Korean Adoptee Finds Identical Twin

“Cat Coat’s peaceful Northwest Portland apartment is the perfect place to paint what’s on her mind … and in her heart.
She has had so much to reflect on since May of last year, when a call from a woman at an adoption agency changed Cat’s life.

“She said, ‘Are you sitting down?’ I said yes. ‘You’re not driving a car?’ I said no,” Coats said. “And then she said ‘Your birth family has been searching for you for years.'”

Cat is almost 40 years old. She grew up in the United States knowing she had been adopted from South Korea. Yet, she had no idea that her Korean family was looking for her.

The first meeting was full of emotion.

“As soon as I walked into that room, I grabbed my heart,” said Cat.

Cat laid eyes on a face that looked so familiar; it was the identical twin she never knew she had.

“I looked at my twin and it was identical,” she said. “It was like looking at a stranger’s face that was mine.”

As for her biological mother, she is alive and well, but her father died of lung cancer. The family was so poor, their elders forced them to give up one of their twin babies.

“They kept the first born, which is my twin,” Cat said, “and I was born 15 minutes later and they had me put up for adoption.”

Cat says her biological mom has felt horrible since that day.

“The first thing that my birth mother said was I’m sorry,” Cat said.

Cat came to find out she was born as Son, Yi Soon. She visited South Korea in January to meet her entire family, but the emotional journey never seems to end.

“After the reunion, life still goes on and it can be kind of sad — because after I met them, I missed them,” said Cat.

She keeps in contact through email and phone calls. There is a language barrier, but it’s a small challenge after putting an end to 38 years apart. ”

NW Portland woman finds identical twin

[KOIN Local 6 10/29/12 by Carly Kennelly]

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