I missed my usual Sunday blog day and time because I flew to Florida on that day to visit my Aunt Nan…She was my first and closest DNA match after I did my initial Ancestry Test! It took me about a week to actually make contact with her, but once I did…it wasn’t just a once-in-a-while phone call or a text now and again, it was talking or texting or face-timing every day! And then the visits started…And I am happy to say that has continued and is now just a normal part of our lives!
To say that we have become close would be a total understatement! This lady has been so many things to me, but mostly she has been welcoming, caring, loving, engaging, and PRESENT. She has been so present in my life since the very first contract we made…Sometimes that day in March a year and a half ago seems like just yesterday but then in other ways, it seems like she has always been part of my life. One thing is for sure, I can’t imagine my life without her in it now?!
I love coming here, because from the very first moment I walked in the front door on the first visit, I felt…at home. I never felt uncomfortable. Or awkward. Or weird. People have often asked me that question “Wasn’t it odd to go visit someone you never actually met?” And I never even have to think about it. My answer is always the same!
I have returned time after time and I can’t really explain it, but when I walk up to the front door and Biscuit is waiting for me, I can’t wait to get in there! And then there is Aunt Nan…who is always waiting for me with open arms to give me the biggest hug and a big ol’ smooch! And while we communicate frequently, there’s nothing thing like seeing each other in person! And getting and giving hugs! And her place… It’s so beautiful, so peaceful, and so relaxing. I always feel “re-energized”.
So for that reason this blog will be short and sweet because I don’t want to waste my time here with her…the past three days have already gone WAY TOO FAST!
Brad came with me this trip and he’s helped out with some things Aunt Nan needed a hand with…Because that’s what families do! But mostly, we have just enjoyed visiting…We have talked, laughed, joked, watched TV, cooked, sat on the patio, had coffee, Facetimed with some of our other relatives, did makeovers (only Nan and me on that one), took photos, went out to dinner, sat up way past our bedtime to have a heart-to-heart, oh, and napped. Yep, we have napped…Well it is vacation after all?! Oh yeah…Brad and I took a drive over to Daytona Beach yesterday. It just wouldn’t be right to come to Florida and not see the ocean and feel our toes in the sand?! (Especially when it’s 26 degrees and snowing back home?!)
Brad and I fly out tomorrow. And I am already wishing we had a few more days here. Mostly, I just wish we didn’t live so far apart. Because as always, we need one another. You see, we had both suffered some very significant losses in our lives before I got my DNA results and reached out to her…I had lost my Momma and she had lost her husband. We both believe we were destined to find one another, at precisely the right time in our lives. Call it fate, or a blessing, or whatever you will, but we don’t feel it was a coincidence. We like to think it was written in the stars!
And for me, it was just the beginning of something so wonderful, and so unimaginable, that I still have to sometimes pinch myself to be sure it isn’t all a dream or a fairytale?! I now have so many new family members, many that I have connected with because of Aunt Nan, that I haven’t been able to meet them all yet! But I hope to get to, sooner rather than later! One thing is for sure, it has been quite an adventure! And I am so glad I took that leap of fate to do a search for my biological family…It was the perfect decision for me!
FoundlingSearch 