I Knew Who My Family Was, Until...

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All my life, I knew who my family was...who my mom was and who my father was. I had one brother (J), and that's it. Or so I thought. When I was 28 years old, I was using MySpace way more than Facebook, and my sister-in-law (K) found me on MySpace. Well, let's just say this came as a shock to me, for one thing my brother, J, wasn't married...for two...this woman knew a good bit about me.

K wrote to me on behalf of her husband, E, who I have found out is indeed my half-brother. She said he had been looking for me for about 10 years, ever since he found out I existed (I had no idea during that time he existed, let alone 2 other half-sisters). He had heard I was at a Florida college, and so he tried looking at UF (AS IF)...well as luck would have it, I was at FSU (GO NOLES!). She decided that fateful Oct. 2007 day to look me up on MySpace and there I was...she later told me she was so nervous writing me not knowing what I'd say.

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Well, when I got that email, I was at work...and I couldn't work anymore that day. She knew who my parents were...and knew where I was from...etc. Whoa! In the back of my mind was something my mom had said to me when I was in high school - she had told me that my father wasn't my father...and I told her, "You're lying, because you hate him." Since, they were long divorced. Well, you'd think someone else trying to tell something would continue to tell them, but apparently that was enough for her to not tell me.

I tried to call my mom to confirm with her, but she was unreachable at this time. I told my grandma (mom's mom) about this..and she said she didn't know anything about me having a father other than (D), but she could believe it. So, K and I conversed some more...and she knew a good bit, but not all...and well I had a lot to find out about! And, my mom finally confirmed that she was 99.9% sure this other man, E, was my father. Whoa. Hello! Wasn't there any other time before they contacted me that you'd think you'd want to tell me? Her response, "I would have told you if you dated {last name}." Awe, thanks for looking out for me mom!

What I found out was: my mom had been dating E when she was 18, she got pregnant with me, and he broke up with her around that time (not that he knew at the time she was pregnant) and had gotten with another women (actually cheated on my mom - hurt her bad as an 18 yr old who was pregnant). She knew D, and he was there the whole time she was pregnant and after she had me, she told everyone that he was the father. He eventually "adopted" me. E apparently tried to get in touch with my mom about me, but she said he was never to have anything to do with me. So, that's how that happened.

Well, turns out that J is my half-brother...because my mom is still my mom and his. D is his father. E had other kids, so they are my other half-siblings - A (older sister), E (younger brother), and C (younger sister). Weird to go from 1 sibling to 4 overnight. And, that means my whole paternal side of my ancestry research was wrong - I now had this whole other side. And this added another grandma and a great-grandmother (still alive, she's 95).

Now, I have a mom, a birth father, and an adoptive father. Whhhhat? Just like that. I also have 3 grandmas, a grandfather, and a great-grandmother still alive. That's pretty awesome. ;) What saddens me though, when doing my ancestry research, is seeing that I could have known almost all of my great-grandparents - it seems most were alive when I was younger (also on my mom's side, but that's another crazy story - let's just say I still wonder why when my mom found out her aunt was her grandma, why then she didn't think it was a good time to tell me - that was in like 1991).

So, yep. And great for genealogy, the new paternal side had done a lot of research and had their ancestry all the way back to the first one to come over in the 1600s...so that was pretty exciting.

Oh, also with the "new" siblings came 9 nieces and nephews, when I had none previously. Yep, 0 to 9 overnight. It was surreal, it was weird....but, here it is nearly 3 and half years later, and I've met most all of them. And, E & his family had only lived about an hour to hour & half away from Orlando (where I lived at the time). It's nice to have more family, but sad we didn't get to meet when we were younger. And, I may never have known if E & K hadn't been curious to find this missing sister of E's. So, at least we all know now and can keep in touch.

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Life sure is funny, I never thought I'd have a story (and this was the short & quick of it) like this to tell. Well, other than the one I already knew about my mom's side of the family (save that for another time)! Sorry, I didn't want to share names or pictures...sharing my story, not sharing all of them.

Has anyone else found out as an adult they were adopted? Or that they had more family than they knew about? It happens a lot more than people think.

2011 Highlights September thru December - Part 3

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Finally, it's only taken 3 posts, but here are the highlights for September through December 2011. Very busy time of the year! Hehe. Hope you are enjoying the highlights I'm sharing. 

September 2011 

We did some things this month, but the best thing we did was go to Orlando to visit friends and go to Disney (are you noticing a theme with me, yet?). 

We had a Happy Hour the night we got there at Ale House near the Airport and had a great turn out! Yet, I didn't do a good job of taking lots of pictures...so here's one.

We went to the opening day of EPCOT's Food & Wine Festival! Oh my gosh, there was so much food to try...we wanted to try it all...but it was hot out and we just couldn't. Luckily we got to go back on Oct. 2nd. Also, we got to attend the first ever Mixology seminar of the Food & Wine Festival - that was amazing - maybe it was the liquor...lol.

At the Mixology Seminar

October 2011

We went to Magic Kingdom's 40th Anniversary Celebration! We saw all the characters parade down Main Street to the Castle and tried to hear the speech being given.... It was super busy this day at the park, but somehow we were able to ride EVERY ride that we wanted to. 

Went to Downtown Disney with a friend and ate at Paridisio 37...oh that was tasty and the tequila was most definitely, good. Plus, great time seeing our friend, Jeff. 

October is the month we celebrated Pete's youngest sister's birthday. 

I got my first Crowdtap Sample & Share for Old Navy ActiveWear and shared this is Nicole, one of Pete's sisters. See the post here.

A few of us tried out the Lexington Oktoberfest, but it underwhelmed us.

Pete & I carved pumpkins for Halloween...that managed to stay on the front porch until December. No kidding..and super mushy! 

November 2011

The leaves were changing color...since moving from FL, this was amazing and beautiful to me. I actually got to see a spectrum of color! 

I saw my first fox...and managed to capture him in a pic..not an amazing pic, but can tell he's a fox!

A new club opened in Columbia, called Club XS. They put me on the VIP entry list, so 4 of us went to check it out. It's big, it plays decent enough music, and has 2 bars...I liked it. Of course, Pete liked it the first visit, but hated it the second.

Pete & I spent Thanksgiving eating a meal at Cracker Barrel. The meal was blah, but the company was nice. Then we saw Arthur Christmas in 3D. I thought it was super cute.

And, we put up our Christmas tree and started decorating Thanksgiving weekend. 

December 2011

Pete and I attended the Festivus Airing of Grievances Pub Crawl in Five Points. It started out slow, but we had a good time.

Pete's dog, Martog, had a weird episode. We think a siezure on Dec. 3rd. Scared us all, so we brought him to an Emergency Night Vet. After a lot of testing and money, they found that he has cancer in his kidney and prostate. For now we are opting to give him pain meds and just manage his condition. 

I hosted an ABBA You Can Dance Wii Party that I received from Crowdtap. We snacked, laughed, and danced to ABBA songs! See my post here. 

We went to Orlando again! This time no Disney visit. Instead, joined a bunch of friends at my work's holiday party. Had a great time and even won a bottle of wine. 

Visited with my brother, Ed, SIL Karen, and their kids.

The next night we celebrated Pete's birthday with Steve & K at Sushi Pop and then went downtown with Paula & Fabian. Really turned into a great night! 

Awesomely made Partida Blanco tequila shot

I hosted an Old Navy Bundle Up Winter Gear Party that I got from Crowdtap with Rebekah, Elizabeth, and Nicole! See my post here.

We had a gift exchange with Pete's SC family before we headed up to MI to spend the holidays with the other half of his family. 

Christmas Eve is when Pete's MI family gets together and exchanges gifts. We ate and then a crazy time of gifts being given and unwrapped happened. 

Pete & I took his twin nieces to Bronner's Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, MI. Had a great time looking at everything, taking lots of pictures and shopping! Managed to stay in budget for what I planned to spend there. :)

Pete and his niece built a snowman after midnight! There was enough snow on the ground and the right consistency...it's a good thing they did, next day it got too warm! Here's there over 7 ft snowman!

Lastly, we rung in the New Year in Traverse City, MI at the Cherry Ball Drop with Pete's sister, Kelly, and his long time friends - Russ & Melissa. This night started out slow, but turned out to be a fantastic way to ring in 2012! 

Hope you all enjoyed! That's all for 2011's highlights! Happy 2012 everyone!