I'm sitting here, sipping on a powerade zero because, suddenly, coffee is NASTY! Ick, spit, patooie! Much and nothing has happened since the first round.
A few years ago (i lose track of time), I set out to locate my daughter's sister. When I was married the first time, the husband had a daughter who had been taken away from him and his first wife. I remember my then-mother-in-law showing me a picture of a chubby, smiling little girl in white dress, and she said, this is Lorinda. I know in my heart we'll find her one day. Sadly, Lula passed away before that could happen.
I know her pain. My granddaughter, Sara, was ripped away from us through circumstances that are ugly and unfathomable - no fault of my daughter's. It was Beth's ex, who fabricated lies and made it difficult for us to see Sara. And he ultimately won by fabricating a story of sexual abuse that never happened. Social Services investigated and cleared the accused. I wonder if SS investigated Sara's accusations that her father shot her in the knee (never happened), or that her step-mother routinely abused her in small but myriad ways...the child is disturbed, I know this, but I believe with all my heart that she had a lot of help getting there. Anyway...i haven't seen her in years, now, and it's heartbreaking. I don't even know where she is, and all my attempts to find her have failed..
BUT - getting back to my original story of Lorinda, I set out to find her one day, after reading her brother's pleas for help in locating the sister he had missed for years. It took an entire day (that's all), and if Lorinda had not posted on a site for people looking for their biological families, I wouldn't have succeeded. I even found a phone number, gave it to my daughter, Beth. To make a long story short, the sisters reunited via telephone. Turns out that Lorinda lived in the same town as we do, attended the same school as Beth, but they were so far apart in age, their paths probably never crossed. But they knew some of the same local people, went to the same places..it was truly an amazing parallel.
Lori traveled from Canada, where she lives with her husband, to visit her brother, sister, and yes, her biological father. It makes me happy that she was so forgiving and delighted to find her blood relatives. And it didn't stop there - she adopted my son as her own brother, my brother as her uncle, and she calls me Mom. What a generous, loving heart she has.
Lori called me one day this week and said, I'm coming to North Carolina. And I'm staying for good. So, although I didn't get to meet her on the first trip, I will this time. And though technically,we have no real ties except that she is my daughter's sister, I look forward to having a new daughter to love.
I'm so sorry it couldn't have happened while Lula was living, but perhaps she had a hand in bringing Lori back into the fold. I'm sure her spirit is smiling.
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1 comment:
That is a beautiful story! Family is family, and not always is there an actual biological connection. She sounds like a wonderful, loving person, and I'm glad you will have her in your lives. My brother and his wife divorced many years ago, but remained friends. I have always still thought of her as my SIL. They had two children together, and then years later she had another daughter by a man who was her boyfriend until his death, although they never married. This half-sister of my niece and nephew, who is no blood relation to us, my brother's family, still calls us her family. She calls my parents mamaw and papaw and calls me and my sisters aunt. I think of her as a niece. It is nice to have people like that in your lives.
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