Heart Full of Love––Part I

I’m sitting here at the outside table with my SISTER! One I didn’t even know I had until March of this this year. #sistersmeetingfor1sttime

This is an amazing experience for me. I grew up with an older brother, also adopted.

I was never going to do it. My whole life, I’ve said, “I’m never going to seek out my birth mother. What if she never told anyone about me? I could end up ruining her life. That’s the last thing I want to do.”

Over the years, and after the Internet wasn’t such a newfangled idea, I’d sometimes Google my birth mother’s name. Nothing.

Finally, last year, I Googled her name one last time. And there she was…in an obituary on Ancestry. Because I wasn’t a member of Ancestry at the time, I couldn’t get any further information.

Then, Christmas came and all those Ancestry DNA commercials on television. It wasn’t expensive, so I thought, “I’ll do it.” I wanted to learn my ethnicity and prove to myself––or anyone else––who I was. Who my birth mother was.

So, I did it. Now, while I’m not certain the DNA test was entirely accurate, (I’ve found out since that it probably isn’t), it was able to give me the names of two first cousins. I corresponded with one of them who had nearly 5,000 people on is family tree. And there was my birth mother, among them. Yay! I’d proved it.

As a member then, I was able to read a copy of her obituary. She died a year before my mother passed away. At only 69. I’m in my sixties, and I began to wonder if there would be something I could have inherited that would cause me to do the same. I didn’t think so, but it made me wonder.

When I first saw a picture of my birth mother, my jaw dropped to the floor. You can read about that here. I looked so much like her! I was truly astounded!

So, I eventually send a message through Ancestry to the other cousin. I heard nothing.

Then…a few weeks later, a message on my blog from––my sister! We made arrangements to talk on the phone, and the rest is history.

I write from my sister’s front courtyard. It truly causes my heart to overflow with joy at the beginning of our yearly season of joy as we celebrate Christmas.

We hugged and kissed at the Tucson airport a few days ago. I’ve met other relatives, including two incredible aunts, nieces and…my biological brother. It’s a wow!

My heart bursts with love for my family…all of them.

In two days, I go to California to visit the brother I grew up with. My husband has never been to California before. I can’t wait to see what he thinks.

All I can say is: Value your family this Christmas, even the ones you may not get along with so well. You never know how much time you may have with them. Click to Tweet

I’m so thankful God changed my heart to search for my relatives. As time goes by, you’ll be hearing more about them…and the incredible visit I am in the middle of right now.