No. #6

"About a year ago, her mom decided to do a DNA test online. It matches you up with people that are similar or related. Her mom got hooked up with her daughter, a daughter that none of them have ever heard of."

My sister-in-law, Francis, grew up with a sister and two brothers. She’s 35 now. About a year ago, her mom decided to do a DNA test online. It matches you up with people that are similar or related. Her mom got hooked up with her daughter, a daughter that none of them have ever heard of. Her mom had had a child before she got married when she was 19, and she decided to give her up for adoption. She never told any of her kids, so they had no idea that she had a sister. So she told her kids and they contacted her and they got to know each other. Francis was saying that it’s really, really cool to meet someone that is related to you, that’s blood, but you’ve never known your whole life. And for her, it was a positive experience.

I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and we believe that any sexual relations before marriage are wrong. I wonder if that played a part in her not wanting to tell her family. Or wanting to shove it under the rug. It’s a shameful thing, in our culture, to have a baby out of wedlock.

When Francis met her new sister, she realized their paths had been very different. Her new sister is into crystals and different alternative medicines. It’s great, it’s different, and it’s very different from what Francis is. She is a married, middle-aged mom, never drank, never smoked. And so it’s fun to see that difference in blood relatives. They would talk on the phone quite a bit. They got rolling with the jokes. Francis is hilarious, and so it doesn’t surprise me that they would just have kind of the same humor.

I was thinking to myself, “How would I respond if I was never told that I had a sibling and then all of a sudden one day they’re supposed to be part of my family?” It’s really interesting. What went through her mom’s head when she did get pregnant and when she had that realization that this is now gonna be her life; the thought process of having an adoption. I have four daughters, and I can’t imagine giving one of them up.