We are blown away by this amazing story of the unbreakable bond between sisters.
LA-based professional acrobat and aerialist Jen Bricker always looked up to Romanian Olympic gymnast Dominique Moceanu – and incredibly, years later she discovered she was her sister.
Growing up Jen was a gymnast herself – despite being born with no legs – even earning herself a spot on Britney Spears’ ‘Circus’ Tour as a teen, due to her talent.
So it’s no wonder that when she was younger she idolised Dominique, who was famed for winning gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
However, when she was 16, adopted Jen found out the unimaginable – Dominique was in fact her sister. Her father gave her up for adoption when he discovered she was born with no legs, as he worried he couldn’t afford to care for her special needs and devote his energies to Dominique’s gymnastic career.
So despite not knowing they were related, and never meeting each other, both sisters carved successful careers in precisely the same area!
“I asked my mom if there was anything she knew about my biological family that I didn’t know so she goes and gets this big folder just full of papers and she says, you’re never going to believe this but your biological last name is Moceanu,” Jen told The Daily Mail. “I knew exactly when she said that my childhood idol was my sister.
“I always had such a connection to her, immediately. I saw myself in her, she was small and I was small. I knew she was Romanian, I was Romanian.
“She had that spunky little personality just like me. As a child I just related to her. I just saw that we were one and the same.”
It took Jen four years to reach out to Dominique, but now she enjoys a close relationship with her and their other sister.
“It was destiny etched in stone,” Dominique told Psychology Today about the sisters’ reunion. “There was no other traceable route.”
We love, love, love this story. There’s something SO magical about a sisterly bond being formed against all the odds – just amazing!
