Adoptee Finds Sister on Facebook

“”Your birth parents had one other child…..a baby girl named Angel.”

That single sentence in a child welfare file gave Winnipeg adoptee Garrick Rokyta a new mission in life — to find an older sister he never knew existed.

Now, after almost 15 years of searching, he finally found her on Facebook.

“I just knew she was out there somewhere,” Rokyta said. “There was just something in me that said ‘you can’t give up, because she’s out there.'”

And she was. Angel Martin was alive and well, living in Medicine Hat, Alta. But while Rokyta knew she existed, she had no idea that he did until early November, when he sent her the Facebook message.

“I kind of sloughed him off and said ‘no, I’m the only child, I don’t know what you’re talking about,'” said Martin, who was raised by their birth mother. “I didn’t know he existed until (after) my mom passed away in July. And she’d never said anything.”

A cross-reference of birth dates, documents and emotional phone calls comparing family factoids confirmed the powerful truth.

“The first phone call was a lot of tears, a lot of laughter and a lot of questions,” Rokyta said. “It was a relief and I couldn’t ask for anything better.”

But there was one thing better; their first time face-to-face. While originally, they planned to meet at Christmas, Rokyta couldn’t wait that long. With his wife encouraging him on, he rented a car and headed west.

Martin, meanwhile, had the same idea and at the exact same time, got into her truck and headed to Winnipeg.

When they finally met in person (she got word he was coming, so she changed her plans and stayed put), they were, by both accounts, elated.

“There’s no words to describe,” Martin said. “I’ve totally fallen in love with my new family and I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Neither of them still understand the reasons for his adoption and with their birth mother dead, they never will. Still, they think she helped them along.

“To me, she reached out and said ‘here you go. You’ve got more blood out there,'” Martin said.

And today, they look forward to their first Christmas together.

“Me knowing her for the last week and a bit it’s turned my life around. It’s just changed me,” Rokyta said. “It’s brought me to be a much happier person.”

Winnipeg adoptee surprises birth sister on Facebook [CBC 11/23/15 by Donna Carreiro]

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