I'm sorry, a what?

filed under:family, WTF? and life

I've written and trashed a couple of entries about this a couple of times.

Am I treating the subject the way it should be treated? Am I putting in too much personal information? Am I over-emo-ing the whole thing?

After telling myself to just shut the hell up with the questions I've just decided to write a much simpler account and be done with it.

About 3 weeks ago I found out from my mother that I had an older sister that had been adopted. My mother was in no position to support a child and instead of running to Mexico to get an abortion she gave her daughter to a family that could take care of the child.

Pay attention to the following paragraph. In fact get a pencil and paper and draw a flow chart to keep track.

My sister started hunting for her birth parents for the purpose of getting medical records about 4 weeks ago only to find out she knew our mother and me. My mother was never sure about my sister's identity and never even told me about her. My sister's adopted sister has known for years and had become a friend of my mother's was the one who let my sister know who her birth mother was. I was totally unaware and convinced after years of evidence that I was an only child.

We had a meet and greet a couple of weeks ago and we get along pretty well.

She has regrets that we didn't meet sooner and I guess I do as well, but for her this has been a quest. She's known since she was 5 that she was adopted. She's dreamt of finding her "real" family.

I on the other hand am still a little numb. I've never had reason to entertain the idea of siblings, so when someone comes into my life to be my sister I just can't accept it. THE EARTH IS FLAT!

Part of this is because of the fact that I don't know how to be a brother. I've played a number of roles but nothing has prepared me this.

How do I be a brother? Do I try to make up for lost time? Exactly how much brothering am expected to do in a week?

I know that this is something that I'll grow into but at the moment I'm pretty much just winging it.

The whole thing though is terribly exciting!