Surprise surprise!

Here comes a great story.  Not really.  So I decided that I needed to start letting my relatives know about my situation.  I made my decision and I started to plan it all out.  I was going to go make some visits over the Easter weekend, tell the ones that mean the most to me, and then talk to them about it some more at Easter and the rest of my family would be clued in.  I'm a planner.  It was all set and ready to go.  If you want to make God laugh...

A few weeks before my horrible plan, I got a text message from a cousin of mine.  Turns out a friend of mine was drunk and decided to out me to my cousin.  The drunk friend told my cousin he needed to ask me about my biological father.  My cousin, being the good guy that he is, told my friend that it was my business and then let me know what happened so that I would know that my friend can't hold his liquor.  He told me that it was none of his business and that he wasn't asking, but just wanted to clue me in because the situation involved me.  I told my cousin the story anyway but asked him not to tell people.  Now I love this cousin to death.  He's great and wonderful.  But he too has a problem with blurting family secrets under the influence of alcohol.  So really, it's only a matter of time.

I decided that too many people know about my "situation" and that it's really only a matter to time before they find out.  I didn't want them to find out the wrong way.  I made a decision that I wasn't going to wait and I started making phone calls the next day.  I explained that everyone was dealing with their own crap and I didn't want to add mine to the collective family burden.  Also, things were so up in the air for a while that I didn't want to tell people because I was trying to work it all out in my head.  And when they finally settled down, I still held back because it took me a long time to start to trust SinginInTheRain after the whole NeverTooLate debacle.

And you know what?  THEY GOT IT!  They were thrilled for me (even the ones that I wasn't expecting to be thrilled) and 100% supportive.  They all said that they would have done the same thing and that they understand why I didn't tell them, but now that I did, they are there for me.  They all have my back.  I got offers to come with me next time I meet SinginInTheRain and potentially NeverTooLate so that I wouldn't have to drag my mother along and someone would still be there for me.  I got offers to come over and split a bottle of wine and toast to family.  I got requests to see pictures so they could see how similar I look to my natural family.  They were excited to hear that I have two other sisters out there.  They were really happy I'm happy, and mad that I was hurt in the first place.  They totally got it, something I was not expecting at all.

You know what?  I think I just might take up one of my aunts on an offer she made. She told me that if I'm going to meet NeverTooLate  and I need someone there for me, I could call her and she'll take a sick day.  She said she would drive anywhere just to be there for me so I wouldn't have to go through that alone.  It's kind of perfect.  I mean, I don't want my parents to be there because I can't deal with their emotions, and I know that when I meet NeverTooLate, SinginInTheRain will be there too.  No matter what, he's going to be there for her more than he's going to be there for me.  That's just the way it is.  So I would want someone there for me.  So now I just might have someone who wouldn't flip out or not get it or try to take over my reunion.  My aunt is amazing.  I'm so happy that I told the people that I did.

I haven't managed to clue everyone in yet.  My family is massive.  I don't have the kind of relationship with a bunch of my relatives where I can just call them up and tell them.  If they have a problem, I know that my other relatives will back me up and defend me.  I'm not going to get kicked out of the family fold like I was worried would happen.  Honestly?  I really don't see them caring at this point.  I just don't.  I'm going to be bringing a bunch of pictures home with me so they'll find out when they see the photos.  And they will be happy.  I know they will.

Now there is only one problem.  My grandmother is a bit of a pain.  She's not going to get it, and my family members that I talked to agreed.  If my grandfather was still alive it would have been a different story.  But she's going to be pissed.  She's going to be mad.  And she's not going to get it like they did.  I'm super close with my grandmother so it's really hard for me.  She's going to have to be kept in the dark.  If she finds out, I'll hear about it and deal with it then.

If you think about it though, one person in my massive family having an issue with my reunion isn't all that bad.  The statistics are in my favor!  Yay!