A wholesome story about half-sisters reuniting from almost 4,000 miles apart played out in front of the entire internet — and it was all thanks to TikTok.
In 1998, Rachel Weiner was adopted from an orphanage in Bogotá, Colombia. Her parents raised her in New York, and she describes her childhood as happy and healthy. But there was always a part of her that yearned for a connection to her roots. Rachel told The Times that her adoptive parents had given her one passport photo of her biological mother and encouraged her to look at it whenever she needed to. Soon, that photo was no longer enough to fill her cup, and she set out on a journey that could have come straight out of This Is Us.
Rachel has a brother in her adoptive family in New York. But deep inside, she always felt like she wanted a sister — a baby sister, to be more specific. In her friend groups, she was always considered the de facto “big sister,” and it was almost as if she felt in her bones that reconnecting with her biological mother might lead her there.
Her adoptive parents supported her desire to explore her roots. And while Rachel knew that her biological mother had given her up for adoption so she could have a better life, she still endured years of applications before she could finally get the chance to speak with her personally.
Finally, in 2021, at the age of 22, Rachel arranged a video call with her biological mother, Mariana. Though Mariana had changed a little from the passport photo Rachel had studied over the years, Rachel recognized her instantly. Mariana, with the help of an interpreter, wanted to know one thing: did Rachel hate her? Rachel reassured her that she was happy with her adoptive family and grateful for the difficult decision Mariana had made. The call was deeply emotional and ended with a revelation: Rachel had an older half-sister — though she wasn’t ready to speak with Rachel yet.
Respecting her half-sister’s privacy, Rachel turned to TikTok to share her story and to encourage other adoptees to seek their roots. The unblemished TikTok algorithm worked its magic, and soon her post was on just about everyone’s feed. That one video even earned her 14,000 new followers. But little did Rachel know, one of them — Emely Moe — was about to change her life forever.
Emely had been adopted by a Swedish family in 2000, also from Bogotá. From the same orphanage as Rachel. After a brief exchange in the TikTok comments, the two realized they both had the same passport photo of Mariana. When they finally video-called, they immediately noticed they shared the same unmistakable eyes. Rachel’s gut feeling had been right — she did have a younger sister after all.
Since then, Rachel and Emely have met in person. Rachel documented her trip to Sweden on Instagram, and the sisters didn’t take long to bond. Now, both their social media pages are flooded with people who can’t get enough of their heartwarming story in an often cruel world. Someone call Disney and Lindsay Lohan — the plot for The Parent Trap remake has practically written itself.
The sisters even video-called Mariana together. Overwhelmed, she broke down in tears, never having expected this moment to ever happen.
