For Debbie Lefebvre, the 12-hour drive from Hyde Park, N.Y., to
Lexington was brief compared with the 42 years of separation from her twin
brother.
But still, she said, their reunion didn't happen soon enough.
"I have a real hard time sticking to the speed limit," she
said yesterday in a phone interview while en route from New York.
"All those years of separation are finally going to be over."
In a tearful meeting yesterday evening, Lefebvre embraced her brother,
Mike Tejeda, of Lexington outside a Days Inn. Both dressed up for the
occasion and kept glancing at each other, as if to make sure they were
really together.
It was the first time they'd seen each other since they were given up
for adoption as babies in 1962.
Lefebvre plans to stay in Lexington for a week to catch up with Tejeda,
a task that both say will never be complete.
The twins, 43, were born in Samaritan Hospital on Sept. 11, 1960, and
were adopted by different families as toddlers. Their biological mother
was unmarried and gave them up less than two years after their births.
Tejeda's adoptive family stayed in Lexington; Lefebvre's moved to New
York.
Tejeda and Lefebvre knew of each other's existence when they were
teenagers, but they didn't actually connect until September 2001.
Tejeda had signed up nearly 20 years ago with the Kentucky Adoption
Reunion Registry, an organization that reunites adoptees and their birth
parents and siblings. His sister registered 18 years later. On Sept. 11,
just hours after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Tejeda
heard his sister's voice for the first time.
"It was a pretty wild day for me," said Tejeda, who made the
call the day after the registry connected them. "It was my birthday,
the World Trade Center was destroyed and I found my twin sister.
"I had to take the rest of the day off."
Tejeda, who graduated from Lafayette High School in 1978, is a projects
manager for Cornerstone Properties, a Lexington-based construction
company. His sister is a grants administrator for a non-profit
organization.
The twins are divorced, and each has a son and daughter. Before
meeting, they communicated for nearly three years through telephone calls
and e-mail.
"There was always something missing in my life," Lefebvre
said, adding that she hopes her brother will fill that void.
Linda Cecil, who runs the Nicholasville-based adoption registry and
made their connection, called it "one of the better reunions I'd done
because I'd personally known Mike." She met Tejeda nearly 20 years
ago in adoption support-group meetings, and said she was "so glad he
hadn't given up hope."
More than 7,000 people are on the free and privately funded registry,
which has a Web site that explains state laws regarding adoption. The
organization averages about four reunions a month.
Cecil, herself an adoptee, began working in the adoption field after
finding her birth family. From experience, she knows the search can be
difficult and hopes the Web site can guide people through the process.
"You haven't done this before, and you're only going to do this
one time," she said. "It can get kind of confusing."
For more information, visit www. kyadoptions.com or call
1-800-455-5574.
