Twins meet after 42-year separation

LEXINGTON MAN AND NEW YORK WOMAN WERE ADOPTED BY DIFFERENT FAMILIES

By Melissa Sanchez and Howard Wang

HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITERS

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.