Thursday, January 3, 2008

Long lost brother has been found!!!


The Dofelmier family has received some incredible news in the past few days. Darren Kyle and I have discovered that we have an older half brother!!! I know, crazy. No Joke! His name is Derek Andrews and he lives in Wichita Falls Texas. When My dad was in the Air Force he married a woman named Betty Johnson. They had a child in 1962 and shortly after they divorced. My Dad relinquished his parental rights so when Betty remarried, her new husband could adopt Derek. Derek has gone through his entire life without knowing a single thing about who his biological father was. When I was about 16 my dad had told all of us kids that he had been married before and he had a child. That was the first we had ever heard of it. We had very little hope of ever finding Derek because we didn't know his name and he knew nothing of my fathers existence or last name. All we knew was his mothers maiden name, which was Johnson and they had once lived in Texas. Very recently Derek's grandparents had presented him with his real birth certificate and he discovered is given name was Derek Joseph Dofelmier and his father was Lawrence Joseph Dofelmier, My Dad!!!! He Googled Dofelmier and Darren and Amelia's blog showed up. He left this long post on there blog explaining who he was and that he wanted to get into contact with us. Needless to say it been a crazy, and exciting couple of days for the Dofelmier Family and for Derek Andrews, my older half bother. This is a picture of him and his wife Jennifer taken in 1994 and if you have ever known my dad or have seen a picture of him you would know that he is family. We are looking forward to building a relationship with Derek and letting him know what a great man his biological dad was.

3 Comments:

Blogger Jay & Michelle said...

That's so great that he found you guys! I bet you can't wait to meet him in person...

January 5, 2008 at 9:38 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ryan - that is so awesome! He totally looks like a Dofelmier. It's crazy. You can totally tell he's your brother. I love it. I am so happy for you guys. What an exciting time. Congrats to the Dofelmier/Andrews families!

January 16, 2008 at 11:14 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Um, I can't remember our user name and password. Sorry...The last post is from me.

Melody

January 16, 2008 at 11:15 PM  

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