Woman finally reunited with long-lost family decades after Vietnam War

By 9Honey with CNN|


The woman would adopt Margaret and raise her as her own.


Margaret with her adoptive mother. (ABC7)

Margaret and her mum were interviewed as part of the process, and that's when Margaret learned for the first time that she was adopted.



"Who is she? Where did you get her from?"



Family amid war



The Franklyn family. (ABC7)

"When Vietnam fell, my father took my mother and his three daughters - my two sisters (Lien and Wanda) and I - back to America," says Teresa "Tree" Franklyn, who lives in Southern California.

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The family left Vietnam for the United States in 1974 and spent years travelling the world for Wayne's work as a civilian contractor for the U.S. military. The three sisters had no idea a fourth sister, Margaret, ever existed.

Margaret's search for her birth family




Margaret with her adoptive mother in the US. (ABC7)

"I was about to give up," she says. "I asked my adoptive mother, she's up in heaven, I said, 'Mom, please help me. And I think she answered my question, she was up there for real, she was helping me."

In June, Margaret finally received notification of a match from the DNA testing company 23andMe. She had found a first cousin named Rebecca, Wayne's niece - a first cousin to Lien, Teresa and Wanda.



Margaret was connected to a first cousin on 23AndMe (ABC7)


"Margaret is younger than any of us, which means that my mum and dad were married and we have a little sister who is not my mum's," says Wanda. "So, you know, there was a little hanky panky going on."


"I always wanted sisters, now I have three."



"For so many years we don't have any relatives," Margaret tells Eyewitness News. "Just my mum, my husband and two kids - and a lot of holidays, we don't know what to do, anywhere to go."



"I just knew - you're ours... and ours forever," Lien says. "We love you and we're so glad that you reached out."

Lien, Wanda and Teresa worried about how their mum, Mai, might react, but say she immediately welcomed Margaret into the family.

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