Being a mom isn't easy especially when you're a single parent. Children can be so unpredictable and as a parent you have to be ready for all kinds of situations.

When single mom Janice Williams' son Luke came home from school claiming that he found his twin she didn’t think anything of it. She had no idea that her son would soon uncover a hidden secret that would turn their family’s life upside down.

Janice Williams lived a quiet life on the outskirts of a small town in Wisconsin. She was a hardworking and dedicated single mother who would do anything to give her eight-year-old son Luke the life she’d always dreamed of giving him.

Each day Janice would repeat the same routine. Waking up early to help Luke get ready for school and then driving to her shift at the local independent bookstore. She had no idea her predictable life was about to change forever.

Janice spent most days worrying about Luke and hoping she was doing everything she could to make sure he had a happy and healthy childhood.

Her hard work paid off because Luke was as bright and sweet as a young boy could be. He was always making his mom laugh with silly jokes and his observations about the world. While the mother and son had the closest most special bond imaginable it was about to face the ultimate test.

Each evening Janice would cook a delicious dinner for her and her son and they would talk about their days. She couldn’t help but notice that Luke never went into much detail about his friends at school and he was never interested in inviting his friends over to play.

Janice tried not to think anything of it—Luke was a happy boy after all. But as an only child she wondered if he was lonely with just his mom for company.

On Monday afternoon Janice got an email from Luke’s school telling the parents that a new family just joined the community and that their son would be joining the third-grade class. She couldn't help but think that this was the perfect opportunity for her son to make a new friend.

When they were eating dinner together that night Janice encouraged her son to befriend the new kid and help him settle in. She couldn’t have known what this would soon mean for her family.

The following morning Janice raced through her shift—there was only one thing on her mind. She couldn't wait to find out how her son’s day went. As soon as her shift ended she left the bookstore and eagerly drove home waiting for Luke to get back from school.

She couldn’t contain her excitement that her son might have a new friend. But when he got home she noticed something seemed different about her sweet boy.

Luke practically burst through the door. He was usually an energetic child but this level of enthusiasm was something Janice wasn’t used to. “Mom! Mom!” he yelled barely containing his excitement

Before Luke could even place his backpack on the kitchen table he ran over to his mom and explained to her “Mom! I found my twin.” Janice simply looked at him confused. It wasn’t what she was expecting him to say.

Her heart skipped a beat and she didn’t know how to respond. She was hoping that Luke would befriend the new boy and this was even better than she expected. “Luke what do you mean? You’ve never mentioned anything like this before” she asked him.

Luke was practically fizzing with joy. Did he mean that he’d found someone he bonded with immediately? Janice sat her son down and began asking him all sorts of questions.

“We’re twins Mom I know it! We’re the same” he continued only to be met with more confusion from his mother. Janice still wasn’t sure what he meant so she did what she usually did and tried to reinforce his happy and excited behavior by agreeing with him.

She ruffled his hair and responded “Sure honey! A twin how exciting.” Whatever he meant she was nevertheless happy to know that her son was having a good time at school. It seemed to make him more motivated to get to bed on time knowing he’d be going back to school the following day to see his new friend.

With that life for the Williams continued on as normal for a few weeks. But when Janice picked Luke up from school on a Wednesday afternoon something didn't feel the same.

The moment he got into the car Luke eagerly brought up his “twin” again. He spent the entire car journey talking about how he and the new boy in the class spent the day together sat next to each other at lunchtime and switched seats in class to be next to each other again. Janice had never heard her son talk like this about anything.

After Luke once again mentioned his twin at the dinner table Janice had to get to the bottom of exactly what was going on. “What do you mean you’re twins Lukey?” He sounded certain which made her even more intrigued. He explained that they looked the same.

“That’s incredible sweetheart. But are you sure you’re not just imagining things? Twins are quite rare you know” she reminded him. Luke shook his head with certainty. “No Mom I promise—I’ll show you” he replied. He had never seemed so sure of anything in his life.

The next day at school happened to be Picture Day for the third grade and Luke and all his classmates would be getting their pictures taken. This was the perfect opportunity for Janice to finally see the twin that Luke couldn’t stop talking about.

For the rest of that week she just assumed that Luke had found a friend who looked so similar to him that he innocently assumed they must be twins. He had always shown a wild imagination so Janice wasn’t all that surprised. But this time it wasn’t his imagination. Luke was about to uncover a secret that would change the course of the Williams’ lives.

A week went by and Janice practically forgot about Luke’s new friend. But one evening when she got an email from the school with the photos from Picture Day she was completely stopped in her tracks.

That’s when she saw it—a boy standing next to her completely identical son. Luke was right and Janice was lost for words. How could such a thing be possible? After she collected her jaw from the floor she immediately called the school. How could they not have spotted this and spoken to her sooner?

Janice needed answers and fast. She spoke to the third-grade teacher on the phone who informed her that the new boy’s name was Leon Martin and that he was adopted. The entire team of teachers was also just as shocked at how similar the boys looked.

There was no way that this could be a coincidence so Janice wanted to find out as much as she could about the boy. What nobody knew was Janice had some secrets of her own and they were about to come to light.

Janice had been hiding something from her son for his entire life. And now it was bubbling close to the surface. With this new revelation in Luke’s class she knew she would have to come clean. It was the only way to make sense of what they discovered.

Luke had often talked about how he wished he had a sibling and now it seemed like he got more than what he bargained for—a twin. But how could that be possible? Surely Janice would know if she had given birth to twins. She didn’t want to get her hopes up because only she knew the truth.

For eight years Janice managed to keep Luke's adoption a secret from not only her friends and family but Luke as well. The year before she adopted Luke she had a tough and complicated pregnancy and sadly she lost her baby shortly before he was due to be born.

Completely devastated she adopted a baby boy and named him Luke. Everybody in her life assumed he was her biological child and she didn’t mind people thinking as much. But now what started as an innocent withholding of the truth driven by grief was becoming a twisted web of complicated lies. Was it too late to reveal the truth to her parents? And could she ever tell Luke?

Janice often contemplated coming clean about her past. The circumstances of the adoption all those years ago were shrouded in mystery and because it happened in such a hurry she didn’t have any information about his first few months of life—everything was done anonymously.

She knew some people in her life would be understanding of her decision but that there would ultimately be some people who judged her for her lies. That’s why she never looked further into things. But now that Luke kept talking about having a brother and worse—a twin—Janice felt she had no choice but to address the truth.

Nobody could deny that the boys looked almost identical. So Janice knew she had to do some digging to find out whether Leon could really be related to Luke. She knew Leon was adopted but that was all the information the school could give her without breaching any kind of confidentiality rules.

Feeling defeated she decided to head to sleep. But then a thought crossed her mind. She couldn't help but think about the adoption agency that helped her all those years ago. And as soon as she woke up the following morning her curiosity led her to reach out to the agency that she hadn’t contacted in eight years.

Janice called the agency and explained her entire situation in a desperate panic. They were happy to hear from her once again and they seemed more than willing to help her with this new revelation.

Even though the woman on the phone was sympathetic and happy to help she informed Janice that it would take a long time to find the information about Luke’s case because it was such a long time ago. The records had been moved to the agency’s archives so they needed to rifle through them all. The lady told Janice that they would call her as soon as they had any information but it could take a week or two—if they found anything at all.

The agency also suggested that in the meantime Janice could try to get a DNA test for Luke and the other boy to see if they were related after all. Their suggestion almost made Janice emotional because she hadn’t even considered such a thing!

When it came time to pick Luke up from school it was time for Janice to put her new plan into action. That afternoon she introduced herself to Leon’s parents in the school playground and invited him for a playdate with Luke that evening. While the two boys were running around in the garden before dinner she collected a stray hair from each of their sweaters.

Watching the two boys playing together Janice couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt. She was sneaking around and living a lie and Luke had no idea. He was so innocent and she had never even told him that he was adopted.

But seeing her son so happy with this boy who looked and acted just like him was enough to encourage her to continue her search for the truth. However before she could tell Luke the truth about his past she needed some kind of explanation for how the boys could look so similar. Were they twins or was it too good to be true?

An agonizing week went by without hearing anything from the adoption agency or about the results of the DNA test. But then the pieces began to fall into place. The adoption agency called Janice back and told her that they found Luke’s file. However it didn’t have much to offer.

The circumstances of his adoption were shrouded in mystery. He came into the agency as a young baby and everything was done anonymously so they didn’t have any information about the family who put him up for adoption. After hearing this news Janice felt more defeated than ever. She was back to square one.

However just as she was about to give up hope Janice got an email from the lab that did the DNA testing. Her jaw hung open in shock as she read it. The results confirmed that Luke and Leon were in fact identical twins.

Janice was immediately lost for words. She began to cry as she kept reading. Luke was right all along—he had a brother after all! With this new revelation Janice simply couldn’t keep the good news to herself. It was finally time to talk to Luke about his past and tell Leon’s family what she discovered.

Before she could sit down and have a big conversation with Luke Janice wanted to find out more about the Martin family. She needed to know what they knew about Leon—he was adopted too of course. So she invited Leon’s parents over for dinner.

While the boys were playing outside blissfully unaware of the revelations their families were making the parents got down to talking about their history. Janice couldn't have known she was in for a wild story!

Leon’s parents weren’t the secretive type. They were happy to answer all of Janice’s frantic questions and they had a rollercoaster of a story to explain to her. The couple began by explaining that yes Leon was adopted. But they didn’t adopt him from an agency—they were his grandparents.

On the way back from the hospital just after giving birth Leon’s biological parents got into a car accident and they both tragically passed away at the scene. Leon was rescued from the scene and his grandparents officially adopted him. But that wasn’t all.

The couple continued telling Janice that Leon’s biological parents were bringing home twins but after the accident one of the brothers was never found at the scene. Everyone presumed the worst and dealt with the grief and until now that was where the story ended.

Just when they thought that Leon was the only one who survived the DNA results Janice took confirmed that Luke was his twin brother. Somehow he miraculously survived the accident all those years ago. Neither family could quite fathom these discoveries.

This was the most eventful dinner of the Williams’ and the Martins’ lives. Now that they had undeniable evidence that they were connected where could they go from here? Janice and the Martins agreed that the best course of action was to first tell the boys the good news—that they were twins.

But for that to happen Janice knew she would finally have to tell Luke he was adopted. She was disappointed in herself that she hadn’t told him until now but at this point she couldn’t avoid it any longer. So when the Martins went home after dinner she sat Luke down to explain everything.

The conversation went better than Janice ever could have expected. She should never have underestimated her sweet and understanding son. And when she finished explaining his past she told Luke that there was one more piece to the puzzle—the Martins.

Luke was completely over the moon to know that after eight years of being an only child he finally had a brother. And even better than a brother—a twin! “Mom! I was right!” Luke exclaimed. Janice just smiled and ruffled his hair in agreement.

With this new information both families had to figure out how to proceed. Their lives had been changed forever now that fate brought them together all these years after they were so cruelly separated.

Now that the boys had found each other there was no way they could go on without being in each others’ lives but that was simpler said than done. They couldn’t just turn everything upside down even further and change the dynamics of their families. So Janice continued to invite Leon for playdates Luke went over to spend time with the Martins and they made up for lost time together.

Janice Williams was just a regular single mother to an only child until her son made a discovery at school that changed both their lives forever. She thought Luke was joking about having a twin but her curiosity led her to discover an eight-year-long family secret.

We hope the long-lost twins are having a lot of fun together and are making the most of finally having a sibling. We’re sure Janice has found new companions in the Martins and they’re all enjoying life as one big happy family.