I spent this weekend sitting in my backyard under a beautiful tree creating jewelry. I had a blast and even played around with some copper sheet my wonderful metal artist and good friend Paul gave me. Made some nice pieces and kicked around with my hubby and dogs Caesar and Zeus.
Then this morning instead of starting the week off wishing it was Friday again, I opened my personal email at work and saw an email from my "hopefully" brother Jeff. Now that might not sound like a big deal to most people but to make a long story short (and believe me it is a long story) I was adopted when I was 4 days old and raised as an only child by some awesome people who were the greatest parents ever!!! They spoiled me rotten. I didn't find out I was adopted until I was 19 years old. Anyway laws being the way they were back then, adoption records were kept sealed until not too many years ago when Oregon changed their laws.
Anyway I never really thought too much about it or pursued it until just a few years ago in 2006 when I had to replace my birth certificate. I also decided to request a copy of my "real" birth certificate. Paid the fee, filled out the forms and waited 6 weeks for the copy to come in the mail. I had almost forgotten about it, until one day I saw the envelope and realized what it was and was almost afriad to open it. When I did I started crying when I realized that the people listed on the paper actually were my real birth parents. I did more searching but only ended up with dead ends.
In early 2007 I had a major surgery because they thought I might have pancreatic cancer - they had found a growth and wanted to catch it as soon as possible because that type of cancer spreads really quick and is very fatal. It was benign but after many complications and long hospital stays, I had numerous times throughout the ordeal thought I might die and thought long and hard about who my birth relatives were - and if I were to pull through all this - I would work harder at pursuing their identity. At that time I searched a little bit on the internet and white pages but really found nothing until some time in late 2007 I stumbled upon a genealogy website of my mothers family name. It showed my parents being married and producing 3 kids - one sister and two brothers and their birth dates (before mine) and who they married. Then it showed my mother as re-marrying someone after my birthday and having 2 more kids - one 1/2 brother and one 1/2 sister and my sisters married name.
I did more searching from the info I found and pretty much came to a dead end except for finding my 1/2 brothers name in the white pages of the local phone book. So I wrote him a letter and mailed via snail mail. In a few days I got an email from him. He kind of sounded skeptical (can't blame him there) and kind of happy, but uncertain. We corresponded some but he never really said much of anything to confirm we might be related. I didn't give up quite yet - but kept searching the net.
So after sending more letters and emails and continuing to search the net, I found a possible address match for one of my brothers here locally. I sent him letter on Friday and low and behold Monday morning (today) there was an email from Jeff. I figured it was probably someone saying "sorry - not related. good luck" like so many others have been but it seemed to actually be a person that really MIGHT be my brother!!! And even better he seemd like he wanted to actually meet me. So we have corresponded some today and it seems I have 7 brothers and sisters - pretty unbelievable for someone who grew up as an only child. And also finding out my mother is still alive and a very cool person.
So to any of my possible siblings that might be reading this post - I am so happy that I might have actually found you guys and want to assure you that I want nothing more then to meet you, and possibly become friends with you. Believe me I have about one million questions I would love answers to - do you have kids, spouses, pets, grandkids, hobbies, career choices, etc, etc, etc, but I will take it one day at a time and leave it all up to you guys if you want to contact me. I have passed on that information to Jeff and Mike both. I am sure this was a shock for you as much as for me 36 years ago.
Kim
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