who works in paving.

Her dad sent her a text to say he wished he met her sooner and the pair saw each other for the first time on June 23, 2024, in Cartersville, Georgia and said it was "surreal".

It wasn't until her search for her birth family that Sydney discovered she was biracial - as there was no information about her birth father.

Sydney, a multimedia designer, from Tampa, Florida, US, said: "I always knew that I was adopted.

"I am not sure on the details why - all I know is that my birth mum couldn't keep me and she didn't give the hospital a lot of details about who my father was.

"I grew up in Rhode Island, and I didn't look like anyone else in that community.

"I struggled a lot with fitting in at school and I didn't know I was half black until I took a DNA test in my senior year."

Sydney was born on March 10, 2000, in Rome, Georgia, and was put up for adoption at birth.

One month later, she was taken in by Kimberly Parkhurst, 64, and her husband, David, 61.

Her adoptive parents then moved 1,000 miles away from Atlanta, Georgia, to Barrington, Rhode Island, New England, where Sydney grew up.

Sydney said: "Rhode Island doesn't have a lot of diversity and my parents are both white - growing up I felt like an outsider.

"I struggled fitting in but I was good at sports and that is what I used to fit in.

"It was still super hard for me as I had nobody who looked like me."

Sydney said she had a great childhood and she was "blessed" with her adoptive parents but she was nervous telling them she wanted to find her birth mum and dad.

She said: "I didn't want to look ungrateful for everything they have done for me.

"I would search on random websites and try to find whatever I could.

"I always had that question and I always wanted to know who my birth parents were."

In 2018, during her high school senior year, Sydney took a DNA test and submitted the results to the website 23andMe.

She said: "My half-sister reached out to me in April 2020 and said we might be half-siblings.

"I met my half-sister on my mum's side in January 2

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Transcript
00:00I found my birth dad kind of today. My first cousin on my dad's side reached out to me again
00:14saying that she thinks that she knows who my birth dad is for sure now. I talked to her
00:21for a while yesterday and she was able to introduce me to some of her
00:27cousins and my grandmother and it was just a crazy experience
00:37seeing them for the first time and meeting them.
00:42And then today my birth father tried to call me twice. I thought it was a random
00:52number so I didn't pick up but he tried calling me and then he texted me this really long text
01:03about how he wanted to have a relationship with me and how I looked a lot like his kids and
01:11uh yeah it's just very emotional very much. I think I for a while I thought that all right
01:22tried to prepare myself for the fact that he could be dead or not around but also like
01:27terrifying at the same time. I don't know why but um yeah it's just a lot to take in.
01:38Yeah we are going to see um my birth dad's side of the family and meet my birth dad
01:46and meet everyone actually for the first time.
01:50Um it's gonna be interesting definitely nervous to see but just met my half brother and he's huge.
02:03So how you doing? I'm good how are you? Yeah I'm good I'm good.
02:07Yeah I've never seen this right here bro. What? You've been here the whole time?
02:18Oh yeah I'm gonna take that off.
02:35It was so good to meet you.
02:40Yeah no that's okay. Next time we'll design everything.
02:48Good to finally meet you in person. I'll see you if you're out. I'm coming. Okay.
02:57I'm coming. I love you. I love you too. And thank you too for having me. I appreciate it man. Thank
03:01you. Appreciate it. Be careful going back down that highway. I will. All right. Hit us. Let me
03:07know when you made it. Okay. I know you made it. All right. Okay babe. I love you. Love you too.
03:18you
03:48you
04:18you
04:48you

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