Kate Snyderman: Adopted Daughter Of Dr. Nancy Snyderman Describes Quest To Find Birth Mother

Kate Snyderman was born to a 16-year-old mother and put up for adoption, but now after a search that has spanned more than a decade the two have been reunited.

Kate, who was adopted by NBC News chief medical editor Nancy Snyderman, said she grew up knowing she was adopted and at age 16 started to wonder — “Do I look like my mother?”

“I was 16 when I, almost absentmindedly, asked the question while on vacation with our family in Mexico. It was a question that had plagued me for as long as I could remember,” Kate Snyderman wrote in a story for the Today show. “Earlier that day, we’d been talking about traits shared between family members, and my sister and mom had to be reminded that I wasn’t genetically related to them.”

For years the question and wonder about her birth mother nagged in Kate’s mind, until at 25 she decided to start a real search.

“A year and a half went by with nothing but dead ends,” Kate wrote. “There was plenty of frustration and anger at my lack of progress, and I began to wonder whether I would ever find my birth mother. I finally stumbled upon a website devoted to connecting adopted kids and birth parents, and put up a listing. After the predictable initial flood of dead-end responses came the drought, and I didn’t get any hits for a couple months. Until one day, when I opened my inbox to a message that made my heart soar.”

It was from a 23-year-old woman named Cherie, who thought that Kate might be her sister. Cherie offered to send Kate’s e-mail to Cheryl, her birth mother.

Slowly Kate Snyderman and her birth mother started to talk, eventually deciding to meet in September. The reunion was filmed by the Today show for a segment that aired this week, which comes just a few weeks before National Adoption Day.

The meeting and the quest for her birth mother so affected Kate Snyderman that she now says she’s planning to adopt a few children.