Separated at birth, Indonesian-born twins reunited in Sweden

TWINS born in Indonesia and put up separately for adoption, have been reunited after finding each other on Facebook, living just 40km apart in southern Sweden, three decades later.

Non-identical twins Emilie Falk and Lin Backman strangers until last year were separated nearly 29 years ago.

According to a DNA test the pair had done two months after reuniting in January last year there is a 99.98 percent chance of them being sisters.

Both were adopted from an orphanage in Semarang in northern Indonesia by Swedish couples. When Backman's parents left the orphanage with her all those years ago, the taxi driver had turned around and asked them: "What about the other one, the sister?" and they jotted the girls' Indonesian names down on a piece of paper.

The name helped Backman's parents track down the Falks back in Sweden, and the two families got together a few times when the girls were babies to compare notes.

Although their parents had told them the story as children, both Falk and Backman later forgot about it.

"But when I got married two years ago I started thinking about family and my adoption, and when I asked my mother she told me this story again, and I decided to look for Lin," Falk said.

She had a name and began searching through a network for Indonesian children adopted by Swedish families, and found her on Facebook.

"I was born on March 18, 1983, in Semarang and my biological mother's name is Maryati Rajiman," Falk said she wrote, and quickly received the reply: "Wow, that's my mother's name as well! And that's my birthday!"

"When Lin called me (with the DNA test results), I remember I was sitting in the car and when she told me I started laughing, because it just felt so strange," she said, adding: "I suddenly started thinking that we shared a womb. It was really strange, but really cool too."

Asked if she wished she had found out about her twin earlier, Falk insisted "there's no use in being sad about something I didn't know about. I am only happy to have found her."

AFP