VIRGINIA BEACH, Va – Kirk Kellerhals reconnected with his biological parents nearly 50 years after being born. The chances of that happening he said, are one in two billion.
“With me being half Vietnamese, the other half was just that big question mark. With my love for the beach, my dark skin and loving the Polynesian lifestyle and having visited Hawaii once. I claimed Hawaii as my second half,” said Kellerhals.
Kellerhals was born in Vietnam during the tail end of the Vietnam War. He was adopted out of an orphanage in Da Nang when he was two years old by an Army Major. He believed his parents died in the war and that’s why he was adopted from the orphanage.
“This was not a case where I was looking for my parents. I thought they were gone, I thought they were dead. I was very grateful for the family I had. I grew up in a very loving home and never went without. I had more opportunities than probably most kids my age,” said Kellerhals.
Kellerhals’ wife, who is Filipina didn’t believe Kellerhals was half Hawaiian. She thought he was half Filipino, so Kellerhals submitted a Family Tree DNA test to settle the dispute.
That’s when he got an email saying there was a child parent match.
Tune in to News 3 at 5 Wednesday to watch the full story about their reunion.
