Father's Day

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Speaker 5 He calls me and I can hear him telling them that he found me. I can hear her crying and then

Speaker 5 I start crying.

Speaker 5 And it was just like, oh my gosh, like she's just been waiting for us all these years.

Speaker 2 She grew up in a sprawling, loving family,

Speaker 2 but couldn't help wondering about her roots.

Speaker 5 What am I really? I was wanting to know where my people came from.

Speaker 2 So, like millions of us do every year, she took a DNA test.

Speaker 8 Her results, jaw-dropping.

Speaker 5 Goosebumps, I'm getting them right now. I'm like, oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 A revelation with implications for the entire family.

Speaker 5 My dad's like, what do you think?

Speaker 9 When I started looking at all this proof, I started realizing, oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 The discovery now taking them to the other side of the world and back in time.

Speaker 12 I don't think you expected to come down here and feel all these things.

Speaker 14 No, I thought I was tougher than that.

Speaker 2 All to meet a perfect stranger with a story to tell.

Speaker 9 She's my hero.

Speaker 15 History may get righted.

Speaker 7 A secret revealed.

Speaker 2 A family transformed.

Speaker 2 A moment, almost 50 years in the making.

Speaker 16 It is beautiful.

Speaker 9 Yeah.

Speaker 5 It still doesn't feel real.

Speaker 17 Incredible. Just like magic.

Speaker 2 I'm Lester Holt, and this is Date Life. Here's Harry Smith with Father's Day.

Speaker 7 On a cool spring morning in Yakima, Washington, Michael Heights is calling the day to order.

Speaker 5 Barter, did you want any toast, bed?

Speaker 7 As supermoms go, she is all that and then some.

Speaker 5 Do you guys want cucumber on your wrap?

Speaker 7 Michael has a family nickname, Extra.

Speaker 5 Yeah, I called that like every day.

Speaker 11 You're good?

Speaker 18 Okay.

Speaker 17 Next.

Speaker 7 Where'd you grow up?

Speaker 5 Here, a mile away from my house.

Speaker 18 Wow.

Speaker 7 Yes. What was that like?

Speaker 5 It was great. I mean, I was able to walk to school and we had lots of sports and

Speaker 5 sisters, you know, I was fighting and sharing clothes and, you know, all that good stuff.

Speaker 7 She's a working mother and wife and schedule juggler for her husband, the soccer coach, and three kids who all play soccer.

Speaker 5 Have you taken new PE clothes?

Speaker 7 Yes, she is a soccer mom.

Speaker 5 All right, peeps. Love you.
Hey!

Speaker 18 Love you.

Speaker 7 But one thing was missing.

Speaker 5 I'll do a headbut.

Speaker 7 From her very full life.

Speaker 7 And Michael was obsessed with it.

Speaker 7 Her mother was adopted, so there was no record or connection to her mother's biological side of the family. For Michael, it was a gaping hole.

Speaker 5 Well, I think just from the time I was little, you know, when you were in elementary school and you build family trees, and I could only build like one side, You know, I never knew who the other side of me was.

Speaker 7 And while they are close, Michael's mom was not willing to help solve the mystery.

Speaker 5 She never had a desire to find her family. She had really good parents, but they passed away before I was born.

Speaker 7 Michael's father, Jim, on the other hand, had a family tree that was full and rich in details.

Speaker 5 We had my aunts and uncles, and I had, you know, tons of cousins.

Speaker 7 Jim and Michael's mother divorced years ago. He is an Army veteran who worked in law enforcement and sales.

Speaker 19 What do you like about raising cattle?

Speaker 16 I love the smell.

Speaker 16 I love their demeanor.

Speaker 7 He runs a few head of cattle on the outskirts of Yakima and was eyeing a predictable retirement of leisure and grandkids.

Speaker 13 How would you characterize your life now?

Speaker 7 Oh, it's blessed.

Speaker 16 It's because I've got God in it. We go to church, we pray every night.
Our kids are going to churches and

Speaker 2 it can't be any better.

Speaker 7 To Michael, her father's family history had not been an issue. As best she could tell, all had been accounted for.

Speaker 5 I thought it was cut and dry.

Speaker 7 When did you decide you wanted to get a DNA test?

Speaker 5 Probably a couple years ago, but I was just a little bit nervous

Speaker 5 because my mom is adopted and I was really sensitive to her feelings.

Speaker 7 Busy with her job as a recycling coordinator, the idea of a DNA test to learn about her mother's side of the family would occasionally come up with one of Michael's coworkers.

Speaker 7 The woman who was adopted encouraged Michael to get it done.

Speaker 5 So I sent away for a DNA kit and I had the kit for maybe a couple months actually before I actually tested just because I I was nervous. My coworkers kept on saying, did you do it?

Speaker 5 How come you haven't done your test? And so finally I did it.

Speaker 7 How do you do it? What do you do?

Speaker 5 So you just spin in a tube and four to six weeks you have your results. Starts showing you all your second and fourth cousins.
And now, you know, it's been a year and a half and I have over 1,100

Speaker 5 fourth cousins or sooner that match me just on this one test.

Speaker 7 But the initial results of the search left Michael wanting more. What she did not have was the genetic trail to her mother's birth parents or any other close relatives on that side.

Speaker 7 Who did you think might be out there?

Speaker 5 My family from my mom's side. I think a huge part of me just wanted to know, like, hey, when I celebrate St.
Patrick's Day, am I Irish?

Speaker 7 Frustrated and eager to learn more, she widened her search.

Speaker 7 She sent her DNA information to another company with 2 million different profiles in their database.

Speaker 15 DNA is like a history book written into your cells. And only now, in the beginning of the 21st century, are we learning how to read the book?

Speaker 7 What does this one do so here we're extracting DNA we'll extract for Bennett Greenspan founded a company called Family Tree DNA

Speaker 15 he explains genetic matches are measured by something called centimorgans the higher it goes the closer the match is that's basically that's exactly right so for example between a parent child, there's about 3,300 centimorgans in common.

Speaker 7 Michael centered DNA to Family Tree.

Speaker 7 It didn't take but a few hours for the computers to find a match.

Speaker 5 You know, I share the story with people. I get just as excited again.

Speaker 7 The evening after Michael sent in her DNA, she remembers being restless.

Speaker 5 I decided that night that I was going to check. I was in my bed and got on my iPad and was looking and I saw a match.

Speaker 7 A big match, a close match. No second cousin twice removed.

Speaker 5 The adrenaline immediately started rushing through me, and I just was like, oh my gosh, I found my mom's parents. That's where my head went immediately.
It's like, and they're still alive.

Speaker 7 Michael told no one that night, but showed the results to her friend at work, the one who encouraged her to do the DNA search.

Speaker 5 She's like, oh, Michael, there's an email address. Google the email address.
I Google the address and it's this nonprofit group that helps Ameri-Asians from Vietnam. And I thought, what is that about?

Speaker 5 I'm like, this is a scam. Like, how do they do it? Like my mom's always said, this is a scam.

Speaker 7 This sounds like the, I'm the poor Nigerian billionaire.

Speaker 5 Right. That's what I'm thinking.

Speaker 7 Yes. Just send us $1,000.

Speaker 5 Yes, right now. Yeah.
And then we'll send you, you know, a million later.

Speaker 7 But this was no scam. The group was a nonprofit organization called Amerasians Without Borders.

Speaker 5 And it's helping people from Vietnam left children from the Vietnam War. I was like,

Speaker 5 oh my, and we both like look at each other and I'm like, goosebumps, I'm getting them right now. I'm like, oh my gosh.

Speaker 7 Michael and her co-worker had found something big.

Speaker 2 When we come back,

Speaker 2 for Michael and her family, the first in a life-changing string of surprises.

Speaker 5 I was just like, what is this? Is this real?

Speaker 2 A revelation triggering a remarkable conversation.

Speaker 6 I can hear her crying

Speaker 5 and then I start crying.

Speaker 7 It's a new day in Yakima, Washington. An area where snow-capped mountains crown the horizon.
This is home to Michael Heinz, who made the discovery of a lifetime.

Speaker 5 There's no way.

Speaker 5 That's not real. That didn't really happen.
What? You know?

Speaker 7 The initial disbelief came for good reason. Her DNA match was closer than anything she had ever dreamed of.
Michael sent a note to the mysterious email address included in her DNA results.

Speaker 7 A cautious note.

Speaker 5 Without giving out too much information, wanting to know what they're about,

Speaker 5 saying that we had a match.

Speaker 7 So you're tiptoeing.

Speaker 5 Tiptoeing, yes, very, you know, cautious. And then I had to wait.
It was like 24 hours. It was a long time.
It was like the next day. I was just like, oh my gosh, what is this? Is this real?

Speaker 7 Michael's DNA test had hit a bullseye. Her mind raced.
Were her mother's biological parents alive? Was there an aunt or an uncle or a cousin? Was this the news she had yearned for?

Speaker 7 The man with the answer was Jimmy Miller, who lives in Spokane, Washington. Where were you born? I'm born in Vietnam, Saigon, Vietnam.
In Saigon. Yes.

Speaker 7 Miller runs an organization called Amorasians Without Borders. He sends DNA kits to Vietnamese who believe they were fathered by an American.
How many Amerasians do you think are still in Vietnam?

Speaker 11 About

Speaker 7 500. Only 500? 500.
One of those 500 was the match Michael Heinz had just discovered. What is it like for you when there's a real connection? To be, it's just like a winlilatto.
Win the lotto.

Speaker 7 The news Jimmy had to share would change lives. He reached out to Michael to tell her she had a half-sister halfway around the world in Vietnam.
Her name, Lynn Tok.

Speaker 5 And he's talking to me about, yes, this is, this is what's, you know, this is who she is. This is her story.
You know, we did a DNA test like four years ago.

Speaker 5 It had been over four years that she had taken her DNA test.

Speaker 7 And before she knew it, Jimmy said, I can get Lynn on the phone.

Speaker 5 He goes, I'll be the translator because I'm sure she doesn't speak English. And like 15 minutes later, he calls me.
He did like a party line and he's calling Vietnam. Woke them up.

Speaker 5 And I can hear him telling them that he found me. And then I can hear her crying.
And then

Speaker 5 I start crying.

Speaker 5 And it was just like, oh my gosh, like she's just been waiting for us all these years. And

Speaker 5 so they were saying, he was telling them that this is your sister Michael and

Speaker 5 this is your sister Lynn.

Speaker 7 Yes, there was a bullseye from Michael's DNA test, a sister. But the big surprise, the match was on her father's side of the family tree.

Speaker 5 It never once crossed my mind that it would be anybody from my dad's side. I knew everybody, right? No, I just didn't even think.
I just automatically assumed it would be for my mom.

Speaker 7 In tears, Michael had a question for her newfound sister.

Speaker 5 I asked her if she wanted to know anything about her dad.

Speaker 7 And Lynn just said, Or I just want to know

Speaker 7 the photo of my dad. So I wanted to know how my dad looked like.
That's Lynn said. And when Lynn said that, I just tears in my eyes.
You started crying. Yes, started crying.

Speaker 7 For Michael, everything was coming into focus. Her father was a Vietnam veteran, and it was now obvious there was more to his war story than anyone had known.

Speaker 5 I told her, you know, he's a wonderful man.

Speaker 5 He was in Vietnam for the war, and

Speaker 5 it was just really emotional. I mean, and I could just hear her crying.
She couldn't even talk.

Speaker 7 Still stunned, Michael knew what she had to do next, but she wasn't sure how you know that you have a sister in vietnam you've spoken with your sister yes in vietnam you've cried together yes on the phone

Speaker 7 what are you going to tell your father

Speaker 2 coming up michael shares the stunning news with jim he's like what are you saying for this father a shock that will leave him shaken to the core

Speaker 2 when dateline continues.

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Speaker 7 Now, when did you call your father?

Speaker 5 So I called him the next day.

Speaker 5 I just thought, I have to do it, and I don't know if I'll get up the courage.

Speaker 7 Michael Heinz had just learned she had a sister in Vietnam.

Speaker 7 Now, sitting in a grocery store parking lot, she knew she had a call to make.

Speaker 5 I was like, hey, dad, you know how I've been doing that genealogy stuff? And he's like, yeah, yeah. Did you find anything? And I said, yeah, I think I found something.
I think I found a sister.

Speaker 5 And he's like,

Speaker 5 he like laughed.

Speaker 7 Do you remember that phone call?

Speaker 16 Yes.

Speaker 16 She explained that she had done a DNA and that there was a lot of hits. And I just kind of chuckled.

Speaker 5 And I think he thought maybe it was like my mom's from a previous relationship.

Speaker 5 That's in my head. I said, Dad, she's yours.
And he's like, what? And I said, she's Vietnamese.

Speaker 5 And then he just like started crying. He couldn't like hardly talk.
He's like, what are you saying?

Speaker 7 Jim was suddenly thrust back in time to a place he preferred to forget.

Speaker 19 The American Military Command today confirmed reports that United States dead in the Vietnam War now total more than 30,000.

Speaker 7 The year 1968, the Vietnam War was at its peak, and so were protests against it. Yet many young Americans, like Jim Heinz, volunteered to serve.
He was 18. When did you decide to join the Army?

Speaker 16 I graduated in May of 68, and my cousin and I and a friend decided we were going to go into the Betty program, and we went in in November of 68.

Speaker 7 Heinz was first stationed in Germany, but soon came the orders to go to Vietnam.

Speaker 16 And you're wondering, you know, what's it going to be like am I going to come back?

Speaker 7 The young GI was assigned to a security unit for an Army road building crew northeast of Saigon.

Speaker 16 When I moved into the security platoon, there was probably about 12 guys in the bunker that I was at, and I think there was four or five

Speaker 16 what we called house girls doing their laundry and stuff. And after a couple of weeks, the girls came up to me and said that they had a girlfriend that would like to come to work.

Speaker 16 Would I like to have a house girl? And I said, yeah.

Speaker 7 Her name was Tanti Tan, and she worked for Jim doing things like laundry and picking up around the bunker. But their relationship was also one of affection.

Speaker 7 These are pictures of Tanti with Jim from his scrapbook. She's wearing a necklace he bought for her.
Jim's family had all seen the pictures. Tanti was no secret.
Were you in love with her?

Speaker 16 I would say yes and no because I knew there was a time when I was going to go home. I tried not to be, but yeah, I

Speaker 16 would probably die for her if somebody tried to hurt her.

Speaker 20 Was it a sexual relationship?

Speaker 16 It turned out that way. One Friday night, Tanti told me that the Viet Cong were supposed to be coming into their area

Speaker 16 to resupply, which they would just go in and break into houses or businesses or whatever.

Speaker 7 Jim told Tanti she could stay with him on the base. War brought them together that weekend.
But not long after that, Jim was sent home. He left Vietnam and Tanti behind.

Speaker 7 Did it ever occur to you in a million years

Speaker 8 that you might have a child back? No.

Speaker 18 Not at all.

Speaker 18 Not at all.

Speaker 7 Michael says her father was truly stunned.

Speaker 5 He's like, wait a minute, she can't be mine because I was sent home. And so then he started doing the back dating.
And he's like, oh my gosh, she would have been maybe like six, eight weeks maybe.

Speaker 5 She didn't even know at the time that she was pregnant.

Speaker 7 Michael asked her dad if he would take a DNA test too.

Speaker 5 He didn't just do one, he did two.

Speaker 7 Though it didn't take long for Jim to wonder if they were necessary, Michael and Lynn swapped photos and Michael sent a picture of Lynn to her father. And in it, he saw himself.

Speaker 16 I saw her teeth were like mine with the space on it and her cheekbones.

Speaker 16 And I said, yeah, I believe that's probably my daughter.

Speaker 7 His DNA results then confirmed it. Jim Hintz had fathered a child when he served in Vietnam.

Speaker 7 Jim also learned sadly that Tanti, the girl he left behind, had died just a few years after they'd been together. Their daughter Lin was raised by her grandparents, who pretended she was adopted.

Speaker 7 Jimmy Miller explained to the Heinzes what Lynn's life had been like and how difficult it was after the war to be an Amerasian in Vietnam. When we go out, people call us name and said, you're

Speaker 7 a half-breed. half-breed half-breath yeah and go back to your country sometimes we go out and all the kids throw rocks at us or

Speaker 7 beating us for jim the pain was compounded first not knowing about his daughter at all and then learning what a hard life she had to endure i just feel sorry for her that she had to go for

Speaker 16 40 plus years without a mom or a dad

Speaker 25 That'd be terrible.

Speaker 7 Jim and his second wife, Jerry, have a blended family that includes five daughters, their husbands, and a pastel of grandkids. Jerry about melted when Jim told her his news.

Speaker 9 He had his own kids, and I had my kids, and

Speaker 9 we raised them all together, you know, but

Speaker 9 when we found out about Lynn, he said that Lynn was our daughter together.

Speaker 9 Because, you know, his kids have a mom.

Speaker 9 And I know they see me as a stepmom.

Speaker 9 But Lynn has not had a mom since she was four.

Speaker 9 And so it was very special to me to think that Lynn could be our daughter together that we never had.

Speaker 7 But while the Heinzes welcomed the discovery of a daughter, a sister in Vietnam, Lynn had a request Jerry wasn't sure Jim could fulfill.

Speaker 9 I don't think he realizes like some of the pain that he carries, like from the war.

Speaker 7 Lin wanted Jim to come to Vietnam, a place to which he vowed he would never return.

Speaker 2 Coming up,

Speaker 2 an extraordinary journey as the Heinzes travel thousands of miles and a few last emotional feet to meet Lin.

Speaker 13 How are you, big guy?

Speaker 24 So what else have we missed?

Speaker 7 You need to put your

Speaker 11 hair dryer.

Speaker 16 Your hair dryer away because I don't need it.

Speaker 7 How do you pack for a trip you thought you never wanted to take?

Speaker 7 If you are Jim and Jerry Heinz, it is with purpose and no small amount of trepidation.

Speaker 9 Lynn's had 46 years to like dream about what her parents might be like. And so I'm afraid we can't live up to those big dreams.

Speaker 7 Their lives have changed since learning Jim fathered a child in Vietnam. And all the time since you served there.
Did it ever occur to you to go back?

Speaker 18 No.

Speaker 7 Never.

Speaker 7 But it is because of Jim's Vietnamese daughter's plea, he and Jerry are traveling to the other side of the world. Some people would feel like the floor had been pulled out from underneath them.

Speaker 7 I don't have the sense that you feel that way.

Speaker 16 She's my blood, and I'm going to, my job is to take care of her.

Speaker 9 There's one more, isn't there?

Speaker 7 Jim's daughter Michael, whose DNA test set off the whole chain of events, like a glove, gets them on their way.

Speaker 7 The circumstances of this journey, a far cry from the last time Jim Heinz flew to Vietnam. Back then, he was on his way to war.

Speaker 18 Thank you so much.

Speaker 7 This time, he's on his way to meet the child he never knew he had.

Speaker 16 I'm not going to say why didn't it happen sooner or why did it happen now. It's happening.
God's with us.

Speaker 7 And we're going full force to go get him.

Speaker 18 Ladies and gentlemen, we have just licensed at Hochen City Airport.

Speaker 7 After three flights and more than 24 hours of travel, we're here.

Speaker 7 They head straight to a hotel to meet Lin.

Speaker 7 The drive across town through midday traffic reveals a modern-day Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh City, where for a young and ambitious population, the war is not even a memory.

Speaker 7 Jim has had weeks to think about what he first wants to say to his daughter.

Speaker 16 I text her and I says, I'm real close.

Speaker 7 He's anxious. He so wants to get this right.

Speaker 16 I don't know if it's the right word, but I was going to say what I think is sorry, and that was Sim Lloyd.

Speaker 7 I'm sorry. Sorry for not being a father to her.

Speaker 7 Waiting in a hotel lobby across town is Lynn. By her side, her husband, Key.
And perhaps most excited of all, their 17-year-old daughter, New.

Speaker 7 The van arrives, and within seconds, Jim and his wife, Jerry, are crossing the street with only one thing on their minds, to embrace their newfound family.

Speaker 7 New can't wait and is quickly engulfed in Jerry's arms

Speaker 7 while Jim makes a beeline for Lynn.

Speaker 7 Space and time evaporate in an instant. Months before, these people were unknown to each other.
Yet tears and emotions flow freely.

Speaker 7 Tears of joy, to be sure, but also some tears of sorrow for time lost.

Speaker 7 I've been waiting 45 years, Lynn says, hugging the father she always hoped to find.

Speaker 7 For reasons only people in their circumstances could understand, they seem reluctant to let go. The ties that bind form quickly.
Yet language remains a barrier.

Speaker 7 Lynn speaks no English, Ki speaks some, and it is left to 17-year-old New to be the family interpreter.

Speaker 20 Ask your mom if this seems real. Does this seem like it's actually happening, or is this a dream?

Speaker 9 And the dream come true.

Speaker 7 As for Jim.

Speaker 13 How are you, big guy? I am well.

Speaker 7 My war is over.

Speaker 16 I got my baby.

Speaker 7 Back in Yakima, Michael and other family members got updates with videos Jim and Jerry posted to Facebook.

Speaker 7 What are you seeing?

Speaker 5 It was an adrenaline rush. You know, we're like, are they there yet? And we see him like crossing the street.
And we were all like online at the same time. And it was just crazy.

Speaker 5 And then you're crying and

Speaker 5 it felt like we were just right there.

Speaker 7 This is Jim and Lynn's first family dinner. The setting, a rooftop restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City.

Speaker 7 The modern skyline provides a glittering backdrop and American pop music echoes up from the streets below.

Speaker 18 Where we live, there's no noise.

Speaker 7 While there is much of the past to discuss, there is a higher priority. Lynn and her family want to emigrate to the United States as soon as possible.

Speaker 7 She wants to spend the rest of her life close to the father she never had. And Jim and Jerry now want that too.

Speaker 7 To make that happen, they'll need the help of this man. John Aloya ran the visa section at the U.S.
Consulate in Vietnam when we visited.

Speaker 27 Life has been an uphill climb from day one. Think about it.
You know, born in a war-torn country, raised in an impoverished one, bullied at school for looking different.

Speaker 7 Back in the 1980s, images of Lee Van Minh, a disabled homeless Amerasian boy, captured America's attention. prompting the U.S.

Speaker 7 Congress to pass the Amerasian Homecoming Act, allowing for those in Vietnam fathered by U.S. GIs to immigrate to the United States.
In the initial years, appearance alone could get you to the U.S.

Speaker 7 Now the bar is higher, much higher.

Speaker 27 DNA evidence between an Amerasian and their father and even their half-sibling is the gold standard.

Speaker 7 Lynn has that, but paperwork and documentation from her childhood is sparse and sometimes inaccurate. Corrections take time.
Jim and Jerry want their Vietnamese family to come home with them.

Speaker 7 But for now, they must wait for the U.S. Consulate's decision.

Speaker 9 We're hoping that they would give us more of a timeline of when

Speaker 9 Lynn and her family can come to America

Speaker 9 because we really have no idea at this point.

Speaker 7 In the meantime, there is an emotional journey to complete to Jim's past.

Speaker 2 Coming up. At the next stop, something Jim just wasn't prepared for.

Speaker 14 I thought I was tougher than that.

Speaker 2 When Dateline continues.

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Speaker 7 Jim Hintz is a long way from home. With his jeans rolled up, he stands in the shallow surf of the South China Sea.
It's been nearly 50 years since he was last here.

Speaker 7 A few feet away, a scene unfolds that no one could script.

Speaker 7 The Vietnamese granddaughter, he never knew about, splashing in the waves with his wife Jerry, her new grandmother.

Speaker 12 I don't think you expected to come down here and feel all these things.

Speaker 14 No, I thought I was tougher than that.

Speaker 7 They've driven six hours from Saigon to get here.

Speaker 7 The district of Tui Phong.

Speaker 7 Like much of Vietnam, a place of contrast, an area where the modern and the traditional coincide.

Speaker 7 Scenes at the marketplace or at the harbor look much the way they have for decades. This is where Jim Heintz was deployed during the Vietnam War.

Speaker 7 How much joy does it give you to see your wife and your granddaughter in this water today?

Speaker 16 It's very exciting

Speaker 16 and I know

Speaker 16 Tanti Tan would

Speaker 16 really like Jerry and really know that Jerry cares just as much about hers as she would, Dante would care about her family.

Speaker 7 Lynn wanted her father to come back to Tui Fong to help her paint a portrait of a woman she barely remembers but still loves very much.

Speaker 7 They visited the very site of Jim's military outpost, now an industrial park. This is

Speaker 16 my

Speaker 16 place

Speaker 16 where we were.

Speaker 7 Lynn's mother died when she was a small child. To Lynn, This is sacred ground, the one place where her mother and father were together.

Speaker 16 The building over there, that's where my bunker was, where your mom and I were always at.

Speaker 7 Jim's memories are translated for Lynn, who feels her mother's presence all too vividly.

Speaker 7 Lynn told us that her mother was pregnant with her here, and that's making her memories very painful.

Speaker 7 But over the course of this trip, we watched pain turn into joy and the two families blend into one.

Speaker 7 Their most important visit is yet to come. They're on the way to Lin's hometown, four hours south of Saigon in the Mekong Delta.
Trau Vinh is where Lin and her family live.

Speaker 5 There, the coffee shop.

Speaker 11 This is our house.

Speaker 17 That is the coffee shop.

Speaker 7 And because of Facebook, some of the faces are familiar to Jim and Jerry. Jerry.

Speaker 18 Hi!

Speaker 18 How are you?

Speaker 7 They're ushered inside the proud life's work of Lynn and her family, a neighborhood coffee shop where everyone does know your name.

Speaker 7 But Lynn seems much more eager to show off something else, a framed photo of her mother.

Speaker 18 Oh,

Speaker 2 very pretty.

Speaker 7 This is the necklace that I bought, Tanti.

Speaker 7 New then gives them a tour of their home upstairs.

Speaker 17 This is my room.

Speaker 5 Me and my mother sleep here.

Speaker 9 This is where you listen to music.

Speaker 18 Yes.

Speaker 7 Lynn and Key's hard work have built a remarkable life for themselves and their daughter. Lynn rises at 3 a.m.
every day to run the coffee shop.

Speaker 7 She has come come a long way since the difficult days of her childhood.

Speaker 17 When she was a little kid, her heart was poor. They don't have money to buy rice.
They just eat banana or potato every day.

Speaker 7 And it wasn't just poverty. It was all-out prejudice.

Speaker 17 The students don't like her because he's a married ancient and they fight her and

Speaker 17 put her into the river.

Speaker 23 They pushed her in the river. yes.

Speaker 23 Jim has expressed some sadness that he wasn't here for your mom, that he's been absent all these years.

Speaker 23 Should he feel sad about that?

Speaker 10 No. No.

Speaker 17 Grandpa doesn't know about a daughter in Vietnam, so it's not his fault.

Speaker 7 News parents' hard work has meant Ngu could go to good schools, schools they pay for. New is a star student and well-versed in American culture.

Speaker 2 The voice.

Speaker 23 You like the voice?

Speaker 7 Yes.

Speaker 15 Adam DeVue?

Speaker 23 Adam Levine, yes.

Speaker 17 Yes, I'm his fan.

Speaker 7 Jim and Jerry think Lynn and her family moving to America will mean the educational opportunity of a lifetime for New.

Speaker 7 And her parents agree.

Speaker 13 What do you think life in America will be like?

Speaker 17 Yes, I have a home big family there.

Speaker 17 Yes, they are all all good and kind people. I will go to a new education environment and meet new people and my life will be

Speaker 17 better with them.

Speaker 7 Will you miss this place?

Speaker 17 Yes, it's so sad to say goodbye.

Speaker 23 Have you been saying goodbye to your friends?

Speaker 17 Yes, we have my last day at school.

Speaker 7 What was that like?

Speaker 17 Tears.

Speaker 17 Yes, full of tears.

Speaker 7 A few days later, Lynn and her family throw a big block party for Jim and Jerry, complete with karaoke.

Speaker 7 In the emotional rush to meet his daughter and her family, and the rush to get permission for them to move to the U.S., Jim realizes the woman who was treated so poorly as a child is rich in friendships and connections to her community.

Speaker 16 This is so overwhelming to me that the love and the friendship that she has of all these people.

Speaker 7 Before Jim and Jerry head back to Saigon, Lynn takes them on a tour of the local market.

Speaker 7 She wants her neighbors to know that her American family is not a fantasy.

Speaker 7 What do you understand

Speaker 7 about love that maybe you didn't know before all this happened?

Speaker 16 It doesn't have to be forced to find out one day you've got another family of three

Speaker 16 and to find out who they are and

Speaker 8 it's just an instant love.

Speaker 7 But then once more, there is sadness.

Speaker 7 The time has come for Jim and Jerry to head home to America. And they still don't know when Lynn, Key, and New will be allowed to join them.
Jim found himself on familiar footing.

Speaker 7 A lesson he learned in the Army. How to hurry up and wait.

Speaker 2 Coming up for Michael, who set all this in motion, last-minute jitters.

Speaker 5 You know, they were happy, and then they come here. Are we going to be as good as they need?

Speaker 2 And for Lynn and her family, coming to America

Speaker 7 a few weeks after Jim and Jerry Heinz went home.

Speaker 7 Their Vietnamese family found out they had been granted permission to emigrate to America.

Speaker 16 I wonder if they checked out.

Speaker 7 Jim and Jerry greeted them when they arrived in Los Angeles.

Speaker 16 It was exciting because New was the first one to come out.

Speaker 16 And here's Lynn with a big smile.

Speaker 18 Welcome to America.

Speaker 16 I can just imagine she's finally saying, 46 years, now I'm going to be here.

Speaker 7 After customs and connections.

Speaker 18 Thank you, Mom, for a few smiles.

Speaker 7 All were happily aboard Jim's pickup, headed to Yakima.

Speaker 7 Ready at Jim and Jerry's is a welcoming party. And leading the charge, Michael Heinz, Jim's daughter, who took the DNA test that transformed the lives of two families, about to become one.

Speaker 5 It's amazing their openness to come here and try something just completely new at this stage of their lives.

Speaker 18 Michael.

Speaker 7 Lynn and her family are immediately engulfed in outstretched arms, the embrace of folks they will come to know much better.

Speaker 5 My one real hope is that I didn't mess anything up for anybody. You know, their life was established and they they were happy and they look like they're in a good place.

Speaker 5 And then, you know, they come here. Are we going to be as good as they need? Are we changing something that we shouldn't have changed?

Speaker 7 For now, that's definitely not an issue. This is home up there.

Speaker 6 That's your bedroom.

Speaker 7 Soon they're headed inside to see where they'll live.

Speaker 7 It's the first time 17-year-old New will have a room of her own.

Speaker 26 Thank you so much.

Speaker 7 And in Lynn's room, an homage to her mother, who died when Lynn was just a child.

Speaker 18 Welcome home.

Speaker 7 And then it's time for their first American ritual.

Speaker 9 There's hamburgers and there's hot dogs.

Speaker 7 Yes. The backyard barbecue.
Burgers and apple pie on paper plates.

Speaker 7 Stories and s'mores. A rite of welcome.

Speaker 5 Day one, two, three, family. Bye, family!

Speaker 7 Complete with the mandatory cousins picture with New as the beaming addition. What did you think of the whole party last night?

Speaker 17 Straight.

Speaker 17 And we took the cousin photo. Yeah.
Yeah, with cousins, and everyone's so good.

Speaker 17 So sweet.

Speaker 7 New is off to enroll at the local high school the next morning. Normal is coming at Lynn and her family as fast as as they can take it in.

Speaker 5 And we're going to do registering, right? Yes. All right.
Are you ready?

Speaker 6 Yeah, all right.

Speaker 7 You've spent your whole life dreaming about coming to America. What is it like to finally be here?

Speaker 14 Yeah.

Speaker 17 She's finally come back home and got the love of her parents and the care of sisters.

Speaker 24 We're really happy.

Speaker 7 Jim has dreams that Lynn and her family might want to take over his small but growing cattle herd. So your new Vietnam family is going to become cowboys.

Speaker 16 They're going to become cowboys.

Speaker 7 We've watched this man immerse himself in the effort to connect with and then bring Lynn home.

Speaker 7 Through smiles and tears, he has been steadfast, never wavering, and he has a message for other veterans like him.

Speaker 16 Anybody, any guy that believes he might have a child over there,

Speaker 16 they aren't wanting to come here to get rich. They just want to be with family, just to step up and take a DNA test.

Speaker 7 If Jim was once haunted by a long ago war, he is no longer now that his family is whole.

Speaker 16 To have all my girls and all my grandkids here celebrating Lynn and Kian News welcoming home party.

Speaker 7 It was just

Speaker 16 it was beautiful watching everybody smile and giggle. It's priceless.

Speaker 2 That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt.
Thank you for joining us.

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