CLEARWATER, Fla. — A man raised in Pinellas County by his adoptive parents can finally say the search of his life is over.
On Thanksgiving Day, we told you David Jones found his birth sister after years of searching. Kara Bailey, his sister, had no idea she had a brother until she took a DNA test and got the results.
After they met for the first time, several hours spent this weekend are just the start of making up three decades of lost time.
"Of course you know where do you start, right?" David Jones said as he told the story.
David's search for Kara, his biological sister, had felt hopeless at times until earlier this month when Kara took that DNA test.
"The gravity of what was just about to happen, the fulfillment of my whole big search was about to bear fruit," said Jones. "I was about to go meet her, and so I was just a ball of nerves driving across the bridge."
Same for Kara, who says David calmed her nerves right away when he jokingly hid from her, hoping to surprise her outside The Pub in Westshore.
"Knowing him and doing cute, funny things like that, it actually eased any emotion of like uh my anxious nerves and excitement," Bailey said.
David bought her a magnifying glass… signifying the years he spent digging up clues… to find her.
"As you open up the box, I wrote in there, the search is over because it was over!" Jones said.
The two eventually closed the restaurant down and continued their chat outside. They talked for six hours in total!
"Me in my head, of course, I'm thinking 'I don't want this to ever end!'" Bailey said.
"I looked at my watch and it was 11 and we went outside and it was one and I'm going holy smokes, I've got to get home!" Jones said.
The fun continued on Sunday when Kara got to meet David's adoptive parents, wife and kids, who are now calling her Aunt Kara.
"I won't lie if I said I was super nervous again because you know I want all of these people who are my new family to me to love me," Bailey said.
Kara has already booked a flight to Arkansas after Christmas — the kick-off to a lifelong family journey just getting started.
