Nothing like getting a new family when you’re an old lady!
That’s me.
After receiving DNA results from Ancestry.com a few weeks ago and then reaching out to my birth brother, I was terrified that the results were incorrect. What if Ancestry was wrong? Do they make mistakes? What if I reached out to supposed relatives and ultimately I wasn’t related to them. What if this whole thing was a sham?
A dear friend recommended that my brother send a DNA spit sample to Ancestry.com., which he gladly did. This would remove any doubts.
Doubts And False Guilt
But, I still had doubts.
What would God say about me searching like this? Guilt has been a roadblock for me ever since the early days when I was trying to find the maternal side of my birth family. Searching wasn’t common then and I felt guilty for even wanting to do it. I had thoughts like:
- Why would I search for more family when God has already put me in a family?
- Would He bless my efforts or would I grieve Him as a rebellious daughter, always wanting more?
- Would my relatives reject me? (mother did)
It was during this time that I read Ecclesiastes 3, where it says, “There is a time for everything, and a season for activity under heaven…..a time to search and a time to give up. (v.6).
I also studied about fellow-adoptee Moses, who lived in Biblical times. After the burning bush and giving every excuse conceivable to God about why he couldn’t do what God had created him to do, God did something very unusual…something unusually good, which was true to His nature.
Get this!
He asked Mo about his birth brother, Aaron.
Can you believe it?
God Himself brings up the topic of lost relatives.
Initiator of Reunions
“What about your brother, Aaron, the Levite? I know he can speak well. Aaron will be your spokesman before Pharaoh.” (Exodus 5:14).
“Whew!” Moses must have muttered beneath his breath. But then he thought, “My brother? I hardly remember him. He is just a shadowy figure from my past. I am relieved that somebody else is going to do the job, but why did God reach way back into my past and choose somebody from my birth family to do it? I am terrified that Aaron will reject me.”
And, then God shows His tender, beating heart for adoptees: “He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you,” God said (4:14).
Can you just imagine what it was like when they saw one another across the field? What joy must have filled their hearts.
I see them sitting around the campfire that night, telling one another what had happened since that day that Moses was adopted by Pharoah’s daughter.
Extended Family
Last night, when checking my ancestry tree…ZOOM! There was my brother’s name, along with my sister, both 99% correct. My friends who do DNA say that’s a very high percentage and that most people don’t get such results.
I was elated!
To meet another part of my family after all these years.
Since this is not my first rodeo with searching, I am paced and patient, having already met my late birth mother, birth sister, my late birth brother, and my nephew and wife and now two beautiful children.
And, so this “only kid” looks back on the 70 plus years with gratitude beyond measure.