BURTON, S.C. (WSAV) - Thanksgiving is a holiday for families to come together and don't always have to be "blood relatives" to be "family". For Burton Fire Captain Lee Levesque, November, which is National Adoption Month, has an extra special meaning. "I have no doubt that both my sister Wendy and I, even though we ended up in separate homes, we won the lottery the day we were adopted," explains Levesque. "I think I was 18 months. Definitely before I was two," remembers Levesque. "One of us, either she or I, was thrown out of the second-floor window in a drugged and rage-induced fit of our biological father, which triggered a whole lot of things to occur." His parents were abusive, with major issues of their own, and placed Levesque and his sister into foster care before the age of 2. It's a difficult story Levesque is now proud to tell, not as much because of his success, but more because of the people who adopted him, and dozens if not hundreds of others his parents Pat and Louis Levesque. "I think for 30 years, 40 years, they took foster children in. There were 18 kids in our house at one time. It always seemed to be all girls. I never understood that they had three of their own and they adopted many more," said Levesque. Levesque said that atmosphere, the love her was given by his adoptive parents, may very well have saved his life. "Had I not been adopted. I'm not certain I'd be sitting here today," said Levesque. "As old as I am. I'm not certain I live this long. Both parents struggle with addiction in some form or fashion. My father struggled with a great deal of anger issues that he took out of both my mom and my sibling and I.  So I don't know, jail or death probably would have taken me long ago had I not ended up where I'm at. Instead, he was adopted at age six and followed in his adopted father's footsteps by going into the military and then the fire service. "The care they can provide to someone who otherwise wouldn't have it," said Levesque. "They didn't have to be my mom or dad. They chose to." His sister ended up in another family. She was eventually adopted by that couple but kept from her biological brother. It took a chance encounter some 12 years after that to reconnect. "I'm in high school. I'm going to vocational school during the day for computers," remembers Levesque.  "And I happened to hear that my biological sister may be a student at one of the local schools within our county, the other end of our county, um, there's a kid that is my computer lab partner that goes to that school. So I asked him, I said, Hey, do you know this girl named Wendy Williams? And he kind of got a little offended for a moment. I'm like, you're right. He goes, Yeah, that's my girlfriend. So, as fate would have it, he was dating my sister. So I sent a letter after I convinced him that I wasn't trying to steal his girlfriend,  I wrote a letter and I let him read it. And I said, Would you give that to her? And took a month or two, if I remember correctly, for her to reach back out. She sent a letter back through him and we would meet." That meeting led to the siblings connecting once again. Now, they each have a bond through blood and through their respective adoptive families. Levesque's biological mother died in the 1990's. He never was able to talk to her after she gave him up. Only recently did he reconnect with his Aunt. who helped fill in some of the blanks about his parents and life before adoption. Levesque takes the lesson he learned from his biological parents and adoptive parents as one to help him now with his own children, who carry the "Levesque" name proudly. "I'm a firefighter/EMT because of my dad. Near and dear to my heart, are two local charities that work with children, CAPA and Bluffton Self-Help. And I will bend over backward to do anything I can for either of those two groups just because that's not for me. It's for them." "I will say that all of my parenting I definitely do from a different perspective," explains Lee. "The bigger thing is I have to believe that I had the luxury of four parents. Two that didn't do so good and two that did spectacularly. Here I am in the middle hoping that I can avoid the bad and do the good." The good in Lee's mind is the second chance he was given. An opportunity he hopes will be afforded to the thousands of other kids still waiting to find that "forever home". "There's a lot of great stories, and I don't sit here as one because I'm not so arrogant," says Levesque. "But I will tell you, my parents sit here as one Patricia and Louis Levesque, sit here is one of the greatest gifts to fostering on this planet. I'm convinced of it, and I've got a lot of siblings that would make the same argument." Since its inception in 2000, more than 75,000 children found their forever families on National Adoption Day, November 23. More than 300 events are held throughout the country to finalize the adoptions of children in foster care, and to celebrate all families who adopt. To find out more about National Adoption Day, click here. For details on how to adopt, click here.