Nightline, face to face finding my father, will be right back. Using artificial tears often and still have dry eye symptoms . Ready for some relief . Xiidra is the first and only eye drop approved for both the signs and symptoms of dry eye. One drop in each eye, twice a day. Common side effects include eye irritation, discomfort or blurred vision when applied to the eye, and unusual taste sensation. Dont touch container tip to your eye or any surface. Remove contacts before using xiidra and wait at least 15 minutes before reinserting. Chat with your eye doctor about xiidra. Announcer this is a special edition of nightline. Face to face finding my father. Good evening. Thank you for joining us. Amanda holdiness has felt incomplete her whole life. Raised by a single mother, grandmother and godparents, she has never known her father and spent years searching for him in vain. But tonight her story finally gets a happy ending. Heres abcs Elizabeth Vargas with another look. Im so nervous right now. I cannot wait till i get that call. Reporter Amanda Holdinesss life is about to change. [ phone ringing ] on the other end of that call hey there. Reporter someone with an answer to a question shes been asking her whole life. So are you ready . Yes, maam. Reporter who is her father . Happy birthday we started following her quest to find him two years earlier. A doting mother herself with her own son making his birthday wishes. Moments that harken back to her own childhood of birthday wishes. Wishes that have always been the same. To find her dad. I wanted to have a father that i would be the apple of his eye. Reporter her mother had given her a name for the man she believed was amandas father, but other details were scarce. She described him having dark brown hair and i was thinking about elvis. Reporter and amanda says she described a 345man who wasnt thrilled at the time he was going to be a father, so amandas single mother moved back home to mississippi to raise amanda with the help of her own family, never to hear from him again. The absence of a father was felt all the time, but especially painful for amanda on her wedding day. Ive always seen ladies walk down the aisle with their father, and i never got it. Reporter so when she saw investigative genealogist pam slaton featured on 20 20 hey, mom. Reporter helping people find biological relatives youre so beautiful. Reporter she reached out. We were like amazed how she found, you know, long lost loved ones. This is where it all happens. My stacks are kind of broken up by current. Not feeling it, driving me crazy. Reporter pam, who is also a consultant for abc news, was confident she could help amanda. So she took on her case, which she thought seemed simple enough. All i did was give her five things about where he was from, where he lived, where they met. I put in the biological fathers name. She called me, she said guess what. She said what. I found him. I started crying. Are you serious . You know. And she said yes. Reporter but amandas happiness is shortlived. They do a dna test just to be sure. When i sat down with amanda just a few months later, she says the results were shocking. It came back saying that he wasnt my father. That must have been devastating for you. Yeah. Youd been told all your life this man was your father, and he wasnt. No. Did you want to give up . At first i did. Reporter pam slaton stuck with her. After the crushing news she headed down to mississippi to see her in person. And we are off. Reporter pam also wants to meet with amandas mother, who she hoped could offer a morsel, a memory, something that could help put her on the right path. It would be crucial to get her to talk about when she got pregnant, when she was just 24 years old, living with her sister. She was serving in the national guard, still in school, trying to figure her life out, when she found out she was pregnant. When i sit down with her, ill see if shes being genuine and just doesnt really know or is she trying to keep her from the truth for another reason we dont know about. Hi, honey. How are you . Doing good. Oh, my god. This is beautiful. Let me look at you. I was told i couldnt have any kids. It was a miracle. She was a miracle. Reporter amandas mother reveals she was with more than one man during the time amanda was conceived. I was wild when i was young. I guess in a way i was looking for that love too that i didnt have. I think its amazing that you have the courage to sit here and talk about this. I can see you genuinely want to help amanda. I believe your hearts in the right place. Reporter another man comes into focus. Amandas mother offers up Samuel Skinner. Samuel, i lived with him before i went to cheyenne, wyoming. Reporter so you have a relationship with him prior. Right. I will be right back. Reporter pam returns with Contact Information for Samuel Skinner, and the case again appears to be wrapped up. I want you to make the phone call. Its scary but ill get you through it. Reporter patch coaches amanda because what she says could make or break her chance to make a connection with her potential birth father. I just want you to breathe because youre not breathing. Reporter she goes for it. Yes, is this Samuel Skinner . Yes, is i was wanting to talk to Samuel Skinner. Yes. Can you tell amanda . Say youre a friend of the family. Its a friend of the okay. Thank you. Where was he . He was unavailable. Reporter but a few days later the man named Samuel Skinner does call her back. Turns out hes living just down the gulf coast from amanda in louisiana. When she started mentioning certain people, it clicked. Her mother. Her mothers name. He said i loved your mama. He said but we just parted ways. Reporter sam says amandas mom never told himegnant. After all, back then she didnt think he was the father. So after two months of getting to know each other on the phone youve waited a long time to get this done. Yes. Reporter amanda and sam meet for the first time. He agrees to do a dna test. Whats your heart say . Im just you dont want to say. I really cant. Yes. I really hope my journey ends here. When you met samuel for the first time, what was that like . I kept on doing this. I was like, why are you staring at me like that . Hes like, girl, you are the spitting image of your mama. No matter how it turns out. Reporter their meeting is justbeginning of the bonding between amanda as been hoping for. But shes careful not to get her hopes up too high, having already been down this road once before. You hope you are her biological dad. Well, yes. Who wouldnt want a 30yearold daughter thats not going to talk back to you no more and to have grandkids, i can spoil and send them home to them when they get you know, who wouldnt want that . Reporter the test results are in a few weeks later. Amanda is at pams house to find out. Hello. Reporter the outcome is shocking. So amanda, i know youve been down a long, long road. He is not your birth father. Its coming up negative. Im sorry. All right . I know. Youve been down a long tough road. To have this girl who was so excited to finally put this behind her and to give her this devastating news that it wasnt a match was not an easy job to do. Reporter amanda calls sam, who is anxiously awaiting the news. Hello. Hey, samuel . Yeah. Is this amanda . Yeah. This is amanda. Whats going on . Well, they told me what the results are with the dna. Okay. And . Its not good. I didnt call mama yet to let her know. Well, amanda, you need to accept it yourself. Im trying to give you fatherly advice and i may not be doing it right. You know which way to go now. Amanda, go with what youre feeling. I hope you dont stop your search, especially when you know youre going for something you that need in life. Thank you. Dont let people discourage you. Reporter sam tells amanda hes ready to stay in her life, even though hes not her birth father. All right. Take care now. Thanks. Bye. Byebye. Thats the second man thats said that to her. Which speaks to who you are. You have two men that fell in love with you and would love to have you as a daughter. Reporter overwhelmed, amanda grapples with her feelings. I will remain committed to you and getting to the bottom of this. I promise you. On my word. I promise you that i will do everything in my power to help you. Reporter the owner of the dna Data Base Company that amanda did her tests with offers another possible step. If your mother would be willing to do a dna test, we can do what we call a triangulation. Reporter but its a hail mary. How distant a relative can there be in your data bank for you to have the beginnings of a thread for pam to follow . We need to find a third cousin or closer. We can find siblings of your great grandfathers childrens children, which would be lots of people today. When nightline returns, the key that finally unlocked the answers. So are you ready . Amandas wanted her whole life. [ intense music playing ] its here, but its going by fast. The opportunity of the year is back the mercedesbenz summer event. Get to your dealer today for incredible onceaseason offers, and start firing up those grilles. Lease the gle350 for 579 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. Mercedesbenz. The best or nothing. Ltry align probiotic. N your digestive system . For a nonstop, sweet treat goodness, hold on to your tiara kind of day. Get 24 7 digestive support, with align. 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Its like searching for a pot of gold ieporter after sifting amandas maternal biological relatives, she can now focus only on the paternal dna matches. It leaves her with only two second cousin matches. So i hadhe common denominator between those matches, and i was able to come up with a name, a last name of herdt. Reporter a new last name. A huge breakthrough. Pam runs with it. Compiling a list of about a half dozen ageappropriate men in wyoming with that last name. She sends amanda the list. I want this chapter to be over with. Reporter a hopeful amanda jumps on facebook to track down photos of the men. There is one photo that she is drawn to in particular. When you see the facial features, you see the lips. Reporter she messages that man. And halfway across the country in windswept eastern wyoming. There i was minding my own business, and this thing pops up. Reporter a man named larry herdt is on the receiving end of her questions. He tells her yes, he knew her mom in the 1980s. I had one question. Was your mother ever in the Army National guard . She goes yes. I wanted to cry. I wanted to jump up and down. He actually knows my mother. Interpreter larry sa repo larry says they dated for a month but he didnt know she had gotten pregnant. Loved her to death. Strong woman. I appreciated that. The red hair got me. I love redheads. Reporter however, amandas mother, vivian, says she doesnt remember larry at all. He was a truck driver back then. Just as he is today. Working out of a small city called casper, with four Adult Children of his own. There we go. Were ready to rock and roll. Reporter now larry herdt because the third in a list of potential fathers to agree to a dna test. Okay. Were good. Its been probably about 2 1 2 weeks since he sent it in. Reporter it is an excruciating wait. Amanda is about to get the call giving her the latest test results. Im so nervous right now. I cannot wait till i get that call. Hey there. Hey. How are you . So are you ready . Yes, maam. Whats your gut telling you . My guts telling me that hes the one. Guess what . What . He is your father. He is . He is. Oh, my god. Giving me goosebumps. Thank you so much. You must be so relieved. I just knew it. You know that feeling. I just had that gut feeling that he was the one. You never had that before, did you . No. Is he on standby now waiting for the call to come in . Yes. Well, then why dont i give you a kiss . Thank you so much. Thank you, amanda. Love you, honey. Love you too. Byebye. Oh, god. Let me call him. Hello. Daddy . Yes, maam. Youre my daddy. I am . Yes. Yes reporter they promised to meet soon. Okay, sweetie. Okay. I love you. Love you too. Okay. Byebye. The chapters closed now. I have a daddy. I cant wait to see him. I cant wait to see him. You ready . Yeah. And now a new chapter for amanda begins. She and husband mac have traveled to wyoming to meet her dad. I know ill be really happy to see her. And to hold my little girl. Im tearing up now. Just thinking about it. I just cant wait to show her how much i love her. Its going to be good. [ knocking ] come in. Reporter they are finally about to be face to face. The embrace amanda has waited for for a lifetime. Finally. Oh, finally. Yeah, finally. Finally. I have another piece of my heart that has been mended. I knew something was missing. And i finally found it. Twins really. Pretty much. I look just like you. Im telling you. Reporter over the next several hours we were with them larry literally did not leave amandas side. Okay. This is amanda. This is richard. Reporter bringing her to work. Great to meet you. Hi. Reporter later at dinner amanda would meet her uncle. How are you doing . Im doing good. Reporter larry momentarily leaves amandas side so his brother can chat with his newfound niece. Youve got to move. Youve got to trade with me now. Reporter but that seating arrangement doesnt last long. You can sit with your daughter. Reporter after 32 years apart these two plan on savoring every moment they can now spend together. Im so happy right now. This is awesome. Reporter for nightline im Elizabeth Vargas. Our thanks to Elizabeth Vargas. Well be right back. Ouch new bandaid® brand skinflex™, bandages. Our best bandage yet it dries almost instantly. Better . Yeah. Good thing because stopping never crosses your mind. Bandaid® brand. Stick with it™ afi sure had a lot on my mind. My 30year marriage. My 3month old business. Plus. What if this happened again . I was given warfarin in the hospital, but wondered, was this the best treatment for me . So i made a point to talk to my doctor. He told me about eliquis. Eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. Not only does eliquis treat dvt and pe blood clots. Eliquis also had significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. Eliquis had both. And that turned around my thinking. 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