For his entire life, Allan Blain, who was adopted as a newborn baby, wondered about his biological family.

Who were they? Did they know where he was? Where they did live?

Now 60 years old, Blain, who lives in Calgary but was born in Scotland, never imagined he would ever have the chance to meet them. And when he did, he never expected to hear that one of his biological brothers had been living near him in Canada all along.

"I was quite excited," Blain told Postmedia News. "It was like, 'wow, I've got a brother here that I can actually go and see?'"

The news, full of surprise twists, was a cheerful ending to a lifetime of heartache and loss that began the day Blain was born.

Born in 1951 in Montrose, Scotland under the name John Sorrie, Blain was adopted soon after birth.

His mother died a few days after due to complications from the birth.

In total, there were 10 children in the Sorrie household.

One of his older sisters was put in charge of taking care of her younger siblings. But taking care of a newborn baby as well was just too much to expect a teenage girl to take on, Blain said.

"I think it was the British family services that determined there was no way that I should go back to that family with the mother gone," he explained. "So I was put up for adoption."

In 1954, Blain's adoptive parents, Bill and Charlotte, immigrated to Canada.

They moved to Claresholm, Alta., a small town south of Calgary. He had a happy childhood, albeit a strict and traditional upbringing, Blain said.

"I was an only child so it was just the three of us," he said.

It wasn't until he was a preteen that he was told he was adopted.

"I was shocked," he recalled. "I had no idea. I never really put anything together that would tell me that."

Not knowing what to think of the unexpected information, Blain said he put it out of his mind.

It wasn't until a few years later when his adoptive mother passed away that he thought about his biological family again.

His adoptive father re-married, and Blain suddenly gained six new stepsiblings, children from his stepmother's previous relationship.

"My new adoptive mother, my stepmother, she quite often asked, 'Do you ever want to find out about your biological family? Have you ever wondered about that?'" he recalled.

Nothing ever came from their talks, and life went on. Blain spent most of his adult life working for Canadian Pacific Railway, and got married. His wife passed away three years ago.

Over the decades, the Sorrie siblings had always wondered what had happened to their youngest brother.

"They didn't know where I went," Blain said. "All they were told is that I had found a good family. They were never told anything else."

Until 2005, it was illegal in the U.K. for biological families to search for family members that had been put up for adoption.

The law was changed that year, and the entire legal framework for adoption was modernized.

According to the British Association for Adoption and Fostering, the new law recognized for the first time the needs of birth relatives who want the opportunity to let their adult adopted relative know of their interest for contact.

Not long after the law changed, the Sorrie siblings began a winding search for their long-lost brother.

Not knowing John had moved to Canada, their leads often led to dead-ends. Eventually, they learned that the Blain family had immigrated to Canada and the two were finally able to establish contact.

Through a letter of introduction from his eldest brother in Scotland, Blain found out that not only did he have a sibling living in Canada, but one who had once lived not too far away from him.

Sydney Sorrie had immigrated to Canada in the mid-1960s, and lived in High River, Alta., a town just south of Calgary.

At the time, Blain said he was living in Edmonton and the two had likely just missed each other.

But Sydney later moved to Victoria, B.C. and Blain had moved to Vancouver.

Blain also often visited a stepbrother who lived in Victoria, and unknowingly drove past his biological brothers' home during each visit.

Blain emailed Sydney, and the two made plans to meet in person.

Although initially apprehensive, Blain said he feared he would always regret it if he didn't agree to meet his blood relatives.

"Now I kind of regret that I didn't do it earlier," he said. "Especially because I had a brother here all along."

During their first meeting, Blain said they hit it off right away. There was a strange familiarity, almost as if they had known each other much longer, he added.

"It was actually quite natural," he said. "It was funny."

There was no denying the sense of familiarity and obvious family resemblance when, in September, Blain travelled with Sydney and his wife Barbara to his birth town in Scotland for a family reunion.

"I just walked in . . . and everybody looked at me and went, 'You look just like such and such!'" he said.

During his two-week visit, Blain said they had plenty of news and family gossip to catch up on, but mostly they just enjoyed each other's company.

"There were a lot of people who just wanted to meet me," he said. "It was quite a party."

With Blain now back in Calgary, plans for more family visits are in the works, he said.

Until then, with 60 years worth of lost time to make up for, the Facebook messages and email updates are flying back and forth across the Atlantic.

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How can anyone not love happy endings. 

When I was little (for reasons which shall remain undisclosed) I used to often wish I had been adopted and some day someone who really wanted me would come looking for me. 

Unfortunately, unless you believe Carl Jung and a few others who indulge in mysticism and comprehend synchronicity, one does not pick ones birth parents or pre-existing siblings.   Sometimes someone seems to be dropped into the wrong mail slot.  I've seen it happen lots of times. 

How lovely it is to read of finding a place to belong before it was too late.  At sixty, wow!  That's almost "luck of the Irish." not the "luck of the Scottish."  Thanks for posting.