Summertime Surprise!

The summer of my senior year was a nice one. I had a great job that I loved, I moved home feeling better about myself than I had in a long time. I was a RA my junior year and had been “promoted” to SRA for my senior year. I was really excited and couldn’t wait to start my senior year. I was in a great place in my life. And August hit and my health took yet another downturn. So I spent the month of August miserable and got dragged on a family vacation. Not really where I wanted to be, but I didn’t have a lot of choice in the matter. It was time for my grandmother’s annual birthday bash at our summer home, and my dad’s side of the family all showed up for the weekend. My cousin was going to stay in the room my sister and I shared on an air mattress so the three of us stayed up until the wee hours of the morning having girl talk.

Somehow the conversation somehow turned to the fact that my sister and I were both adopted. Here I am like a fool telling my cousin that I felt totally comfortable talking about it and ask me anything and my sister starts to get really quiet. Finally, I notice and ask her about it. She was never as comfortable as I was, so I figured that maybe she didn’t like where the conversation was going. Finally, she admitted that there was something she should probably tell me. Turns out she had gone through my parent’s stuff when she was 16 and found her adoption paperwork, and mine as well. Surprise! What I had been too afraid to ask for she had found and read. She knew more about my background than I did! She promised to show me when we got home. My poor cousin saw the soap opera that was unfolding and I don’t know what she must have been thinking.