For years, Orlando has been known as the place to take your family.
For Lynette Anderson, it’s where she found her family.
Anderson was given up for adoption when she was young, and as she grew older, she longed to find her birth family — specifically her birth mother.
“She was just 23 when she gave me up,” the 57-year-old Land O’ Lakes resident said. “I always told my husband that if I did (find her) I’d reach out, and even if I didn’t meet her, I’d just tell her, ‘I’m OK,’ and close that chapter of my life.”
After years of searching, it turns out her birth mother was closer than she could have imagined.
As Anderson was visiting her daughter and grandkids in Orlando in December 2022, she got an email from the popular DNA testing kit, 23andMe. They found a direct match — to a cousin.
It took one phone call to connect, then learn her birth mother — plus a half-sister — were, incredibly, just 20 minutes away.
“It was a whirlwind from there,” Anderson said. “I opened the results and in a few hours I’m talking to a new family member and already planning a meeting.
“What are the chances they live so close, but I was in the same town when I found out about them?!”
Anderson’s birth mother, Sandy Teal, and her half-sister, Megan Teal, live in the north Orlando suburb of Longword.
In less than 24 hours of receiving the email — and after searching for more than 30 years — Anderson’s family expanded.
Adopting a search
Anderson, growing up in Oregon, had always noticed the difference.
She was adopted, but so were two of her three siblings.
“My friend asked me in Pre-K why I didn’t look like my parents, so I asked my parents and they told me I was adopted,” Anderson said. “I didn’t look like my siblings either. As I got older, I told my best friend I was adopted, and she’s been obsessed with finding my birth mother — she just looked in Yellow Pages, but I was like, ‘I don’t know her name!’”
Anderson and her best friend kept looking.
Oregon opened its adoption records in 1991 to public searches — if parties involved in the adoptions consented. Almost immediately, Anderson went back to the adoption agency and requested those records.
But nothing ever revealed itself, even when she moved to Florida in 2004.
They had been looking in the wrong place — because they had the wrong age and birth year for Sandy, Anderson explained.
“It was all miscommunication,” Anderson said. “Because they requested records, too, and neither one of us ever got them even though, when I moved, I requested any updates. It just never happened.”
Anderson lived her life, got married, raised her children and became a grandmother.
But she never stopped looking.
Her best friend — the one who had initially encouraged her search — also persuaded her to take the DNA test.
“The test sat in the drawer for a while, and when I did it, I didn’t even tell my husband,” Anderson said. “When I got that email and called my friend, she was like, ‘Open it, open it, open it!’ and, yeah, I was nervous, but when we met, it was emotional, but I think it was more emotional for (Sandy and Megan).
“I could tell, for Sandy, it was.”
“It was all very exciting,” Sandy said, “and it was something I had looked forward to for a long time — I really did think it would never happen.”
Family matters
Anderson had a great family life.
Her adoptive parents provided for her, lovingly.
Finding her birth parents was never about the fear of what she missed out on — it was always about just getting a little closure and putting to rest any remaining curiosity that lingered for decades.
“She made the right decision to not be a single mom and put me up for adoption,” Anderson said. “I had a great upbringing in a very idyllic home and family with friends and everything.
“I’m more happy for her, because it brings it to a closure and now she has the answer of if she made the right decision.”
Megan Teal said gaining a new sister has been an “incredible gift.”
“I didn’t know I had a sister until my mom told me, geez, 20 years ago about the adoption,” Megan added. “I didn’t know the DNA test could be so fast and outreaching, but in the matter of a day, I had a half-sister. … And to just see the resemblance, it was remarkable when we met.”
Anderson agrees.
“Megan is very much like my personality,” she added. “When I met Megan, I really clicked with her — because she is a lot like me. I can see it.
“In an adoptive family, you are nothing like your parents and siblings, but here is someone I just met and we’re so much alike!”
Now, this newly formed family will spend time getting to know one another.
Anderson, in seeking closure, is now bonding with her birth mother — and Sandy is delighted.
“It’s just been so exciting, but it was such a wonderful gift to get more family,” Sandy said. “Some people might not think getting more family is — but I do. It was so good to hear she had a great family, a great life growing up, so I don’t think — ‘What if?’ — anymore.
“The weight is off my shoulders now.”
Published May 10, 2023
