Branches Part 3: An Unexpected Gift

Imagine stumbling upon a revelation that alters the very fabric of your family. That's precisely what unfolded for me when a DNA Angel confirmed the existence of a half-sister I never knew I had. In this episode, I share my shock, joy, and profound gratitude. And just when you think you've grasped the magnitude of this encounter, there's the mystery of a great-nephew revealed by another DNA match, prompting the question: How many more familial threads are waiting to be pulled?

Chapters

• 0:00 Unexpected DNA Match
• 13:07 Therapeutic Journey of Sharing Love

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, hey, what's good everybody, welcome to the Charging Station podcast. It's your girl, tracy Massey of Living my Empowered Life. Baby, I know I left y'all on a cliffhanger, but go ahead, let's get into it. I'm not even going to do all the regular introduction stuff. If you the first time, if this is your first time here, go back and listen to the first two episodes. If you're coming back, hey, welcome, come on in, grab your coffee, grab your tea, grab your water, grab your wine, whatever your beverage of choice is just grab that thing. Let's get into part three.

Speaker 1: 0:33

So I have this lovely conversation with this lady. So many things in common. After I get over the phone with her this was on a Friday after I get off the phone with her, I'm like thinking, like, huh, it would be crazy if we are sisters. So I go back into the DNA app and I'm looking at our match and let me tell you what this match says. It's just so weird how they have it labeled because it's confusing for me as a lay person, right? So I look at it and look at the DNA shared and it says the possible DNA relationships under frequency. It says 100%. So this is 100% guaranteed that this lady could be one of these relationships.

Speaker 1: 1:16

My grandmother I knew that wasn't true because we're around the same age. My granddaughter I knew that wasn't true because I don't have any grandbabies. My half-sister uh-uh, now, that could be. She could have been my aunt or she could have been my niece, being that she didn't know who her father was and we, you know, x'd out the fact that I was related to, I'm related to her mother in any kind of way. That half sister is looking pretty good, isn't it? So I go back to the Facebook group and I say yeah about this.

Speaker 1: 1:56

When we did the top five, I asked about that very first connection. When we did the top five, I asked about that very first connection because she, in this particular, in these particular results, she is the highest DNA match that I have. And so I particularly go back and ask about this DNA match, because it was the number one and I said I got off the phone with her. We just, we just had a great conversation. I think she's my cousin, one of the DNA angels comes back like no, let me ask you this how many segments of DNA do you share with her? So I say how many segments we have? The DNA comes back and DNA angel comes back and says no, that's your half sister child.

Speaker 1: 2:42

I threw my phone. Oh, I threw my phone. Oh Lord, I threw my phone. I said, oh Jesus, oh Jesus, I'm having a whole like Holy Ghost-filled, five-baptized fit, like, oh, wait a minute, I done found a sister. I done found a sister.

Speaker 1: 2:56

So I immediately text her and say, hey, when you get a chance, please give me a call. I found something. But when you call me, I need you to be sitting down. I need you to be sitting down. It's nothing bad, but it's big. She calls me back, probably about two or three hours later.

Speaker 1: 3:15

Funny, funny fact she gave me her burner phone number. I was so tickled by that. I was so tickled by that. So she calls me back and I said, hey, what you doing? And she said, oh, I just went to the store. I'm unloading the car, putting, you know, taking stuff in the house, I said, and I could hear her wrestling with bags and stuff. I said, okay, I need you to stop, I need you to stop for a minute and I need you to sit down. I said it's not bad, but what I'm about to tell you? I need you to sit down.

Speaker 1: 3:45

I say, uh, I say her name and I say we're half sisters, and she says I knew it. So it's like we both knew, it's like we both knew. But we went, you know, we just needed to confirm it. Y'all, when I tell you, we had the same eyes and she showed pictures. She showed my picture to her children and they were like y'all got the same eyes, like people, like I showed her picture too. They were like y'all got the same eyes, like we really have the same kind of facial features and all of the similarities, like how much we we have so much in common. It was scary, um, but we, we're like settling in the fact that, oh my God, we are half sisters.

Speaker 1: 4:30

This was not on my 2024 bingo card, because what are the chances that two women, both grew up in the DC area, both grew up in the DC area, don't know who our father is, would find each other by a simple DNA match. And y'all, when I tell you, we have just been trying to process this and we're not doing it. It has been a wild ride, but I am so thankful that she has accepted me, I'm so thankful that she has accepted me and I'm not alone on this journey of finding out who I am, and we've both decided that, even if we don't find our father or find other siblings, because there are other siblings out there. She actually took a DNA test with another company and our DNA angels have said that. You know, the more we put our DNA out on these sites I know it may not be like the safest thing to do, but I'm like at this point nothing in this world is safe except loving Jesus. But the more we put our DNA out there, the more matches we can get. So she did a DNA test with another company and I'm actually waiting on the results. I did a test with that company as well, but on her results, on that other company there's a great nephew. So we know we have a great nephew, which means we got other siblings out there. And so now it's become like this, running ha-ha for us Right now I'm the baby.

Speaker 1: 6:17

Right now I'm the baby of the brood, but as we find more, could there be more after me?

Speaker 1: 6:23

How are before me? How many are before her? But we have come to the result that, even if we don't find them, the fact that we found each other is a miracle in itself and we are going to make the biggest, best blessing of 2024 so far, the best things of our lives. We have committed to building our relationship as sisters and as someone that grew up as an only child being able to say I have a sister and nieces and a nephew and a great niece after losing my own bloodline, I cannot tell you how much that means to me and how grateful I am to God for this revelation. God, I thank you, because for so long y'all I felt alone, even though I've been surrounded by a beautiful family. My cousins have become like my siblings. I have great girlfriends.

Speaker 1: 7:42

Y'all know I talk about my divas all the time. They're like my sisters. My big sister mentor, like I, have people who are like family, but at the end of the day, they're not my blood, and if you have never been in this situation, you can't even fathom what I mean by that. It doesn't mean that I don't love them. It doesn't mean that I don't appreciate them. I just know where, where they're in hierarchy. In hierarchy, I'm low on the totem pole, as it should be, but now. Now I can see part of me. My God, thank you.

Speaker 1: 8:25

See, I told you this is making me emotional. This is such a roller coaster, y'all, I can't even explain it unless you've walked through it. It is such a roller coaster and and being in these Facebook groups and just seeing people like the heartbreak that comes through some of these found newfound information, newfound siblings. You know, everybody doesn't have a great story and so far my story is great and I'm thankful, but we are fully preparing ourselves for it to take a turn, just in case we're not focusing on that. But you know, we just have to be aware. You know, you just have to be on alert. But I am so very grateful for what it is right now. And we, my sister and I it's wild that I'm able to say that and it's really like my blood my sister and I we talked every single day since we found each other when the police shootings happened in Charlotte a few weeks ago.

Speaker 1: 9:34

Well, at the recording of this podcast a few weeks ago, my sister was actually flying out to California for work. When she landed, she saw the news and texted me immediately when she, when she was got off the plane for her layover, and saw what was happening in Charlotte, just to make sure that I was okay Blown. I'm blown by that because nobody else, nobody else checked on me. I'm just going to throw that out there. But my sister who just met me, nobody else checked on me. I'm just going to throw that out there. But my sister who just met me did, and even you know she's been in California at the time of the recording of this podcast. She has been in California. So even when Charlotte got bad storms that came through here, what did she do In the middle of her work? She called, she texted to make sure I was okay.

Speaker 1: 10:25

I can't tell you what that means to me. I can't tell you how that made me feel, because this is the thing that I do for other people and to have it being reciprocated, it's like whoa, hold on. I'm still trying to process it. I'm still trying to allow that settling feeling of reciprocated love penetrate my heart, because it's like yo, it's like I'm living in a prayer, because I prayed for siblings. And so we talk each and every day, we text every day. She loves to travel, I love to travel. Um, she, she's just amazing and it's just the things that that we have so much in common.

Speaker 1: 11:20

Y'all, we got on um, we've seen pictures of each other, but we got on FaceTime for the first time a couple weeks ago and we both looked at it like other. But we got on FaceTime for the first time a couple weeks ago and we both looked at each other like we. Just our eyes got big, we just kind of stared at each other because the similarities in our faces. We got the same facial structure. It is wild. It is wild and, what's funny, I haven't even told her this. So big sis, if you're listening, I'll probably tell her this today when we talk. But looking at her, I see my dad, the memory of that man that was at the door when I was a kid. Looking at her, I see him. Hmm, hmm, oh, okay, this is going to be a short episode because I really got to go and just process. I just got to process this.

Speaker 1: 12:16

So y'all come back for the next part of this series entitled Branches, and I'm going to share with you a few things maybe not all in one episode because I'm trying not to keep them long, but I'm going to share with you the backlash of finding this information. I'm going to share with you what that's like for us, what that's like for me. I'm going to share with you what it's like to go through the process of finding family. It's just a lot. It's a lot, and this journey is. I'm thankful for it. It's wild, it's unpredictable, it's exciting, it's scary. It is all all the things, all of the things.

Speaker 1: 13:07

So thank you for listening, thank you for going on this journey with me, thank you for allowing me to share, because it is therapeutic for me to share it. Um then, don't get me wrong, my therapist heard it first. My therapist heard it first. Maybe he got an earful, um, when this first came out. But thank you for listening and allowing me to share. It is very therapeutic, um, I appreciate you all. So, before I head out, you know what I gotta do. I got to just remind y'all, not only to come back next week, but also remember, most importantly, that God loves you, I love you. It ain't nothing you can do about it. Boo Boop, see you next time. Bye.