My Half Sister

I had the privilege Wednesday evening to meet my half sister, Amy, and her husband, Michael, as they were coincidentally once again in Georgia helping some friends with a move to Ellijay (where we coincidentally have reserved a cabin with some friends for a trip in October... and Amy and Michael were dropped off by their friends so they could rent a car in Canton, where my dad had coincidentally been earlier in the week for a class while my mom spent the time visiting us at the house... all the coincidences throughout this entire process have been rather strange). Amy and Michael drove down from the mountains to Decatur and had dinner with us at our house. I seemed a bit more at ease with this meeting. I don't know if it was because I had already been through the difficult step of initially meeting my birth mother or if meeting my half sister just seemed somewhat less scary in general. But whatever the case may have been, I felt like it was an evening of getting to know a couple of friends, and it was quite enjoyable. Of course, Elsa and Jarrett came to my aid by breaking the ice right at first, which I think helped us all ease out of the uneasiness of it all and just have fun hanging out. Don't get me wrong -- it was still strange, and both Amy and I admitted so, but it was good all the same.

I met Amy and Michael at the door, and Amy had a beautiful potted plant (gerbera daisies) for me. We all greeted each other, and I gave Amy a brief hug. Both Amy and Michael seemed like very kind people, and we enjoyed good conversation and a yummy dinner of grilled pork tenderloin, pineapple salsa, coleslaw, sauteed squash, watermelon (can you tell we were trying to use a decent amount of produce from our CSA box?), and some tasty wine. Amy talked to me some about her feelings about the entire situation, as well as some about her background, and I did the same. She gave me another very sentimental gift, which she said was given to her by her mother on the day she was told about me (when she was 22, I believe). It is a gold charm bracelet with a little baby carriage charm hanging off of it. Apparently when my birth mother was pregnant with me, the women she worked with were unaware that she was not planning on keeping the baby and, thus, they threw a baby shower for her and gave her this bracelet. Amy feels like it belongs to me.

We don't look much alike, as apparently most of Amy's features come from her father, but we seem to have a decent amount in common in terms of our interests and personalities. We both like to write; we both share a love of the outdoors; we are both rather shy right at the start, though still somewhat enjoy the spotlight; and I am sure the list probably goes on.

So where do we go from here? I am sure we are probably both asking ourselves that question. And I am equally sure that neither of us probably really know the answer. I think it is fabulous that we were able to meet in person and get some of the apprehension of doing so out of the way, and I think we just kind of play the rest by ear. I am sure we will continue to keep in touch somewhat over Facebook and e-mail, and the other pieces of this crazy puzzle will eventually just fall and land where they may.