(gentle music) - [Dara] It feels so natural to them.

Throwing a football around, cracking jokes, you know, the typical things brothers do.

And when you hang around them, you'll see just how close they are, even finishing each other's sentences.

- [Kevin] He is me and I'm him, from the eyebrows on down to the way that we talk.

- [Dara] You would think they've spent every day of their lives together.

But 43-year-old Kevin McDonald and his 42-year-old brother, Franklin Terry, have only known each other for a few months.

- It feels awesome now.

It kind of feels surreal.

- It means a lot to just get to catch up on lost time.

- [Dara] And when he says lost times, he means over four decades of it.

The biological brothers were both born in North Carolina, Kevin in July of 1981, Franklin in July of 1982, and they were both given up for adoption shortly after.

- It's like I was chosen.

For me to get adopted at that young age and to be bought into a sweet family, like I was truly blessed.

They say they're blessed for getting me, but I was truly blessed.

- [Dara] Kevin grew up as an only child in Charlotte and loved playing sports like basketball.

It touches his heart when he thinks about his adoptive mother, Sabrina Haver Bronson, and her late husband.

- People that aren't adopted, they say adoptive mother, but that's my mother.

You understand what I'm saying?

You don't have to be blood to be family.

It's really unconditional love.

- [Dara] Oh, and you can feel that unconditional love when you ask Sabrina about raising Kevin, the child she dreamed of after suffering years with infertility.

- Oh, you're gonna make me cry.

I can't love him anymore than I do right now.

I can't, I don't think my heart could take it.

He has been such a wonderful presence in my life.

- [Dara] Franklin's adoptive parents, Fred and Evelyn Terry, share the same sentiments for him.

- Franklin is just the love of our lives.

That's the best way I can put it.

He was an adorable baby.

He's been a wonderful child.

- He may think that I'm his mentor, but he has become my mentor, because he has done some things that I don't have the discipline to do that he does.

- [Dara] Franklin grew up in Winston-Salem, played football and was an only child, just like Kevin.

- I couldn't have grown up better, you know what I mean?

I had such a supportive family structure.

I had standup parents.

I had parents that would break their neck with me, still today they would.

- Even with both men being raised in loving households, something inside of them always wanted to bridge who they are with their biological family.

- I was working in my office, and I was just on YouTube, and the Ancestry ad stuck on the Roku, and I could not cut it off, I couldn't change it, and I just said, "If this is a sign, I'm listening."

And I ordered the Ancestry kit right then and there, and I did it.

- [Dara] Little did he know, Sabrina gifted Kevin with an ancestry.com kit with the hope that he'd find some relatives.

And on July 9th, in the middle of Kevin helping his daughter Kamren at home... - A ding came through the phone, a text, and it was Ancestry and they said, "Hey, your results are in."

The moment we came downstairs, dropped the laptop on the table, I'm coming back up, I head here, all I hear is, "Oh my God, you got a brother?"

I'm like, "No."

I turn around, I go, look, it's Franklin holding his shirt like this.

- We were not expecting to see that, so I'm pretty sure when I first saw it, I was like jumping for joy.

I was like, "There's no way!

There's no way!"

- [Dara] From there, Kamren and Sabrina put on their investigator hats and began searching for Franklin on social media.

- While I'm on Facebook, granddaughter is on Instagram.

Okay, she's writing and she's telling, "Hey, my name is so and so and my daddy is so and so.

"We're on Ancestry, and you're his brother."

- And I was just like, "What?"

I actually text back, "Ma'am, what?

Here's my number."

Right away, by the time I got in the car, he was calling.

- Hey, talk to me, man.

My name's Kevin, first of all, man.

(family speaking indistinctly) - [Dara] Then, less than a week later, a moment they never would've imagined.

- Hey, you look like me, bruh.

- [Dara] But they weren't the only ones lost for words.

- Once I shared that, that's just the video in front of the house, it just went crazy.

You know what I mean?

And the thing that I will say is that it made me realize that it's way bigger than me.

It's way bigger than us, because so many people contacted me about, "Hey, I was given up for adoption.

"I don't know my real dad.

"My brothers and sisters were taken."

- [Dara] Although it seems like this is a rare case, genealogy librarian, Danielle Pritchette, says it's becoming more common.

- People are more interested in genealogy, and one thing about that is the Ancestry DNA component.

And so, now that more people are testing, the DNA pool is getting wider, and so you might have some of those discoveries that you might not have known about.

- [Dara] While most people searching for biological family hope for a positive experience, that doesn't always happen.

- There's a lot of joys that come with reunification, but there also can be some loss, and it can trigger some things, and for them to hand walk through not only the information and the contacting of the people, but how are you doing emotionally with that, and let people hold your hand and help you through that process.

- [Dara] This is something Franklin and Kevin are doing for their biological mother, who they found on Ancestry just a few days after finding each other.

The brothers mentioned their mom told them this was a painful decision, and she's not ready yet to share her story.

- I understand why she did it, and I understand why she feels the way that she feels now sometimes.

Sometimes she may sit up late and cry a little bit, but it's 'cause of the gifts that she has, and she did miss out.

But like I tell her all the time, "You blessed us."

- [Dara] Sports taught them how to support their teammates when they were younger.

These days, their teammates are family, and that support looks a little different.

But Kevin and Franklin look forward to learning new life lessons together.

For "Carolina IMPACT," I'm Dara Khaalid,