Only Child with Siblings

Being with Kathy and her family has been a blessing on so many levels. One of which is the fact that she has siblings. She has 2 sisters and a brother that she has grown up with and grown old with. It reminds me of just how lonely I was growing up as an only child. This is my story of how I came to find out that I was an only child with siblings.


The small town that I grew up in contained a huge chunk of my family. My maternal Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and cousins all of whom I LOVE very deeply and are all on my mothers side of the family. The family tree is a  pretty good size one since my mother had 8 siblings. I never knew her oldest brother  because he died at age 7 of pneumonia. He died before my mom was born so she did not know him either. At any rate growing up I always had plenty of family around. A whole bunch of cousins. Yet I always felt lonely. Never having siblings to play with, fight with or spend time with. 

When I was sixteen I came across a letter that my biological father wrote to my mother asking about me and other grown up things concerning grown up financial things. Stuff that I did not understand at the time. I took the letter so I could get the return address in order to write my own letter to my bio Dad. That began a dialogue between the two of us. He sent me a picture of himself and I cherished it. My Mom found out that I was writing to my Dad and was hurt because I did not tell her about it. So I stopped writing for a while. After a few years went by we reconnected.

It was about this time that I found out that I had another brother. The circumstances that led to this revelation is a story in and of itself that I just don't want to get into with this blog. It seems that my mother had a son that she gave up for adoption a few months before she met and married my step-father.  This was a very emotional time for all concerned. My Mom said she didn't want to say anything to me until I was older and she didn't want to find her son because she didn't want to disturb his life. So things just settled down after that and nothing else was said about my little Brother.

Life went on...After I Graduated from the community college I moved to Chapel Hill. This is when my Bio Dad and I reconnected. I was 21 at this point in time. I called and I went to him in Virginia where he lived and we spent the day together getting to know eachother. It was a great day. The next time we met I spent the weekend with him and his family. This is when I met my two sibs. My Sister and  my Brother. We were all so young. My bio Dad and I corresponded a lot over the next couple years. Then we lost contact. It was all me. I was so young and so confused about alot of things.

 I left Chapel Hill a few years later and moved back to my small hometown. It wasn't until years later that we got a certified letter from my Mothers son, my other Brother. We made arrangements for him to come to us in our small town and meet. That was about eight years ago and we still have contact through facebook and texting. My brother has two sons. I have two nephews. He has since married and has another son. So now I have 3 nephews and a sister-in-law whom I haven't met yet. I hope to remedy that soon.


Now back to my other sibs. It was several years until I heard from my bio Dad's kids. I am not exactly sure how it came about...but contact was made. I think my sister sent me her high school graduation picture along with a note. At any rate we communicated with each other off and on for a few years. Then my sister and I met for dinner when she lived here in Greensboro before she went to Colorado, where she met and married her husband and they have a daughter. It was much later when I met my brother. He lives in Atlanta with his wife and 3 kids. 


Now my sibs and I communicate through Facebook. I now have one sister and two brothers. Between the three of them I have 2 nieces and 6 nephews. Life is good!