Back I went to my glazed over look. I counted cars as they passed by. I read bumper stickers. I absentmindedly hummed along with the songs on the radio. Anything to pass the time in traffic. A song came on that I hated. My blood pressure was high enough without listening to something annoying so I changed the station. I got to hear a special treat on my choice of a new station! It was a country top forty show, one of the ones where listeners can write in letters and sometimes they get read over the air. This weeks letter was from an adoptee. I kid you not. Here I am, on my way to meet my sisters for the first time, and the letter was from a reunited adoptee.
Rudy and I looked at each other as the letter went on. Long story short, the adoptee grew up happy in a fantastic adoptive family, just like me. She started searching because she realized just how important it was to have an accurate family medical history, just like me. She was able to easily find her natural parents, just like me. Her natural mother didn't want anything to do with her, similar to me. Her natural father did, just like me for a while. Her father had other children, with whom she had a fantastic relationship with. How much I hoped that would be just like me too! The letter ended with the adoptee writing that she finally felt like she belonged and how happy she was in her reunion. It was her "Live Like You Were Dying" moment.
Rudy started laughing first, and I shortly joined in. I've never heard something like that on the radio before. I've heard about others hearing things like that, but I've never actually been privy to a radio or television plug before. Rudy had to catch his breath before he was able to choke out, "Oh my goodness, it follows you everywhere!" It really does though. No matter where I go, I seem to find references to adoption. I can't escape it. There's the overheard conversation about adoption. There's the adoptive parent I work with. There's the sign on the bus we're talking on our way back to the sign-making party. There's this on the radio. I'm constantly being bombarded with adoption stories and advertisements no matter where I go or how much I try to avoid it. Or perhaps everyone is and I just notice it more. Either way, Rudy says he only seems to notice it when he's with me.
I got to meet my sisters an hour later. We met in a crowed public place during the height of tourist season. I'm sure we looked like an interesting group. Very clearly we were a family unit, or at least we should have been a family unit. We looked like we fit together. We're all around the same height with the same facial features and the same coloring. My sisters and I are nearly carbon copies of each other. We even sound alike. We have some of the same mannerisms, have similar accents, and our personalities are pretty alike. My youngest sister was even wearing an outfit I nearly chose for myself. To someone on the outside, it must have seemed like a normal family outing. An observant person would have noticed how everyone looked just a touch uncomfortable, or how a few people weren't really speaking to each other. Or that the conversation was pretty basic, getting to know you sorts of things. I'm not sure what I would have made of it.
There will be things that I'll always remember about the day that I met my sisters for the first time. And I have hope for the future that I'll be like that adoptee on the radio. I want to have a successful reunion with my sisters more than anything and so far, it seems like we're on the right path. So I'm going to live like I'm dying and enjoy this time with them. I'm going to focus on the good things in our relationship and look forward to the future. And when adoption seemingly follows me everywhere, I'm going to smile because now I've reclaimed something that was taken away from me, a chance to get to know my sisters. It's a chance I for one will not throw away.
