Woman finally meets long-lost dad thanks to kind stranger on Facebook: 'It felt like a dream'

Adrieanna Tyler, a Pittsburgh 33-year-old stay-at-home mother, has always felt like something was missing in her life. She is married to truck driver Brian Tyler, 40, and has two beautiful children. But when she was 13 years old, she had heard her father refer to her as his stepdaughter and discovered she was adopted, according to Independent. Ever since then, she has always been curious about her biological father. "Ever since I found out the man I thought was my dad wasn't, I was desperate to find my real dad. It always mattered to me," she said. 

She tried to track her father down by herself but struggled because she didn't know where to start. "This year I ended up looking again and ordered a DNA test kit and ended up on a Facebook group where people help strangers find their long lost relatives." Adrieanna sought help from strangers running a Facebook page dedicated to reuniting estranged relatives, which she's very grateful for. With the help of a hobbyist detective, she was able to track down her aunt, Kathie Johnson, 47. "A wonderful lady called Suzanne in the group helped me build my family tree and after doing another DNA test we found my aunt." From there she traced her biological father, Joseph Frank, 53, a police officer - who lives 1,000 miles away in Maitland, Florida, US. "She said she'd put me in touch with my dad and I was suddenly ready to puke. I was so nervous – how do you just call someone and ask are you my dad?" she shared.

Adrieanna claims Joseph had no idea she had ever been born. "When he found out about me, he was so excited, and it was such a relief - I felt so vulnerable before in case he wanted nothing to do with me,” she shared. They spent some time getting to know each other. "It felt like a dream,” she said. They first met at a local festival near her house. "We bonded right away, and I finally feel I can start to heal now - everything ended exactly how it was supposed to." She was elated to learn that she has two half-sisters, Nicole Frank, 29, and Alyssa Frank, 26. Joseph was overjoyed to learn he not only had another daughter but was also a grandfather to Adrieanna's children, Maximus, four, and Preslee, two.

Per Good News Network, Joseph recalls having a "summer fling" with Adrieanna's mother in the 1980s while working on his uncle's farm. They grew close but never communicated again, according to Joseph, who claims he had no idea she was having a child. Joseph said, "It's been pretty amazing. God works in mysterious ways. At the time when Adrieanna came into my life, I was going through a tough breakup and I really needed that. That part of my heart got filled again when I found out about my daughter."

“He said he always wanted children and he was excited to be a parent to me," Adrieanna shared. She described Joseph's three-day stay with the family as "a surreal experience." Joseph agrees, adding, “At first we were both a bit nervous but we settled so quickly and we realized we’re similar in a lot of ways. It was great to meet my grandchildren. We took it slow but by the time I left they were sad to see me go. It’s so exciting to start planning out our future lives together.”

The duo has already planned to spend Thanksgiving together, as well as another vacation together next summer. Adrieanna is extremely happy at the success of her endeavor, saying, "I had vowed I would spend the rest of my life searching for my dad – I didn’t want to die knowing I hadn’t tried. I just kept thinking that there is a man out there who deserves to know he has two grandchildren. I feel like I can finally start to heal now I'm not wondering why he didn’t want me - when all this time it was because he didn’t even know I existed. Everything happened the way it was supposed to."