Lost and found...
I've been uber busy with my new job, but something really amazing happened a few weeks back and I thought I'd share the good news:
I’m the type that likes to vanity search and google people, just for funsies. I also do searches for family members that have fallen by the wayside and especially my birth mother. I had actually used a people finder service a few years ago with no such luck, and while I was getting my credit report online, there was a link to another search site and I decided, “why not?”
Well…
I found my birth mother. I was absolutely stunned when a hit came back with her maiden name. When I clicked on the link, a whole page worth of information, including a recent address, married name, spouse’s name, on and on and on - it was all there. I just sat, staring - a part of me was telling myself it might not be her, but really I knew. Mark had come into the office and asked me what was up, and I told him, “I think I found my mom.”
“Are you serious? Why aren’t you calling?”
I hadn’t thought about that. It sounds ridiculous, but I was incredibly nervous. It wasn’t anything like she wouldn’t want to know me or what have you, she had always been in contact, but we moved at one point when I was 10 or so and she was getting married and moving herself, and we lost each other. Anyway, Mark being Mark, he jotted the phone number down and while he dialed the number, I went to the living room and started pacing. Someone picked up, it was my mom’s husband, and Mark introduced himself and I didn’t hear anything else after that because my stomach had dropped to my feet.
15 minutes or so later, Mark came out to the living room - “You have an older step-brother, a step-sister a year younger than you and a younger step-brother who turned 30 3 days ago. You also have 2 nieces, one is 5 and the other is 12. And, your mother will be calling you in 2 hours.”
She lives in a town outside of Seattle - and actually, it wasn’t too far from where Mark and I actually considered moving a few years back. We have the same laugh, we both would prefer to not wake up before 9am, (so much so, we both work jobs that start after 10am) and we both agree that a purring cat and pajamas are a good way to spend an afternoon. She has kept an album of every letter, thank you note, picture and newspaper article sent - when she talks about her children, she tells people of her step-children and her own child, me. People have often asked her, when she shows an 8th grade picture of me, “Oh, is that you as a girl?” - this has completely blown my mind.
Mark and I are looking to make a trip out to Washington in June for Tessie’s birthday - I’ve been told there is a HUGE family and collection of aunts, uncles and cousins on my step-father’s side of the family who have all heard about me and want to meet me. It’s incredibly overwhelming and at times I’m so grateful that we have found each other, and another part of me that is hesitant and doesn’t want to get too attatched.
It’s really difficult how to put to words how this is all fitting into my head, but she’s there. She’s real. And she’s waited for me all this time.
Life really loves to throw curve balls when you least expect it.
I’m the type that likes to vanity search and google people, just for funsies. I also do searches for family members that have fallen by the wayside and especially my birth mother. I had actually used a people finder service a few years ago with no such luck, and while I was getting my credit report online, there was a link to another search site and I decided, “why not?”
Well…
I found my birth mother. I was absolutely stunned when a hit came back with her maiden name. When I clicked on the link, a whole page worth of information, including a recent address, married name, spouse’s name, on and on and on - it was all there. I just sat, staring - a part of me was telling myself it might not be her, but really I knew. Mark had come into the office and asked me what was up, and I told him, “I think I found my mom.”
“Are you serious? Why aren’t you calling?”
I hadn’t thought about that. It sounds ridiculous, but I was incredibly nervous. It wasn’t anything like she wouldn’t want to know me or what have you, she had always been in contact, but we moved at one point when I was 10 or so and she was getting married and moving herself, and we lost each other. Anyway, Mark being Mark, he jotted the phone number down and while he dialed the number, I went to the living room and started pacing. Someone picked up, it was my mom’s husband, and Mark introduced himself and I didn’t hear anything else after that because my stomach had dropped to my feet.
15 minutes or so later, Mark came out to the living room - “You have an older step-brother, a step-sister a year younger than you and a younger step-brother who turned 30 3 days ago. You also have 2 nieces, one is 5 and the other is 12. And, your mother will be calling you in 2 hours.”
She lives in a town outside of Seattle - and actually, it wasn’t too far from where Mark and I actually considered moving a few years back. We have the same laugh, we both would prefer to not wake up before 9am, (so much so, we both work jobs that start after 10am) and we both agree that a purring cat and pajamas are a good way to spend an afternoon. She has kept an album of every letter, thank you note, picture and newspaper article sent - when she talks about her children, she tells people of her step-children and her own child, me. People have often asked her, when she shows an 8th grade picture of me, “Oh, is that you as a girl?” - this has completely blown my mind.
Mark and I are looking to make a trip out to Washington in June for Tessie’s birthday - I’ve been told there is a HUGE family and collection of aunts, uncles and cousins on my step-father’s side of the family who have all heard about me and want to meet me. It’s incredibly overwhelming and at times I’m so grateful that we have found each other, and another part of me that is hesitant and doesn’t want to get too attatched.
It’s really difficult how to put to words how this is all fitting into my head, but she’s there. She’s real. And she’s waited for me all this time.
Life really loves to throw curve balls when you least expect it.