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.”
