How four siblings were reunited after 18 years apart
Four Russian siblings who lost contact with their youngest brother when he was adopted into a New Zealand family have finally reconnected after 18 years.
Ivan Telbezekov, 28, Anastasiya Lubichenko, 31, and Uriy Lubichenko, 30, who live in Novokuznetsk, southwestern Siberia, Russia, tracked down Maxim, who was moved to New Zealand in 2002.
They were separated as children when Anastasiya was 13, and her brothers were aged 1, 9, and 11. Their mother had died and they were placed into adoptive care.
Maxim was only three when he was flown to be with a new family in New Zealand.
On Tuesday, Facebook page I’m Adopted, run by adoptee Alex Gilbert, announced the siblings had been reunited after it helped Anastasiya get in touch with Maxim.
Anastasiya had appealed for help in a post to the page on Sunday, saying she hoped to find out if her long lost brother was “fine and happy”.
“I have information that in the 2002 he was adopted by a family from the New Zealand. After that time I know nothing about him. Please help me to find our brother,” she wrote.
Attached to her post, Anastasiya shared a photo of herself and two brothers as young children and as adults, but Maxim was missing from both.
Since receiving her request for assistance, Mr Gilbert managed to get in touch with Maxim’s adoption agency, who then told Maxim his siblings were looking for him.
“The good news is, they now have contact,” Mr Gilbert wrote in a post to his own Facebook page on Tuesday.
“Maxim agreed to get in touch with me and last night I told him the news over the phone about his siblings in Russia who were wanting to get in touch with him,”
The siblings had since communicated through social media and planned to meet up in either New Zealand or Russia soon.
Maxim expressed his gratitude to Mr Gilbert in a comment on his post.
“Thank you very much everyone who helped and made this dream come true!
We will never be split again,” he wrote.
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