All In the Family

I'm joining in with Rebecca Jo @ Knit By God's Hand for Thankful Thursday today.

This week I am thankful for...

So, y'all...this just happened. I had lunch with my half-sister today, which is a REALLY BIG FREAKIN' DEAL!!!  Because up until about 2 months ago I didn't know I had a sister. I knew it was a possibility, but knew nothing for certain.

We share a father. There are also two brothers that come with the package. All are younger than me. I haven't heard from the brothers yet, though I hear at least one of them plans to contact me. My sister (how weird it feels to say that after 55 years of being an only child!) and I have been communicating through phone calls, texts, and letters since the initial contact.

I didn't thing I'd feel a connection, but I did. We both burst into tears as soon as we saw each other and hugged like crazy people. There are some similar features, we thought, but it was more than that. We think a lot a like, like and dislike a lot of the same things, and have even had a lot of similar experiences. We couldn't stop staring at each other...looking for the ways we are alike, I guess. 

We shared about our lives and our kids and never ran out of things to talk about or found we had trouble sharing. And yes, we talked about our father. She said he knows she has been talking to me and has expressed some regret/remorse for how things turned out. She's going to ask him this weekend (she stopped here on her way to visit him) if he's open to meeting me. I've decided that if he is, I'm going to do it. He's 81 and has had a heart attack and bypass surgery. The clock is ticking. If he says he will and I don't meet him, I may never get the chance. I don't want to regret it for the rest of my life, but the ball is in his court.

I found out that our father's mother, at least, knew about me and I was apparently a forbidden subject never to be mentioned. How weird for someone whom I'm told was deeply religious...and just for a grandmother in general. I wonder what she and my own grandparents thought all those years now that I know they only lived 3 or 4 miles apart? Did they ever run into each other? Did I ever run into any of them? So many questions that my sister plans to start asking our father this weekend.

Anyway, in a week full of blessings and good things this is the one that stands out above the rest at the moment.