It is an incredible story of hope, love and determination. When Jennifer Braica and April Kreppel were separated at the very start of their lives, it would have been likely that they’d never meet again. When Braica was born, she was put up for adoption before she even got a chance to meet the then 2-year-old Kreppel. But after 20 years of searching, the two have finally reunited.
“Mom had said that she couldn’t afford her, so she had to give her a good home,” Kreppel said of her sister, as reported by ABC News. When Kreppel was 19 years of age, she finally learned that she had a sister who had been placed for adoption at birth. Almost unbelievably, Braica did not learn she had a sister until she was 27 years old. “When I found I had a sister that was two years older than me, which made me want to find them even more,” Jennifer said.
“I always wanted to find my biological parents,” the 47-year-old continued, “not to replace my adoptive family, but out of curiosity, to see where my roots were.”
Braica set about scouring through Ancestry.com, in hope of finding her long-lost sister. After years of committing themselves to the search, the pair finally reunited at a Florida airport Friday, sharing an emotional embrace. “My sissy!” Braica said as she hugged Kreppel, of Wellington, Florida, at the airport.
“Our daughters are so happy because they’ve listened to us whine about it since they were babies,” Braica explained to WBPF.
Since getting together, the sisters have spent several days together, catching up on lost time and getting to know each other. Plus, they had more in common than they initially expected. “We had a childhood song that we both sand and never knew. We sang it together cooking dinner,” Braica said. “It’s just been amazing. This has been the best week of my life.”
Not only do the sisters plan to keep in touch, but in the long-term they would like to live near each other.
“I look at her and I feel like I’ve known her my entire life,” Braica explained. “She’s beautiful and she’s so much more than I ever expected. And she will never get away from me again.”