Eric Paulson of Pennsylvania knew he was adopted, but he had no idea that his father was something of a surfing legend in Hawaii.

Lisa Wheeler, who grew up in Hawaii, found out when she was a teen that she had an older brother who had been put up for adoption.

It never crossed Paulson’s mind that he might have siblings, but for Wheeler the thought of a brother she didn’t know somewhere in the world was a constant heartache. Her mother died in 2003, and then three years ago the brother she was raised with died. Finding her lost brother became something of an obsession.

“When I couldn’t sleep at night, I would search the internet for him,” Wheeler said. She didn’t even know his name. “Finally, I said, ‘God, I am so tired of searching. Just bring him on. I want him to come to me.’”

Wheeler happily describes her childhood as “complicated.” She grew up in Foster Village with two siblings. The three had the same mother, but each had a different father. Their mother, Jane, had been a professional ice skater who performed with a troupe around the world.

“She was as proper as proper is, but she enjoyed her youth,” Wheeler said. Before marrying Wheeler’s father, Jane had been married to a magician and juggler known as Val Valentine. He was the father of the boy born in 1951. Val was a nickname, and nobody who remembered him could remember his real name. He had died in 1974. Wheeler didn’t have much to go on.

A few years ago Paulson took a DNA test through 23andMe. He just wanted to find out about his ethnic heritage and maybe get some clues about his health. He started getting notifications by email that would say “so-and-so might be a fifth cousin,” but after a while he just ignored them.

In April, Wheeler, who now lives in California, took a DNA test through 23andMe. On May 2 she got an email notification with the news she had been hoping for almost all her life: There was a man in Pennsylvania who was, without a doubt, her half brother.

Since finding each other, the siblings have talked and texted every day. He traveled to see her, then she traveled to see him and now they’re in Hawaii together. The first thing they did after they got off the plane was head to Punchbowl to visit their mother’s grave. It would have been her 90th birthday on Nov. 3, the day they arrived in Honolulu.

On Monday they drove to Sunset Beach to the surf break known as Val’s Reef, named for Eric’s father, Kenneth Robert “Val” Valentine, a surfer, board shaper and surf film maker who used to have a house right on the shore that was a hangout for North Shore surfers in the 1970s.

They met one of Val Valentine’s dearest friends, 90-year-old Glen Powell, pastor at Sunset Beach Christian Church, who told them epic stories about how Eric’s father lived and died and who marveled at how much Eric looked like his dad. “I would have picked him out as Val’s son in a crowd of a thousand,” Powell said.

Wheeler and Paulson can’t get over how connected they feel to one another and how easy it is to be together. It’s as though they’ve known each other their whole lives. “I never remotely considered I had siblings, ” Paulson said. “It’s been a shock. But a good shock. It’s life-changing.”

“If I died tomorrow my life would be complete,” Wheeler said, leaning her head against her brother’s arm. “My heart is full.”

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.