In the season 3 finale of Family Twist, Kendall and Corey reflect on the incredible journey, sharing heartfelt voicemails from guests, discussing the emerging theme of family secrets and looking ahead to the next season. Join us as we revisit the stories that have shaped the season and prepare for the new twists to come.

Season of Family Secrets Wrap-up

Featured Guests Highlights:

Ryan Pesavento

• Non-binary guest who shared their journey of connecting with numerous half-siblings.
• Discussed the unique family dynamics with a donor father and the close bond formed with a half-sister, including participation in her wedding.
• Ryan’s approach to planning vacations to meet new siblings and build relationships.

Michelle Tullier

• Explored the theme of secrets with Michelle’s discovery of her biological father being a family friend.
• Discussed the complexities of growing up alongside half-siblings unknowingly.

Gene McLeod

• Shared his story on NPE Awareness Day.
• Neither of Gene’s parents knew that his father was not his biological parent.

Barbara Lane

• Barbara’s story of being one of eleven girls separated and later reunited.
• Her unique upbringing in foster care with mafia bosses.

Dayna Foster

• Voicemail from Dayna discussing her advocacy work in Florida and her impactful DNA test findings.

Ed De Gangi

• An author who discovered his birth mother was a prominent figure skater.
• Shared the emotional moment of receiving memorabilia of his mother.

Jon Baime

• Discussed Jon's documentary on his experience as an NPE and interviews with his half-siblings.

The Triplets: Ricky, Jules and Kendall

• The story of donor-conceived triplets, separated at birth, who reconnected as teenagers.
• Hosts shared their experience on the triplets' podcast, “Luke, Who Is Your Father?”

Hosts’ Stories:

• Kendall’s personal journey with family secrets and the emotional reading of a letter to his birth mother.
• Corey’s support and the therapeutic aspect of sharing these stories.

Looking Ahead:

• Teasers for season four, including stories on family rejection and the impact on the hosts.
• Acknowledgment of the podcast’s growing community and the importance of sharing these personal stories.

Closing Thoughts:

• A call for honesty and healing in families with secrets.
• Gratitude expressed to guests for their openness and bravery.
• Reflection on the hosts' personal experiences and the impact of their adoptive parents.

Thank you to all the listeners and guests for a memorable season. Stay tuned for the upcoming season, where we continue to unravel the complexities of family, identity, and the unexpected twists life brings.

kendall-austin-stulce-corey-stulce_full_length nov 5,

Welcome back to Family Twist. It's our finale for season three. We can't believe it. So we've been doing this for about a year and a half, and it's just wild that we've already been through three seasons. Season four starts a week from today. We were so lucky this season again, to have such great guests and feedback from you, the listeners.

And we were really happy that. Eight of our guests have left us voicemails. We're going to play those for you today. First up is Ryan Pesavento. And Ryan is the first guest that we've had who identifies as non binary. It's when we're talking about Ryan, ryan's chosen pronouns are they, them.

And so really happy to have Ryan on. Ryan was actually a two time guest this season. And what I think I admire so much about Ryan is just how much they have. Reached out to new half siblings that they found really welcoming them to the found siblings into this, uh, very unique family situation that the donor father of all of these half siblings is, uh, helpful with information and things, but really doesn't have the type of relationship that we've heard other.

Donors have with these adult children that they find. Ryan has formed a really strong, close relationship with one of their half sisters, and in fact, Ryan was part of her wedding ceremony earlier this summer. That's why we had them on a second time, because Ryan took a really interesting vacation where they met several siblings for the first time.

And Ryan is continuing to plan their vacations around meeting new siblings, which I think is awesome. Yeah, get first, you know, Ryan's getting to see different places that they've never been, but also getting to connect with these half siblings and get great photos and spend some real personal time with, with these half siblings that we just think it's wonderful.

Next up is Michelle Tullier. Kendall said something to me recently that I found very interesting that this season, the theme seems to be secrets. And I think actually the podcast theme is starting to become more and more about secrets and about how you can't really keep these kinds of family secrets anymore.

Michelle found out later in life that the man who raised her was not her bio dad. In fact, it turned out to be somebody that she knew her entire life, a family friend who also had kids. She kind of grew up around her half siblings, just had no idea that was the case. It's pretty remarkable stories.

Next up is Gene McLeod and on NPE Awareness Day, June 27th, we aired the episode with Gene. Gene's story is really interesting because his, neither his mother and father who raised him. Knew that the man who raised him was not his biological father. Barbara Lane is next. We do find a lot of coincidences.

When we speak to guests, Barbara's stories actually started in St. Louis, which is where I am from. So we had to do the old, you know, where'd you go to high school conversation, which if you're from St. Louis, that's pretty much the first question people ask you. Her story was wild. She. It was one of eleven.

Girls all from the same mother and all of them got separated. It was, you know, her mother was had some issues and they all reunited later in life. And, you know, there's great photos of all of them together. It's just, I mean, a really heartwarming story that they were all able to reconnect after so many years.

And the fact that Barbara, when she was in foster care as a teenager. As a child and teenager, she was placed with mafia bosses, and so, bizarre part of the story, it's really interesting, you have to go back and listen to Barbara.

Dana Foster was also kind enough to leave us a really sweet voicemail. We connected with Dana, you know, on a, on a, different level, I think, because, you know, we're gay, she's gay, she's married, lives in Florida, but she is doing her part to make sure that legislation goes the right way in Florida because it's a little bit backward right now.

I found Dana from a local article that someone had written about her because she had some really interesting DNA findings when she did a DNA test. And it's Really made a big impact on her life. Next up is Ed Daganji. We have a lot of guests who write books about their stories, which is great. I think it's important to get this information out there in whatever way you can be at a podcast or a book.

So Ed found out, again, later in life, that seems to be a trend that he did not know who his birth mother was and through some interesting detective work, he found out that she was actually a very prominent figure skater. Very well known and one of the cool things about his story is that, you know, it's pretty rare to have memorabilia, you know, we're talking about going back to the, you know, thirties and forties and he was able to find a collector who had posters that his mother was on and when he met up with them, they just Handed them over.

So these belong to you. This is, you know, this isn't ours. You know, this is a part of your history. So here you go. And I thought that was really cool.

Next up is John Bamey. So next I'm going to talk about John Boehm, who has a really cool documentary out right now, which he just mentioned in the voicemail that you heard. Really, really fun to talk to him. He, another NPE, and he interviews a lot of his half siblings and talks about, you know, their journeys in his documentary.

It's really, really well done. Last, but definitely not least, we had the really cool experience of speaking to the triplets. They are not the only siblings in their family, but they were donor conceived split up at birth. Well, two of the sisters stayed together and one didn't, and then they reconnected as teenagers, and now all live in the same.

So they purposefully relocated to be close to each other. And we just felt a real kinship with them. Their names are Ricky, Jules and Kendall, believe it or not, another Kendall who sometimes goes by Kenny. And we, we really enjoyed the time we spent with them. They gave us. A lot of material for our podcast.

And then we were lucky enough to be on their podcast, which is called Luke, who is your father? We started this season off with a Kendall centric episode. Again, about family secrets. If you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you probably know that. Kendall has not connected with his birth mother, even though he and his half brother, Chris, Found out who she is six years ago. It's, it's been an ongoing traumatic experience for Kendall to say the least. It is. And I had written a letter to her that I don't know that she would ever read if it were put into her hands. But what I did on the first episode of this season was read that letter.

It was in the hopes that somebody in her life, I don't want to put the pressure on my sisters to do it, but somebody in her life would say, Hey, Jackie, you should, you should listen to this, you know, and even if I don't get a response from her, I just hope she hears it at some point, as Corey mentioned, it's a continual Struggle for me, I think, and sometimes I get fixated.

Fix aided on it a bit too much. So, but it's therapeutic for me to do what I did and for Corey and me to continue to talk about it. And we talk about it. If you think you hear about it a lot on air you can only imagine how much Corey hears about it in the household. It's just this ongoing lingering desire that I have to, you know, what.

Child wouldn't want to know his parent. Right. To some, at some level, you know, I don't even ask my sisters. And they don't volunteer a lot, but I don't ask them a lot of information about her because it feels painful even, you know, to talk about her at some level. So maybe that will change. I'm going to spend a week with my sister Stephanie in December, and I'm hoping she and I have time to spend talking about our mother.

I don't really know much about. Her life and, and again, I'm not blaming my sisters. I, I, they feel awkward, I think, talking about it with me. So I'm going to be open and I want to hear what Stephanie will tell me about my biological mother and looking forward to it. So season four will start a week from this episode's publication date.

And I'm not exaggerating. We've already been recording several episodes and wow. I mean, the stories that we're hearing are just like jaw dropping. Our first guest next week gave us some really interesting perspective on the whole concept of family rejection. I think it was actually very therapeutic for Kendall.

We both were teared up during the conversation, but it was, I think, very, very helpful. I'm, I'm, we're really thankful that so many of you are finding the podcast subscribing to it. We've really seen the audience grow over this season. We, we love this community of, you know, people with family twists.

I feel really connected to this community. Now, I think when we started this uh, podcast, I had no idea how much I needed to hear people's stories. I needed to hear other adoptees whose experiences. Many times have not been as good as mine or people who weren't told they were adopted and, and found out later in life and these end NPEs, not parent expected events that happen.

It's just. Traumatic and I feel so fortunate that I was never in that situation, but I feel such kinship to the people who have gone through those moments. Not only adoptees, but these donor conceived children who, who have been lied to all of their lives. When I hear these stories about The parents who gave birth to these donor conceived children and continued to lie to them, even when the children had health concerns and needed to know that they were donor conceived and still weren't told, I just, I don't have a lot of empathy for those parents.

That is not the right decision to make, ever. Your child deserves to know, A, that the parent that they thought raised, that raised them is not. Their biological parent, they deserve to know that, but they also need to know because of health concerns. I can't believe when parents hold back that information.

I feel exactly the same way about people, you know, in where they could have had open adoptions and. Chose not to, or have lied to their children their entire lives about their, you know, situation, the way that they were born. I wish I had a dime for the number of times that I've been asked throughout my life until I found my biological family.

You know, what's your family history when it comes to medical concerns? And I. Of course, I knew nothing, and it's irresponsible, I think, for closed adoptions to continue. I just, I do, I think, and I'm not blaming my adoptive parents for going that route. Where they lived, that was the only option, right? It was the, it was the law.

So it wasn't as if they had another choice. And they didn't care in that, if I had been ill, they were still going to love me and they were still going to take care of me. So that's not the point. The point is, you know, as I became older and I started thinking, oh, should I be watching, you know, for diabetes?

Should I be watching for a heart condition? You know, these are questions that I couldn't answer. And I just think it's irresponsible for anybody in this day and age to. I think that that's okay. Absolutely. And you know, it's not too late for parents to let the secret out. It's time. The trauma that it's causing you and your child, that can all go away.

And there's definitely room for healing. For sure. And so that said, I really want to say how much we appreciate our guests for their bravery and coming on and telling their stories. People are, can be really private about these things. You know, I, I have nothing to hide and, and there'd be no reason for me to, to hold back.

So, you know, my story is my story and mine is quite good compared to some others. I mean, it's funny how people will always have sympathy for me when they find out that, you know, my adoptive parents died so young because I don't discredit that. But at the same time, in that short time that I have with them, you know, they made a forever mark on my soul and And I love them dearly.

And so, you know, would I choose to have them longer? Of course, but you know, it's, I still am glad that those are the parents that I ended up with. Thank you so much for listening. Season three has been a blast. And again, thanks to the guests who were able to leave these messages for us. And, you know, helps us commemorate their stories more.