Siblings ???

With my friend Gina’s help and her genealogy expertise we found out that Dorothy had two children prior to my birth.  Turns out I have a sister and a brother.  Mary who is 20 years older than me, and  Michael who is 15 years older than me.  I not only had their names but their address and phone number.  Were they my full sister and brother or half sister and brother?  This I could not find out unless I reached out to them.  Should I call Mary being she is the oldest? I thought to myself.   Mary lives in another state, so even though she is the oldest she lives far away.  Michael lives less than 15 miles from my home.  I decided I should reach out and call Michael.  Thank God for small miracles as I telephoned Michael with no plan in my mind as to what to say.  No one answered the phone and the voice mail picked up, I did not leave a message.  The next evening I telephoned Mary and her voicemail picked up, I did not leave a message.  Decided at this point that calling them was a bad idea.  How would I tell them I am their sister? Did they know about me?  How could they not know about me? I had so many questions swimming through my brain.  I decided I would write a letter and I would mail it to Mary out of respect for her being the oldest.  I signed onto my PC and wrote and wrote and wrote.  I had a finished letter but it was way too long.  Three days later with the letter replaying in my mind I sat down at the PC once again and perfected the letter to half of an 8 ½ by 11 piece of paper.  The letter was informative and to the point.  I was terrified to mail the letter, drove up to the mailbox, no one behind me at the drive through, said a small prayer, kissed the letter and dropped it in the mailbox.  Thought to myself “I had nothing to lose”.  Not really true, I had so much to lose, I was so fearful of rejection from Mary and Michael, worried that the same family would reject me a second time.  So I waited for a reply, the wait seemed like an eternity to me.  Patience….not an easy thing for me to practice.

Anna...my Grandmother's name

My friend Gina, who I attended grade school and high school with, was into genealogy.  She tracked her Mother’s and Father’s side of her family all the way back to the beginning of time.  She also did the genealogy on her husband’s family.  Plus she helped others out in tracing back their family trees.  I was only interested in finding out more about Dorothy and if Dorothy had other children besides me.  Gina and I met and talked for hours and by the end of the first week I knew Dorothy's parents were Joseph and Anna.  Remember me telling you that Dorothy named me Anna Christine?  Well when Gina told me who Dorothy’s parents were it reinforced that Dorothy did love me.  Dorothy named me after her own beloved Mother, Anna.  If you choose to name your child after one of your parents that is a sign of love.  Dorothy named me Anna after her own beloved Mother before sending me out into the world.  Anna, my Grandmother, was to watch over me once Dorothy sent me on my way.