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Parents learn adopted son has a brother living in an orphanage. Their decision was already made

Abandoned at birth, David spent the first four years of his life at a Thai babies' home. He had no idea that he had a brother too.

Parents learn adopted son has a brother living in an orphanage. Their decision was already made
Representative Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Sarahwolfephotography | Portra

When 4-year-old David Keniston first arrived in America in 1991, he had no idea how to eat a pizza. By then, he had eaten only one American dish — the McDonalds French fries. He ate the first-ever pizza slice of his life, holding it upside down. It wasn’t just his pizza that was upside down, but his entire life. A couple had just adopted him from Pakkred Babies’ Home in Bangkok, Thailand, where he spent the initial four years of his life after getting abandoned in the hospital at birth. He had no idea that his biological brother was playing in a corner of the same orphanage. When the couple filed his adoption, the babies’ home told them they would have to adopt both the brothers or neither of them. The fact that the couple decided to have both, is making people on the internet bawl, reported Newsweek.

Representative Image Source: Getty Images | 	Camille Tokerud
Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Camille Tokerud

Now a 37-year-old man, David was born on April 7, 1987. He told Newsweek that he doesn't remember anything about living in the babies' home, and all the details of the first four years of his life have come from family stories, photos, and VHS tapes from his mom, grandma, and aunt. The American couple, now his parents, applied for his adoption in 1988 after finding that India's adoption programs were closed.

Representative Image Source: Getty Images | 	Anchiy
Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Anchiy

In February 1991, David’s adoptive mother, grandmother, and Aunt Bobbi flew to Thailand to pick them up and take them home in Portland, Oregon. In a Reddit post made in the r/MadeMeSmile group, David (u/kenistod) shared a picture of himself with his granny and aunt, onboard the flight to Oregon. Another picture displays him and his brother as young children, laughing joyously. David recalled that, if they hadn’t adopted them, he and his brother would have gone to a family in Colorado.

 

When a Redditor asked him whether he was afraid of traveling with strangers, he replied, he was “not scared at all.” He, in fact, loved every new thing. The only thing he was afraid of was ladybugs. Another person, who too was adopted as a child, said they often experienced attachment issues and asked if David felt the same. David said, “I've had attachment issues my whole life,” adding that he would check out the book “The Primal Wound,” which deals with the conflicting emotional journey of adopted children.

Image Source: Reddit | u/dr_pookiee
Image Source: Reddit | u/dr_pookiee

Now a “designer, photographer & explorer,” David said in a comment that his parents were probably refugees from a country like Myanmar or Burma at the time of his birth. He even had a DNA test that revealed his ancestry to be a blend of “Indonesian, Khmer, Myanmar, Thai, Chinese Dai, Vietnamese and Bengali from Northeast India.” Whoever they might be, it was his current parents with whom he lived the best and the most special moments of his life. People are saying that they’re one of the most wonderful parents out there. The story of these two brothers has filled people’s hearts to the brim with profound emotion, the emotion of love.

Image Source: Reddit | u/MichelleXScott5x1
Image Source: Reddit | u/MichelleXScott5x1

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