![\"St.](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-134635725,imgsize-55852,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/goessling-and-mcdonald-eventually-met-in-person.jpg\" "\\"Goessling")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA St. Louis man who was adopted as a baby nearly 60 years ago has discovered that five-time Grammy Award winner Michael McDonald<\/a> is his biological father. Michael Goessling always knew he had been adopted and said he had a \u201cwonderful childhood\u201d with the couple who raised him. But he continued to wonder about his biological parents and where they were.The mystery began to unravel decades later after a half-brother Goessling did not know existed took a 23andMe DNA test. The test connected the two men and led to a message that changed Goessling\u2019s understanding of his family. \u201cWithin 36 hours, he got an email notifying him, \u2018Michael Gossling, half brother, St. Louis,\u2019\u201d Goessling said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s how this all began,\u201d he told WSAW.The discovery eventually led Goessling to his birth mother. On his 58th birthday, he met her in person for the first time. He later spoke with his biological father over the phone. During that conversation, Goessling asked about his father\u2019s work. He was told that his biological father was a musician who was preparing to tour through St. Louis that summer.That answer led Goessling to ask a question that would finally reveal the identity of his biological father. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018Are you Michael McDonald?\u2019\u201d Goessling said. \u201cAnd he said, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019m afraid so.\u2019\u201d The musician was indeed McDonald, the singer-songwriter and member of the Doobie Brothers known for songs including \u201cWhat a Fool Believes\u201d and \u201cI Keep Forgettin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Goessling said he had always known he was adopted. He was raised by his adoptive parents, Paul and Kay, in St. Louis, and described his childhood as a happy one.\u201cAlways knew I was adopted,\u201d Goessling said. \u201cI had a wonderful childhood. I could not have handpicked two finer folks to raise me.\u201dEven with that happy childhood, he remained curious about his biological family. That question stayed with him for decades before the 23andMe test taken by his previously unknown half-brother brought the first major breakthrough.The test identified Goessling as a half-brother and gave him a connection to a part of his biological family that he had never known. From there, he was able to meet his birth mother and later speak to his biological father.Goessling\u2019s biological parents were both 14 years old when he was conceived, according to the information provided by KMOV. Although they did not raise him, McDonald and Goessling\u2019s biological mother remained close friends over the years.There was also an unusual coincidence in the family discovery. Goessling and McDonald share the same first name, but that was not because Goessling was named after the musician. Goessling explained that he had been unnamed at birth and was given his name by his adoptive mother, Kay.<\/p>\n Goessling always knew he had been adopted and said he had a \u201cwonderful childhood\u201d with the couple who raised him<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n For McDonald, finding out what had happened to his son after so many years brought a different set of emotions. He said he had spent decades wondering about him and carried guilt over not knowing how his life had turned out.\u201cWe always talked about him. And it always came down to our greatest fear was, how did life treat him?\u201d McDonald said. \u201cI always carried that guilt with me. But just to know that he was ok and that he had a good life, and a life certainly that I wouldn\u2019t have been able to afford him at that time, was a great reward.\u201dMcDonald also spoke about the role of Goessling\u2019s adoptive parents in his life. He praised them for raising him and providing him with a happy childhood. \u201cThe real rock stars in this story are his adoptive parents,\u201d McDonald said.Goessling and McDonald eventually met in person, turning the DNA discovery into a face-to-face family reunion.<\/p>\n When Goessling and McDonald finally met, their first interaction was an embrace. Goessling recalled that McDonald opened his arms, gave him a \u201cbig old bear hug\u201d and told him he loved him. \u201cHe just put his arms out, just gave me a big old bear hug and told me he loved me, and I told him the same,\u201d Goessling said.McDonald also described the meeting as an emotional moment after years of not knowing what had happened to his son. \u201cIt was a wonderful, wonderful experience to see Michael and get to meet my son after all these years thinking about him,\u201d McDonald said.The reunion also brought another unexpected change for McDonald. Meeting Goessling meant discovering that he had grandchildren. \u201cYeah, that\u2019s still sinking in for me. What a gift,\u201d McDonald said with a laugh. \u201cMy daughter-in-law is just the daughter-in-law you\u2019d hope for as a parent. And the kids are two of the greatest kids you\u2019d ever meet. I\u2019m just so proud of them.\u201d<\/div>\n Goessling and McDonald eventually met in person A St. Louis man who was adopted as a baby nearly 60 years ago has discovered that five-time Grammy Award winner Michael McDonald is his biological father. Michael Goessling always knew he had been adopted and said he had a \u201cwonderful childhood\u201d with the couple who raised him. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-31"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/goessling-and-mcdonald-eventually-met-in-person.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/goessling-and-mcdonald-eventually-met-in-person.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/goessling-and-mcdonald-eventually-met-in-person.jpg","large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/goessling-and-mcdonald-eventually-met-in-person.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/goessling-and-mcdonald-eventually-met-in-person.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/goessling-and-mcdonald-eventually-met-in-person.jpg","blogsy-small":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/goessling-and-mcdonald-eventually-met-in-person.jpg","blogsy-small-tall":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/goessling-and-mcdonald-eventually-met-in-person.jpg","blogsy-small-square":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/goessling-and-mcdonald-eventually-met-in-person.jpg","blogsy-small-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/goessling-and-mcdonald-eventually-met-in-person.jpg","blogsy-medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/goessling-and-mcdonald-eventually-met-in-person.jpg","blogsy-medium-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/goessling-and-mcdonald-eventually-met-in-person.jpg","blogsy-large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/goessling-and-mcdonald-eventually-met-in-person.jpg","blogsy-wide":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/goessling-and-mcdonald-eventually-met-in-person.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"admin","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8709732a479614e7a8aa24d3eb1b239f30dc6d90c61464ed495001e7a469d856?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"Goessling and McDonald eventually met in person A St. Louis man who was adopted as a baby nearly 60 years ago has discovered that five-time Grammy Award winner Michael McDonald is his biological father. Michael Goessling always knew he had been adopted and said he had a \u201cwonderful childhood\u201d with the couple who raised him. […]","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36 \u0b2c\u0b3f\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36"],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":4,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":5,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/goessling-and-mcdonald-eventually-met-in-person.jpg",400,225,false],"medium":["https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/goessling-and-mcdonald-eventually-met-in-person.jpg",300,169,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/goessling-and-mcdonald-eventually-met-in-person.jpg",150,84,false]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/author\/admin"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8709732a479614e7a8aa24d3eb1b239f30dc6d90c61464ed495001e7a469d856?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36 \u0b2c\u0b3f\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36<\/a>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A long-standing family mystery<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
![\"Goessling](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/photo\/imgsize-88910,msid-134635743\/goessling-always-knew-he-had-been-adopted-and-said-he-had-a-wonderful-childhood-with-the-couple-who-raised-him.jpg\" "\\"Goessling")
<\/p>\nMichael McDonald talks about the years of uncertainty<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
Father and son meet for the first time<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"