Social Networking Site Reunites Lost Siblings

July 3, 2007 — -- Josh, Jake and Christina Earl were siblings torn apart by circumstances outside their control. Their parents were unable to take care of them.

The trio spent its childhood in Texas, where each was passed back and forth between foster homes in various combinations. Sometimes Jake and Christina were together, other times it was Jake and Josh.

"Nobody wanted all three of us," Jake said. "They either wanted Jake and Christina, Christina and me, Jake and me. It was no combination where we could all be together."

After a few years, Christina was adopted by one family. Later, Jake and Josh were adopted by another. The siblings lost touch and were unaware of each other's new names.

With new last names Jake and Josh Melancon wondered about the fate of their sister.

Jake said he wondered where his sister was and what she was doing. Josh also had a myriad questions.

"What does she look like," he wondered. "Does she look like us? Is she tall? Is she skinny? Is she tall? Is she short? Is she fat? Does she wear glasses?"

And then in August, Jake had a revelation. Every 16-year-old girl he knew had a page on Myspace. But, he wasn't sure he knew his lost sister's name.

"I ended up looking up the only name I really remembered," he said. "I looked up her name and her mother's maiden name."

A few seconds later he hit pay dirt, when Christina Lynch sent him a message.

"Out of curiosity, are your adoptive parents Mary-Ann and Don," Jake questioned online.

She responded: "Yeah -- who are you??"

"I was just shaking at that point, on the computer. It was hard to type, just so much adrenaline going through my body," Jake said when he described the experience.

Jake typed back, "I am pretty sure that I know you."

By this time Christina had figured it all out. "Are you my brother," she asked.

"I was shaking, typing," she said. "It was really, it was weird. It was great though."

Within minutes they were on the phone. For years, unbeknownst to the siblings, they not only ended up in the same state, but in cities only 45 minutes apart.

Josh, now 22, and Jake, 20, were in Sarasota, Fla., and 17-year-old Christina was in St. Petersburg. So, after 12 years of separation the siblings reunited the same night.

"As soon as she came to the door, it was just the barrage of hugs," Josh said.

The once-lost family again was found. Christina said the best part of the entire ordeal was getting more love and more happiness.

"It just really opened my eyes to miracles can happen," she said. "Life has problems and you can always get through them."