VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY/CNN) — Rod Hobbs of Virginia Beach says he feels like there was a piece of him missing, until he found his biological father and family in Florida, all thanks to a DNA test.
It was an emotional reunion 32 years in the making.
When he was a teenager, Hobbs learned the man he thought was his father wasn’t, and his mother took his father’s true identity to her grave.
He’s hired private detectives, but it was a DNA expert who finally figured it all out.
Not only did he recently meet his father after all this time, he also connected with his sister, Britny McFarlane.
“You look like us,” McFarlane said when she hugged her brother for the first time in a Florida airport.
Hobbs just returned to Virginia Beach and 10 On Your Side’s Tamara Scott met up with him to talk about the incredibly emotional reunion.
Emotions still ran high.
“Overwhelmed, maybe still a little surreal, happy, excited,” he explained. “I never thought my dad would be alive, just because I’m a bit older, and I just thought by the time if we find anything I’m probably going to hear that he’s passed,” Hobbs said.
There’s also plenty of extended family.
“It’s just a life-changing experience, I wouldn’t of had it without the DNA, if I wouldn’t of pushed for it.”
He already has plans to go back for the holidays and is even considering getting a home down there for more extended stays.
He wants anyone the same position to never give up on finding their family.
