Jessica Murace, now 20, stumbled across a stack of social services documents when she was just 14 which showed she was adopted and she had five siblings she knew nothing about
A woman has described the moment she discovered she was adopted and found out she had five brothers and sisters before tracking them down on Instagram to reunite after 15 years.
Jessica Murace, now 20, stumbled across a stack of social services documents when she was just 14 which showed she was adopted. She also found out that she had five siblings - Heather, 25, John, 24, Katy, 22, Nicole, 21, and her late brother William, who died last year aged 18.
Jessica kept the news to herself, choosing not to discuss what she had found with her parents and decided she would try to reach out to her newfound siblings herself.
She tracked them down on Instagram and came across a group photo of her siblings when she was 14 years old. They all met up in Birmingham in 2019 in what Jessica described as a “surreal” and “emotional” reunion.
The experience has been “life-changing,” she said, and now Jessica and her siblings meet up several times a year. Jessica, who works in luxury retail, from Manchester, said: "Finding my siblings has been life-changing - it hasn’t always been easy, but I’m happy I’ve met them. It’s given me a chance to know who I really am.
"It was surreal. For the first time, I saw people who looked like me, it was completely overwhelming."
Jessica grew up in Manchester with her adoptive family after being placed in foster care by social services - unaware she had any siblings. She said: "I grew up not knowing I was adopted, but I always felt different, like I didn’t quite fit in."
Children at Jessica’s school often made comments assuming she was adopted, she said, as they did not think she looked similar to her parents. She explained that she had initially been told that she was adopted by her adoptive parents when she was five but forgot about what she had been told.
Then later in life when she asked her adoptive parents if she had been adopted, they denied it out of fear it would negatively impact their daughter. Her parents Gillian and Pietro said: "It is hard for us to talk about, but it was selfish to keep it from her, and we do regret it so much and live with it every day. We love her so much and just didn’t want her to push us away.”
When Jessica discovered a book made by social services that informed an adoptee of their story - which she had never seen before - while the family was moving house in 2018, She said: "Inside there were pictures of children, and one looked like me.
"That’s how I discovered the truth through social services documents, as a 14-year-old it was overwhelming." She didn’t tell her adoptive parents what she had found. She said: “I cried a lot, it was a very lonely time, especially as I felt like I couldn’t talk to my adoptive parents about it.”
Several months after her discovery Jessica decided to reach out to her siblings. She said: "I just messaged them saying, 'Hey I think I'm your sister' and they asked me to prove it to make sure it wasn't someone pretending - so I sent personal information over and birth certificate."
Jessica and her siblings agreed to meet up with both sets of adoptive parents - meeting halfway in a restaurant in Birmingham. Jessica recalled: "My emotions were mainly shock. I'm not usually much of an emotional person, I didn't really know what to say. It was just weird seeing them look so much like them. I saw me in them."
Jessica and her siblings now get together several times a year and she says it finally feels like they are real brothers and sisters. It is important to be honest about adoption, Jessica said, adding she believes being honest with children about their origins is important.
She said: "When I found out, I had a massive identity crisis, it felt like my life was a lie. But I don’t regret discovering the truth." Jessica says the discovery has helped her understand why she always felt a deeper connection was missing. She added: "I am looking forward to building on our relationship.”
