New friends discover they are brothers

>>> and we're back now at 8:10 with a chance meeting that brought two long lost brothers together again. nbc's kerry sanders is out in washington, missouri, with that story. good morning to you.

>> reporter: well, good morning, matt. this is an amazing story of unexpected crossed paths. two strangers, really, boys at the swimming pool doing what boys sometimes do, horseplaying around when one of their friends said you two are fighting like brothers. that's when isaac and dakota wondered, might it be true?

>> reporter: at first glance, who would guess these siblings had not grown up together? they like the same sports, love the same video games , even dress alike. but until recently, the brothers wither strangers.

>> my name is isaac and i'm 12.

>> i'm dakota and i'm 13.

>> and my brother is dakota .

>> my brother is isaac .

>> that isaac from rural washington, missouri, and dakota from augusta, only 12 miles away met is one of those chance events in life that makes you wonder if fate really exists. for ten years, isaac who didn't know he was adopted and dakota who was being raised by his grandmother lived oh so close, but never crossed paths. one day at the community swimming pool , they started splashing each other.

>> i kept splashing and he goes, why are you backing up? why you backing up?

>> what? you scared? he kept on saying, no.

>> what does somebody say to you about the way you're fighting? this friend says what?

>> he says you're fighting like brothers and stuff.

>> and i look at isaac and at first i'm like, well, he sort of looks like me and stuff. so i was starting to get curious.

>> reporter: the type of curiosity that only two boys would so openly examine.

>> here's my nose and his, same size.

>> while friend jayden says they laugh alike, walk alike and even at times talk alike. isaac had to be sure.

>> i went to go ask my mom. i asked her.

>> and he looked at me and he says -- am i adopted and do i have a brother?

>> and she said.

>> what makes you think that?

>> i said i met my brother. and we started crying the whole night.

>> i was just really happy that i knew that i found my brother now.

>> the first halloween together.

>> there are some snapshots of the two brothers together as toddlers before their birth mother and father unexpectedly died. their grandmother who was raising dakota had always wondered how after so many years she could bring him together with isaac who had been adopted.

>> to have all my grand kids together, it's like a miracle.

>> reporter: an improbable series of events that's not lost on these two young brothers who aren't sure what to make of this old photo other than brotherly love . is a connection that was never really broken.

>> reporter: as anybody who has a brother knows, you love them until you hate them and both isaac and dakota say they have already had some great knock down, dragout fight, but both of them say they couldn't be happier to have someone to wrestle with.

>> nice story. kerry, thank you very much.