After a long exhausting trip, we arrived into the neighborhood of Freeport. Didn't look like much, pretty shady, actually, until the desolate gave way to splendor. Exquisite houses, landscaped yards, quiet streets. We slowed, trying to find the number of the house...and once we finally did, my heart began to pound. After 29 years, I was about to meet my birthfather's family. We had reunited by phone on Easter, and my husband, youngest daughter and I had braved the Florida fires and traveled up the East coast to meet them for the first time. I was literally shaking. I begged my husband to knock on the door, as I felt I would simply collapse if I did. He chuckled at my nervousness, and as I carried my youngest daughter (it WAS 3:30 am), the door opened to reveal the first of my blood relatives that I resembled. April, my father's sieter, kind of looked like a cross between me and Whoopi Goldberg. Nothing like I had expected. We embraced, and I felt a warmth that had been bottled up for almost 30 years. After we had set our things down, April informed us my grandmother had just gone to bed, as she had waited till 2:30 am, just sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting. So, I ventured upstairs to put Robin to sleep and Kaylan, my darling cousin, awoke. I immediately saw a striking resemblance between her and myself at her age. Growing up not knowing who you look like is weird enough, but then to be faced with the people not only you resemble, but also with the people who held the key to half of your heritage that you were never exposed to your entire life. In a word? Wow.The next morning we awoke, and soon were playing with water guns out in the backyard (as Kaylan and Robin had stayed up the entire night), and I realized I should get out of my big wet t-shirt before I met my grandmother, so I headed inside in order to make myself somewhat decent and BAM! ran smack dab into me 30 years from now. I was like a deer caught in the headlights. But it was wonderful seeing her. wonderful, the understatement of the year.
The couple of days went so fast, I never wanted to leave. I felt for the first time in my life TOTAL AND FULL UNCONDITIONAL LOVE like never before in my life. It all just went way too fast. My aunt threw a wonderful barbecue where we got to meet some of her husband's family, and tthe whole time she made use of her exquisite culinary talents I also went through my family's porfolios of fantastic fashion that my aunt designed, and breathtaking art done by my aunt and also my grandfather (in Fresno that I have yet to meet). Incredible photography and a gorgeous black German Sheperd named Maya... my aunt is, in a word, unbelievable. I found so much answered about my past, and about where I came from, found why I do the things I do, and why I am who I am. I've begun to explore the pieces of my heritage that I never was exposed to before. I think the pinnacle of it all was when I was handed the program from my father's funeral. It said that he was survived by his daughter, Blue (my name at birth), I was stunned, and had to keep from crying. I was never forgotten. It had to be simply, one of the most wonderful weekends of my life.
Finding my birthfamily | My Reunion | In Honor of my Birthparents | Adoptee Identity Crisis | A Gift of Love webring
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