1. Meet The Doering Family
The Doering Family, Jennifer and Thomas and their three sons, led a happy life in Wausau, Wisconsin. While the Doerings enjoyed a good life, they always felt like something was missing at home. You see, the Doerings wanted to add another child to their family.
Not only did they want one more child, but the parents felt especially keen to find a sister for their sons. So, in 2007, they decided to head to an adoption agency to make their family dream come true. Eventually, the quest led the Doerings to China and a little girl named Audrey, who had been abandoned by her mother. In China, Jennifer and Thomas fell in love with a little girl…
2. A Rare Heart Problem
Just a month after they met her, the Doerings were thrilled to bring home their 15-months-old daughter, who they named Audrey. However, as soon as Audrey settled in the family home in Wisconsin, Jennifer and Thomas received some terrible news from Audrey’s doctor.
Unfortunately, baby Audrey suffered from a rare heart condition. While the Doerings knew that their daughter was small and frail, they could have never predicted this complication. Thankfully, the Doerings were set on getting their daughter the necessary treatment she needed. Fortunately, little Audrey only needed one heart surgery to become healthy. In time, the Doerings tried to forget about the incident. They had no idea it would be the key to unlocking Audrey’s secret past…
3. Where It All Began
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After her heart surgery, Audrey lived a happy and healthy life, spending her days outside and at school, as any child would. Then, in 2016, Jennifer Doering wanted to prepare a special Christmas gift for nine-year-old Audrey: finding out where she came from. However, her special surprise would require some serious research.
Jennifer started by trying to locate the Chinese newspaper article that Audrey had been found abandoned as a baby. The longer the searching took, the more Jennifer became worried, as “there wouldn’t be as much information in the future.” Little did the mom know that she would end up finding much more that she would have ever imagined…
4. Hiring a Private Investigator
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Before long, Jennifer realized that she could not complete this search alone. Everything the mother tried led to a dead end. So, she decided to hire a specialist through a child-tracing website to find Audrey’s birth records. After all, Jennifer knew that her daughter was initially born in China, but that was about it. She needed more information.
Jennifer felt hopeful that the private investigator would find further information about her daughter’s origins. However, she had no idea what the investigation would lead to. When the private investigator finally came back with information, it completely blew Jennifer Doering away…
5. A Massive Discovery
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After the private investigator tracked down the newspaper article, he continued his investigation. Unfortunately, he could not locate the girl’s mother. However, the investigator did manage to discover an illuminating photo, which he sent along to Jennifer. Right before this mother’s eyes, sat a photograph of Audrey as an infant sat on her mother’s lap. However, her daughter wasn’t the only baby in the photo…
Sitting right next to baby Audrey was another baby girl who looked exactly the same as her. As you might imagine, Jennifer needed to give this photo a second and third look to make sure her eyes were not deceiving her! That’s when she finally accepted the truth…
6. A Promise
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Jennifer Doering quickly realized that her daughter actually had an identical twin! She couldn’t believe what she had discovered. Now, even more opportunities opened up. While Audrey might never meet her birth mother, she could potentially reconnect with her long-lost twin. So, Jennifer made a vow to herself that she would find this young girl, for Audrey’s sake.
“As soon as I had that picture, I was desperate to find out … who that other child was,” Jennifer said. However, Jennifer knew that it would likely be even harder to find Audrey’s twin than tracking down her mother. Still, she was willing to try. So, Jennifer decided to start with Facebook…
7. The Second Family
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Meanwhile, as Jennifer Doering searched for answers, she had no idea another family was living a very similar life. Across the country, in Washington state, the Rainsberry family lived in the city of Richland. While they may have lived a country apart, the Doerings and Rainsberry had a lot in common. First, in 2007, both families had two parents and three children. Second, the Rainsberry family also wanted to adopt a fourth child!
Just like the Doerings, the Rainsberrys’ desire for another child led them to China. In July 2007, the family found little Gracie. From the moment that they laid eyed on her, they knew she was the one. So, the Rainsberry family decided to take Gracie back to America. It’s safe to say that 2007 was a good year for both families!
8. The Same Issues
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The Rainsberry felt happy to have Gracie, pictured below on the left with her adoptive mother and sister, in their lives. However, things were about to take a turn for the worst. You see, after welcoming Gracie into their home, the Rainsberrys received some horrible news. Just like Audrey, a pediatrician informed the family that Gracie suffered from a rare heart disease. Sound familiar?
Nicole Rainsberry described the revelation as “pretty overwhelming.” Just like the Doerings, the Rainsberrys were adamant about giving their little girl the best life possible. Unlike Audrey, though, Gracie needed to undergo two heart surgeries to successfully treat her condition. Thankfully, they went well, and Gracie enjoyed a loving, wonderful childhood. Of course, a country apart, the two families had no idea they were living parallel lives. Until Jennifer Doering started doing some research, that is…
9. Doing a Little Research
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In early 2017, Jennifer Doering began looking for Audrey’s family. She started slow, posting in adoption and Chinese groups on Facebook. Unfortunately, nothing came up. After a few months, Jennifer considered giving up. That’s when she finally stumbled across the Rainsberrys. At first, Jennifer wasn’t convinced that Audry and Gracie were twins. But the more she looked at photos of little Gracie, she could no longer deny the truth: these two girls were identical.
At that moment, Jennifer wanted to immediately reach out to the Rainsberry family and get the ball rolling on a reunion. But then a thought crossed the mother’s mind: what if the Rainsberrys were not as excited as her about the idea of their daughter’s meeting…
10. The Shock Of Her Life
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Just imagine being in Jennifer’s shoes for a moment. Just hours prior, she had no idea that her adoptive child had a sister, let alone a twin. Now, she sat on the couch, scrolling through images of a mother she had never met before, posing with a little girl who looked identical to her daughter.
“It was unbelievable. I’m like, ‘How?’ I mean, this is stuff you read about,” Doering said. While it may sound like the plot line for a movie, for Jennifer Doering, it was her reality. As she looked through the photos, millions of questions began popping up in the mother’s mind. However, the main question Jennifer kept asking herself was, “how could it really be that there are two of them?”
11. Reaching Out
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Jennifer felt like she had no choice but to reach out to Gracie’s mother, Nicole Rainsberry. You see, if Jennifer wanted to reunite her daughter with her long-lost twin, she had to take the risk and reach out. Like any good mother, Jennifer wanted to give Audrey everything she could.
Before she wrote her message, Jennifer did a little Facebook-research on the Rainsberry family. The more she looked at their profiles, the more her fear abated. After all, they looked like fine people, just like her family! Plus, who wouldn’t want to reunite two long-lost twins? So, with a deep breath, Jennifer started typing a message to Nicole Rainsberry, with no idea what kind of response she would receive…
12. A Surreal Experience
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When Nicole Rainsberry heard the ding of her Facebook messenger, she immediately checked it. There, she found a message from a woman she didn’t know at all, Jennifer Doering in Wisconsin. When she read it, Nicole could not believe her eyes. Doering had sent her message claiming that her daughter, Audrey, was the long-long identical twin of her daughter, Gracie.
Quickly, Nicole called her husband into the room. Dumbfounded, they scrolled through Jennifer’s photos with little Audrey, their jaws dropped to the floor. They could barely comprehend the images. “It was so crazy to be looking at what looked like Gracie, but knowing that it wasn’t Gracie,” Rainsberry later remarked.
13. The Moment of Truth
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For both sets of adoptive parents, it took some time for the truth to sink in. However, after acknowledging that their daughters were indeed twins, the two adoptive mothers started working together to have the twins finally meet. However, yet another problem stood in their way: the two families lived in Wisconsin and Washington, nearly a continent between them.
While the moms wanted to reunite their daughters as soon as possible, time, money, and distance made it almost impossible. Still, neither mother would let distance and money stand in the way of their daughters’ happiness. That’s when Jennifer Doering came up with a brilliant, modern solution to their problem…
14. A Clever Solution
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Funnily enough, while on Facebook with Gracie’s mother, Jennifer realized the girls did not need to jump on a plane to meet. These days, we have all the resources we need to make any type of reunion happen, even though the girls did not live anywhere near each other. To start, Jennifer suggested the two girls talk over a FaceTime call. Oh, the joys of technology!
Soon enough, the parents had set up a call for the two girls. Beforehand, the two mothers discussed the possibility that the estranged twins from China might not get on well. If that turned out to be the case, well, no harm, no foul. The girls could always return to their normal lives. Then, before they knew it, the day of the call had arrived…
15. An Unbreakable Bond
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Before the call, the families elected to not to tell the twins much about it. Just that they were meeting a family member. When the girls’ popped up on each other’s screens, it was like a scene right out of a movie!
As you might imagine, the sight of a long-lost twin startled both Audrey and Gracie. “I thought my parents were, like, playing a joke on me,” Audrey later said. Meanwhile, Gracie’s first reaction was to simply say “she’s me.” The awkwardness quickly went away however, and soon enough they were getting on like a house on fire! It seemed as though they had just picked up some old conversation, and the two girls talked for over two hours that first night. However, this was only the beginning of an incredible story that would soon unfold…
16. The Twins’ Next Step
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The adoptive parents of both Gracie and Audrey felt thrilled to see their daughters hitting it off immediately. The very next day, the two mothers had already started working on the next meeting. Soon enough, the parents realized that if they wanted Audrey and Gracie’s bond to grow stronger, they needed to meet in person.
For the families, Audrey and Gracie’s meeting was simply the next chapter in this unique story. However, they were all well aware of the great distance between them. So, after weeks of planning, the families finally hatched an incredible plan. They were more than excited to announce to their daughters the exact spot in which they would finally meet in person…
17. The Big Screen
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The two families didn’t merely agree to travel to one or the other’s home. They didn’t even treat the girls to a day at a theme park to spend together. Both the Doerings and Rainsberry wanted the moment to be bigger than that. And boy, did they find the right place to do it…
The family had finally made a life-changing decision. You see, they, along with a few of the family’s followers, contacted ABC’s Good Morning America. Of course, GMA found the story as incredible and intriguing as everyone else. So, before they knew it, both Audrey and Gracie were flown out to New York City to meet, in-person for the first time on the show!
18. Good Morning America!
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After waiting what felt like a lifetime, the day had finally arrived for the two sisters to meet in person. As the Good Morning America segment started, an excited Audrey sat on a couch with her parents. For the first few minutes, she nervously chatted with the show’s hosts about her and Gracie’s journey. As the interview wrapped up, people across the world sat on the edge of their seats, knowing what would come next.
After the interview, the hosts asked Audrey to step in front of a large GMA screen. A couple of seconds later, the screen opened, and there she was! Gracie came out in a matching pink t-shirt to her twin. Immediately, tears started pouring down the girls’ faces, and the two embraced.
19. An Emotional Scene
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Soon enough, the twins weren’t the only ones crying. As the GMA segment continued, there was not a dry eye in the house! Even during the post-interview, everyone needed to continually stop talking to wipe away tears. Everyone there, and everyone watching, felt overcome with joy and happiness for the now-reunited twins.
Afterward, the sister wiped away tears as the host asked them questions about the incredible reunion. As they talked, it seemed like they had spent their entire lives together, even though they had just met in person for the first time. “We both love chicken Alfredo,” Gracie said. “That’s like one of our favorite foods. And we both love mac ‘n’ cheese.” They also both love math, boogie-boarding, and French fries. But they also share something much deeper…
20. Catching Up
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The Good Morning America hosts continued interviewing the two girls, asking what it was like to finally be together. “It’s very overwhelming,” Gracie said, honestly. When asked what she meant, Audrey took over, as any good twin can. For the longest time, “it felt like there was somebody missing,” Audrey said. “Now, it’s complete.”
After the GMA interview, the two could finally spend some quality time together. Now reunited, the twins had some serious time to make up for. Afterward, the twins celebrated their 11th birthday together with a boogie-boarding trip to San Diego. According to Gracie, on the trip, the two finally “actually bonded as sisters.”
21. A Fresh Start
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Ever since Gracie and Audrey reunited, they have become best friends. When not together, the girls keep in constant contact via phones. When together, they love sharing all their hobbies and celebrating the holidays. In fact, now, the pair couldn’t imagine life without having each other.
A year after their debut, Gracie and Audrey returned to Good Morning America. As they chatted, the hosts asked the twin sisters what their favorite thing to do together was. As young girls, you might expect them to answer shopping or perhaps boogie-boarding. However, their answers were far more adorable: “Just being with each other” from Gracie, and “everything” from Audrey.
22. Sisters Forever
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While Audrey and Gracie have only realized that they are related recently, that doesn’t mean that they don’t act like normal sisters already. Furthermore, it appears that these two may already have reached that love-hate relationship all siblings “enjoy.”
No matter how much love they have for each other, sisters argue. There’s simply no escaping that fact! Keen to prove that their bond is not different from the rest, Audrey and Gracie have admitted to having their fair share of fights. For those wondering, the most recent debate between them regarded which twin is the tallest! Still, they say that no matter the conflicts, they are sisters forever.
23. The Twins’ New Family
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While finding out about their twins has been such an incredibly happy moment in Gracie and Audrey’s lives, joining a whole new family is always complicated. After all, each sister had three brothers, and Gracie had an older sister. So, when the families get together, eight teens and children are running around the house. As any parent will tell you, that’s no easy task!
When faced with the question of how many siblings they have, Scott Rainsberry, Gracie’s brother, simply said, “it’s a difficult answer.” You see, over the years, the Doerings and the Rainsberrys have become some sort of an extended family. Which can make things rather challenging when it comes to protecting everyone’s feelings…
24. Everybody Has Fun
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As mentioned before, Gracie and Audrey each had siblings, and they’re just as much a part of this incredible story as the twins are. Specifically, many wondered how they felt about the whole situation. Getting a new family member is never easy, let alone five.
Thankfully, it’s safe to say that everyone loves having a new, extended family. On their second GMA visit, one year after the big reunion, Gracie’s older sister, Chloe, opened up about how she felt about welcoming Audrey in the family. Unsurprisingly, Chloe only had positive comments to say. According to her, it’s “just been great” another sister to her world.
25. The Incredible Benefits
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As the years passed, Gracie and Audrey continued to become closer and closer. Today, they think of themselves as both twins and best friends. While it’s great that they have managed to create such an incredible bond, they still live incredibly far away from one another. However, on the bright side, it’s allowed them to travel together!
The twin sisters’ trips include the previously mentioned San Diego, as well as New York, church camps, and London. Additionally, they are regularly visiting each other’s homes in Washington and Wisconsin, especially for the holidays. These travel dates don’t just give the sisters time to bond. They also allow the girls to see other ways of life and meet new people. The adventure simply never ends for these two!
26. A Promising Future Ahead
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After creating such an unbreakable bond, the twin sisters are continually looking for ways to bond further. In fact, the twins have recently expressed excitement for a new, twin-involved future. They just want to make up for all the time they lost away from each other! As for the families, they couldn’t be more excited about how the twins’ new lives continue to unfold.
Recently, the twins set up a YouTube channel named “Audrey and Gracie’s World.” Through their channel, they regularly update their thousands of fans on their latest adventures, including their most recent trip to London! We can’t wait to see what the long-lost sisters’ next experience will turn out to be.
27. An Incredible Friendship
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Gracie and Audrey are proof that no matter how much time you spend away from your siblings, there’s still an incredible bond that you can achieve. And even though they have got along from the first moment they met, it was more than finding a sister, it was finding a friend. Now, they want to get as involved as they can in each other’s lives, no matter the distance.
For Audrey and Gracie, a new twin sister meant a range of new exciting adventures to embark on. Like making a new best friend, the horse in the photo above, Quin. Still, the most important thing the twin sisters found in one another was a sense of belonging. But 10 years is a lot of time to make up for…
28. A Sense Of Belonging
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Since the twins have been apart for the first 10 years of their lives, they have quite a bit to catch up on! So, as you can imagine, Audrey and Gracie are busy making up for all their lost time. Naturally, welcoming each other into their lives means doing all the usual things sisters regularly do. Living apart makes it hard, but the two have worked to make it seem like the distance is nothing.
Today, the twins continue to run their YouTube channel and travel across the world together. In the future, they hope to live closer together so that they don’t have to wait so long to see one other. One thing’s for certain, however: they will never lose each other again.
29. Not The First Time
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There’s no denying that this incredible story about the two long-lost sisters reuniting after a decade is heartwarming! If Jennifer had never become interested in finding more information about her daughter’s origins, then Gracie and Audrey would have never met! Thankfully, it all worked out for the twins’ best interest.
As moving as it is, Gracie and Audrey’s story isn’t the only one of long-lost twins reuniting!
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