Dawn told her son that he was in fact adopted, and the two burst into tears.
“I just cried and cried and cried,” Isaac told Today. “I was so happy that I had a brother. I always asked for one.”
The boys’ biological mother passed away in 2007, leaving Dakotah and his 10-year-old sister, Ashley, to live with their grandmother in Augusta, Missouri—just 12 miles away from Isaac.
The next time they hung out, the boys, who already shared an unbreakable bond, now spent time laughing and fighting as brothers—real, blood brothers. They shared stories about their years apart, and pictures of life growing up. Their grandmother even had photos of the two of them together as toddlers.
“You can just tell they’re brothers,” Dawn says. “It’s the strongest bond that I’ve ever seen. It’s like they were never separated. For being apart for 10 years and 20 minutes away, they picked up right where they left off.”
What began as a summer day at the pool turned into a family reunion more than a decade in the making.