Bio Siblings

If you have followed our story, you know that we have maintained an open adoption over the past 6 1/2 years. I never would have guessed that I would appreciate having such an open relationship, but I love it. It gives my boys a connection to their biological family, and that is important to me. I want them to be able to find answers when they start asking questions.

You may or may not know that they have had two sisters born since Jake. Both were placed for adoption. While I was so happy that they are being parented by loving families, I was a little sad that the boys have family that they may never meet.

One day, I was texting with our birth mom, and she shared that the girls' adoptive families would be open to communication with us. She sent me one of their cell phone numbers (with the promise of sending the other number soon). I expected to be super excited, and I was, but I was more scared than anything else. What if I reached out and she chose not to respond?

I held onto that number for months.

One day, I read a devotion about being brave. I am not always able to directly apply devotions to my life, but this one was different. I knew almost immediately what I needed to do.

I typed out that text about 14 times. I second guessed the words I had chosen. I read and re-read it so many times that I questioned whether or not I was spelling words correctly. Finally, I knew I just had to hit send and be done with it. If she chose not to text back, so be it. To my surprise, she responded almost immediately and was open to communicating with us. Hallelujah!

Now, we haven't texted since then, but it still feels awesome to know that we have a connection to one of their sisters.

Two weeks ago, we made a trip to visit our birth mom. When I texted to see if she was free, she said that the other adoptive family might join us too! I hadn't been in touch with them before, so I had no idea if they were interested in getting to know us. How amazing that our boys might have a chance to meet their half-sister face to face!! They agreed and we set the times and place.

As the reality of the meeting set in, I became nervous. I don't actually know why. I wasn't trying to impress the other family (well, maybe I was). I didn't need them to approve of us (although I wanted them to). It was a very bizarre feeling. I think it was basically me feeling overwhelmed by how huge this was for our family.

When we got to our meeting, only our birthmom was there. We had actually feared that the adoptive family had changed their minds. Thankfully, they were just delayed because of some car issues. As they walked up, the fear disappeared.

For the next 90 minutes, we got to know each other and shared our adoption stories. It was such a unique experience to have two adoptive moms and a birth mom hanging out. While I had been so nervous, it felt so natural!

We did introduce the boys to their half-sister, and told them who she was. They didn't seem overly interested, but then again, we were at a park and they just wanted to play. I am sure questions will pop up down the road, and we'll answer them as they come.

For now, I am just thankful that our family is extending out even farther than I could have imagined.