Another chapter in the re-ordered story about meeting my biological family.
On a Tuesday about three weeks before the big trip to Hawaii to meet my birthfather, his wife, and my sister and her husband, a half-bro from that side of the family, from the opposite side of the country asked, “Is your schedule full up this Thurs – Sat?” Our schedule was far from empty that week, but there was no way I was going to say no. He was willing to use the last few days of his vacation time to travel from Maine, over a thousand miles, to meet us. So, I answered with an excited, “We’ll make it work.”
After months of long, late-night Facebook chats, we had yet to talk on the phone, but we’d covered a lot of ground and were well on our way to getting to know each other. And now he would be the first paternal family member I’d meet in person.
I guess it’s fitting that brothers were the first birth family members I met on each side since brothers are the family relationship I have the most experience with. The first was one of three older brothers. Now I was about to meet one of two younger ones, a brother born fifteen months after me.
I was surprised and I guess a little humbled that Alan would go to the trouble of booking a cumbersome itinerary to our out-of-the-way location, make a hotel reservation for two nights, and rent a car to visit the half-sister who’d blipped onto the family radar just six months ago. Would he like us? Or be disappointed he’d wasted time, money, and vacation days on a trip to the state he’d visited once and hated because it was so “so flat, no hills, no scenery . . .” We have other relatives who feel the same way. And they were born here.
Read the rest of the story on my new website, under the “A Doorstep Baby’s Search for Answers” tab. Follow me on the new site for updates on the family reunion and news on all my other writing endeavors.
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