Family

My One Word for 2023 is Explore. In the spirit of exploration, I made the decision not to stop at one word this year - but to also have a word for each month.

For August that word is: Family

My father was born in a Displaced Persons camp in Austria just after World War II ended. He was given up for adoption at age 2, and  was sent to the US to be adopted at age 5.  He knew his biological mother's name thanks to having his original birth and baptism certificates. 

My husband is very into genealogy and over the years we tried to find any information about her, without any luck.  He even bought me one of the Ancestry. com DNA tests several years ago. 

Flash forward to a few months ago where I am DNA matched with a woman as being first or second cousins on my paternal side. And there's my biological grandmother's name in her family tree.  I think it's fair to say that I was in a state of shock and needed to just sit with that information for a little while. 

Finally, the Man of the House convinced me to contact her.  I explained my story and asked what she could tell me about my grandmother. She quickly responded that was her grandmother and that knew her grandmother had given a child for adoption while she was in the camp in Austria. The child's name was my father's name. I immediately started crying and told the Man "It's her!" I messaged back and forth with this newly found cousin for the rest of the evening.

The next morning I texted my dad and told him that I had information about what happened to his birth mother and asked him if he wanted to know what I had discovered. He asked if he could come right over!

I was able to tell him that she had immigrated to Canada in 1949. Unfortunately, she had passed away in 2008, but he has four younger siblings - three brothers and a sister. All still living in Ontario. His mother had never made a secret of him and had tried to find him over the years through the Red Cross with no success. 

My father was able to start communicating with some of his siblings, and last week we made the trip to Canada to meet all of them!  He and his wife drove, while I flew up and met them there. 

It was a wonderful, amazing, crazy, and emotional few days! Honestly, since the very first moments - this has been like living out the plot of some movie.

It's incredible how much my father and his brothers look alike. They have the same hair and eyes. They even have some of the same mannerisms.  There seemed to be an immediate connection between all of them.

It gave me so much joy to see him discovering this missing piece of his story. To get some answers to questions he has always had. And to start building a relationship with his siblings.  I'm so thankful to have been able to play a part in giving that to him.

I have also had the pleasure of meeting my aunt, my uncles, and cousins. They were all so welcoming and kind. I enjoyed hearing stories about my grandmother. It helped me to feel closer to her and to get to know her from those who knew and loved her.  

And I'm happy to say that the cousin I was matched with to start this whole journey and I message, email, and text each other regularly. I now consider her not just my cousin, but also a friend.

And that's why my word for September is Family.