When Dimas Aliprandi and Elton Plaster found out they were switched at birth, they decided to join their two families together, living and working on a large farm.
By Darragh Worland for Tonic.com
Most 25-year-olds are still grappling with who they are and what they want in life, but imagine throwing into the mix the discovery that you were actually switched at birth and that your family really isn’t yours.
That’s exactly what happened to Brazilians Dima Aliprandi and Elton Plaster, both 25, but rather than dwell in regret, they made the most of their fate.
For most of his young life, Aliprandi wondered why he didn’t resemble his four sisters, all of whom have dark hair and dark eyes to his blond hair and blue eyes.
“I had the typical features of a descendant of German immigrants, while my sisters and parents were of Italian stock. Something did not add up,” he told The Associated Press.
The feelings intensified when he was a teen and saw a news program about babies being switched in hospitals due to human error. Of course, many teens feel like aliens in their families, but for Aliprandi, it was a feeling he couldn’t shake and finally at 24, a genetic test confirmed his suspicions, much to his parents’ shock.
Hospital records eventually identified Plaster as the only other male infant born the same day in the same hospital and that led Aliprandi to a town 30 miles away where a genetic test confirmed the two were switched at birth.
Remarkably, both families were able to see opportunity where most would see tragedy.
“It sparked a desire to join our families,” Aliprandi told the AP. “Elton and I wanted to remain with those who raised us and with our birth parents. We wanted to expand our families.”
Not only did they expand their families, but they actually joined them. A year ago, Aliprandi and the parents who raised him moved to the Plaster family farm in southeastern Brazil where they built a neighboring home. Their families grow vegetables and coffee on their small farm.
“It’s not everyone who can say he has two fathers and two mothers living together with him,” Aliprandi told the AP.