A sperm donor who never expected to meet the children he has fathered has had the chance to during an improbable family gathering.
Todd Whitehurst, 49, had already gotten to know four of his donor children, but met four others when the group was brought together during a long weekend in Cape Cod last July.
It was also the first time the eight half-siblings got meet each other.
'It's pretty awesome,' Whitehurst told CBS News after hugging his donor children.
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Todd Whitehurst (third from the left), 49, had already gotten to know four of his donor children, but met four others when the group was brought together during a family gathering last July
Whitehurst (pictured in his younger days) a computer engineer for Google, donated to the same clinic for four years and said he has 22 donor children that he knows of
The computer engineer for Google and had spotted an ad in his school paper while a Stanford graduate student in 1998 for young men needed for sperm donation.
Whitehurst, who has two children of his own from a previous marriage, said he did not have any reservations about donating his sperm.
'I guess my feeling on it was, the folks who end up going to a sperm bank really want children quite badly,' he told CBS. 'Why wouldn't you want and why wouldn't you want to help those people out?'
For four years, Whitehurst donated to the same clinic about 400 times and followed the protocol required.
He signed the agreement all donors sign to remain anonymous and received a unique donor ID number from the clinic.
The families in return, receive only basic information about the donors including their age, ethnicity and birthplace.
One single donation at a sperm bank can produce up to 24 sellable vials, and with Whitehursts' estimated 400 donations, that could have produced 9,600 sellable vials, according to CBS.
Two of his donor children, Sarah Malley (left) and Carey Phelps (right) are pictured together during the family gathering. They were among the eight half siblings who met last July
Whitehurst said that he has 22 donor children that he knows of.
Six months before the family gathering, one of his donor children 20-year-old Sarah Malley, learned that she and her twin sister Jenna were donor babies, according to CBS.
Malley contacted Whitehurst through an online database called Donor Sibling Registry and helped organize the family gathering.
She said it was 'overwhelming' seeing him when he first walked up.
'I was worried it would be just like a "Hello, it's nice to meet you" handshake. We hugged. And that was like a whole big thing,' she told CBS.
The networking site Donor Sibling Register, founded by Wendy Kramer, was set up for children who want to connect by matching their donor father's unique ID number.
'It's an innate human desire to want to know where we come from,' Kramer told CBS.
Whitehurst said he had spotted an ad in his school paper while a Stanford graduate student in 1998 for young men needed for sperm donation
Carey Phelps, also one of Whitehursts' donor children, wanted to know her biological father and found him when she was 14 years old.
Phelps, who is the daughter of a single mother, said she had known she was a donor child from an early age and spent two weeks searching for him online with the little information she had.
'That moment when I saw his face for the first time, it's just, it's incredible' she recalled of when she saw a photo of him.
After finding him, Phelps emailed Whitehurst and they met in person.
The pair grew close and eventually even took vacations together, some with his other donor children like the one last July, according to CBS.
The donor dad said that while he is not his donor children's parent, he does feel a responsibility for their lives going forward and called them all 'remarkable children'
She said she never felt like something was missing in her life but felt honored being able to meet her half siblings.
'I never felt like there was something missing, because I've been so lucky,' Phelps told CBS.
'I'm so wanted, and that's something that I think a lot of kids can't say for certain.
'And so being able to meet all of these totally different, but at the same time, very related siblings is, it's such an incredible honor for me to grow up this way.'
Whitehurst said that while he is not his donor children's parent, he does feel a responsibility for their lives going forward.
'It's sort of the responsibility I feel as an uncle. I realize I'm not their parent, right? Their parents are primarily responsible for them,' he said.
'But if their parents are unable to help them, then I would step in and do what I could.'
He added: 'You feel love. You want to protect them. You want them to have a happy life. They've all turned out to be really quite remarkable children.'
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