For the first 18 years of her life, TikToker Zoe’s (@2delulu4youlu) family thought she was dead. She was born in Ocala, Florida, and has five older siblings and two younger siblings, but she was the only one who was put up for adoption.
Apparently, her dad was in jail at the time, and her mom already had a bunch of kids to care for.
Her mom went through the entire pregnancy saying that she would keep the baby, but she ended up putting Zoe up for adoption. Her adoptive parents flew down to Florida to take her home to Maine. It was a closed adoption. Her birth mom wrote her a letter and a list of her siblings’ names.
Her adoptive parents were very open to Zoe wanting to learn more about where she came from. They tried to introduce her to Black culture. It wasn’t until she turned 18 that she got in touch with her family.
One day, she was doing homework for an online summer class during a vacation to Cape Cod, when she received a comment on her social media from someone claiming to be her sister.
Her sister had been looking for her for a year, and she knew her first and middle name. She also had pictures of Zoe’s birth parents and the letter her mom wrote.
She told Zoe that she thought she was dead. Their mom had gone to the hospital pregnant but returned home with no baby. She told Zoe’s siblings that the baby had died.
“They went their whole life thinking I was dead this entire time, for 18 years,” said Zoe. “Didn’t know they had a younger sister. I was the youngest girl, and you know what’s even crazier is my closest sister in age to me is the same age.”
“Obviously, she turns 21 before I do, but we’re the same age. So that means [my mom] just had another kid right before telling everyone that I died in the hospital.”
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“She tried to get in contact with me after all my siblings found me, and I was like, no, you don’t get to tell people I’m dead and then get to have a relationship with me,” she concluded.
In the comments section, several TikTok users shared similar stories, which just goes to show how common these situations actually are.
“My sister went through the same thing. We have the same name. She found me on Facebook. We look like identical twins,” commented one user.
“I get being that kid. Not as many siblings, but still had one before and two after,” wrote another.
“Girl, I can relate a bit. My entire bio family, even my bio dad, didn’t even know I existed. Three born before me and four born after me,” added a third.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
