Julia Tinetti and Cassandra Madison met at work at a Connecticut bar in 2013, and instantly became friends. Upon learning that they were both from the Dominican Republic and both adopted as infants, their bond tightened. Soon they were dressing alike and calling each other “sister.” Because they felt so connected and looked very much alike, they even broke out their adoption documents to see if they might, in fact, be sisters, but the information on the documents didn’t match up, so they let it go.
But not for long.
In 2018, Madison’s mom gave her a 23 and Me DNA test kit and encouraged her to find her biological family. Happily, this led her to a large, loving family in the Dominican Republic. Though her biological mother had passed away, her biological father and 7 siblings were thrilled to connect with her, and they were able to meet in person in later that year. At some point, Cassandra asked her father if they had ever given another child up for adoption.
He told her that yes, they had, and that it was a little girl…and this little girl’s birth timing matched up with Julia Tinetti’s. With that answer, Cassandra’s desire to truly find out if Julia Tinetti was her biological sister was re-ignited. She drove from her new home in Virginia Beach, Virginia all the way to where Tinetti still lived in Connecticut, 23 and Me DNA test in hand.
A few weeks later, the results revealed what they knew in their hearts all along: they were sisters—full biological sisters, with the same mom and the same dad. Now it was Tinetti’s turn to meet her big, loving Dominican family, which she was able to do, with Madison at her side, in October 2022.
“This is the first time in 35 years that our father has had all of his nine kids together,” Tinetti told NBC Connecticut. “So, holy cow moment.”
Cassandra and Julia are the only two of their parents’ nine children to be placed for adoption. Their father told Cassandra that it was such a hard time for them that he doesn’t even like to think about it. The girls are only 17 months apart in age.
Julia told Good Morning America that at the time Cassandra was born, her parents were struggling to care for one of her brothers, who was very sick. The arrival of yet another child so soon was more than they could handle then. “On top of the DR being a very poor country, they couldn’t take care of us,” she explained. “I was [born] 17 months later and they weren’t ready.”
The sisters are thankful that they already had each other before going through what they call a “life-changing” experience of reuniting with their birth family. There have been a lot of emotions to process, but they say they wouldn’t trade it for the world, and hope to visit their DR family often,
“It was an amazing trip. I think going forward I will keep in touch with them,” Tinetti said. “I will probably go down again and just try and get to know them slowly. Overwhelming experience. I wouldn’t change it at all.”
