I have a story I've wanted to share with you since last October. I've been sitting on it for a while as our family has processed the turn of events. But after speaking with my sweet husband about it, he has given me permission to share his story with all of you here at the cafe.
My husband's story begins on December 17, 1964. Yep, his story does begin on his birthday. Some of you may remember that I told you about his birth day back in this blog post from 2015 titled "To The Young Woman and the Young Man Who Chose Life".
As I mention in this post, my husband was adopted as a baby. And every year on his birthday, I would say a prayer for his birth parents, and pray that God would bless them for their selfless act of love.
Well, in 2017 I gave my husband a gift: a DNA kit from Ancestry.com. We had talked about it for many years, weighing the pros and the cons and the security risks and various options. In the end, we chose Ancestry just because we were curious about his ethnic background. And when you think about it, my husband's background is not his alone, but it belongs to his children as well.
So he did the spit-in-the-cup task, mailed it off and waited.
And his results were surprising. Yes, he had western European origins, mostly from England, Scotland and Wales, along with German and Scandinavian. He also had Eastern European origins, probably Poland and Russia. And he had a percentage of Sephardic Jewish in his background as well. We learned that his ancestors came to the United States in the 1700s, settling in areas of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky, making us think that perhaps he was a part of the so-called Pennsylvania Dutch.
The tests even confirmed some relatives who were most likely matches to his DNA, first and second and third cousins.
It was all fascinating stuff that we had only speculated on for so many years. He pondered the results for many months.
And then, last year, on the day of our 29th wedding anniversary, we were preparing for a fun day in Boston when my husband received an email that said "Hi. I think you might be my brother."
Wow.
Through the course of a few emails, we learned the story of his new sister, M. She told us that her mother had passed away in 2015, and after her death, her step father had some shocking news. Her mother had given a baby up for adoption when she was in high school.
M. took the Ancestry test in the hopes of finding this brother. And she did. M. and my husband exchanged phone numbers, and then exchanged phone calls that same weekend. And the following week, when both of them happened to be in the same city at the same time, they met for dinner. My husband said the experience was surreal. They exchanged and compared photographs, and my husband learned a little about this new family history. The similarities were quite shocking.
For many weeks after, my husband processed this awesome turn of events. He had never expected to meet his relatives in this lifetime. In many ways, he said it felt like getting a glimpse into an alternate universe. And honestly, he never knew if this was information that he needed. But when he did have the questions answered for him, it was such a gift and a blessing.
He kept in contact with his sister and her family. She encouraged us to visit them over spring break at their home in Phoenix. And now you know why our family traveled to Arizona this March! We were able to meet her, along with her husband, son, daughter, and family dog. We spent several days getting to know all of them. And they were a really wonderful family, so sweet and so gracious to us.
Do you see my husband's smile? That is joy, my friends.
His birth mother passed away at a rather young age, and she died on December 16, 2015...the day before I wrote that blog post. We are sad that we did not get to meet her on this side of heaven, but we know that God will give us that opportunity one day.
Today, we are thankful for this new mother, and for her story. And we are so very thankful to M. and her family. We have new brothers and sisters, and better still, they are believing brothers and sisters in Christ. What a blessing!
"I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days." Deuteronomy 30:19-20
What a beautiful, beautiful story! Joy....what a lovely feeling and it's even more precious when it comes from the only true source. I am so happy your family had this experience!
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