Branches Part 7: The Crew

After meeting my second sister in person, I'm overflowing with joy as DNA discoveries continue to transform what used to be a tough season into one of unexpected family connections and healing.

• Traveled to Florida for my sister Robin's 60th birthday celebration despite flight delays and maintenance issues
• Met sister number two in person after months of daily group chats and weekly FaceTime calls
• Experienced the emotional impact of seeing my nephew, who bears a striking resemblance to my late daughter
• Celebrated with new family members, including four nieces, two nephews, and two great-nieces
• Connected so naturally with my sisters that friends asked if we grew up together
• Recognized the bittersweet reality that my daughter will never meet these relatives
• Discovered another potential sister who recently came forward through DNA matching
• Balanced the joy of new connections with processing the complicated emotions about parents' past choices
• Acknowledged that DNA journeys can involve rejection, though mine has been positive so far
• Continue sharing parts of our story while keeping certain aspects private

God loves you, I love you, and ain't nothing you can do about it.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to the Charging Station
• 1:40 Meeting Sister Number Two
• 4:15 Airport Emotions and Family Resemblance
• 6:57 Celebrating Robin's 60th Birthday
• 9:40 From Strangers to Sisters
• 14:10 The Reality of DNA Journeys

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:25

What's good everybody. Welcome to the Charging Station Podcast. It's your girl, Tracy Massey of Living my Empowered Life, welcome, welcome. Welcome to the shenanigans. I call my life. If you are new here, hi, welcome to the shenanigans. As I just said, I'm tired, y'all I'm tired, so if I repeat myself, forgive me. I'm going to try not to, but I'm exhausted. Anywho, if you're new here, welcome. Please. Make sure that you share this out. Make sure that you subscribe or follow whatever the directions say on your preferred podcast listening platform.

Speaker 1: 1:05

Stay connected, basically stay connected If you are a returning listener or viewer over here on YouTube. Hey, boo, you know I love me some of you. Welcome back. I had everybody.

Speaker 1: 1:15

Grab your coffee, grab your tea, grab your water, grab your wine, whatever your beverage of choice is. Go ahead and grab that thing. Have a seat on the couch couch, couch, couch, because I got an update for you. But also make sure that you're following me on all the socials. You can find me at Living my Empowered Life on Facebook, instagram, tiktok Threads, youtube. I think that's all of them. I think that's all of them. So if you do follow me on the socials, then what I'm about to share you already know. So just act like you don't, you don't know, act like you didn't see it, but met sister number two.

Speaker 1: 1:55

Y'all, not only did I meet sister number two in person, live and in Technicolor, I also met one of my nephews the nephew that actually led us to sister number two because of his curiosity. I met him. I met another one of my nieces. Actually, I met, let's see, four of my nieces, two of my nephews and two of my great nieces when I went to go celebrate my sister Robin's 60th birthday. Y'all, we had a time. We had such a great time. So let me start from the beginning. All right.

Speaker 1: 2:36

So traveling to Florida to visit my sister was challenging. My flight got delayed three times. On the third time we had to change planes, and so I thank God for his protection and traveling mercy. Because they said it was a maintenance issue on the plane and I'm like, oh okay, I wish they hadn't told me that. But because I got to pray, and I'm like, oh okay, I wish they hadn't told me that. But because I got to praying, I was like, oh lord, all right, here we go. But my plane. I was supposed to land in Florida at like 3 30. I didn't get there till after six. But it worked out just great because my big sisters came to pick me up from the airport and it was just, oh, it was just so great.

Speaker 1: 3:22

Of course I cried when I met sister number two, even though we have been talking like right now we have a whole group chat. We've been taught we talk every day and we have a sister call every week where we get on FaceTime and just chit chat. So it's not like I didn't know her, but meeting her in person and being able to actually hug her, I just I just cried all into people's airport. I did Cause it's just been the emotions of everything, just you know, the gratefulness, the grab, the, the joy, all of that just came out and I was just like, oh my gosh, I'm hugging my big sister, I'm hugging both of my sisters, and so that moment was just beautiful. It was just beautiful. So I have a video up of us me seeing them in the airport, because they didn't realize that I had gotten off the plane as fast as I did and had caught up to them because they were coming to pick me up in the term meet me at the terminal. And so I was. I just made a beeline for them. But I'm surprised I saw them, that they had to be nobody but God, because I'm surprised that I saw them as far away as I was. But I immediately spotted them and just went with my little suitcase, you know, going up like hey y'all. I didn't say hey y'all, I just said excuse me, because I knew they were like on a mission trying to get to me and I was coming to them. It was so much fun. And then we went to my sister's house and that's where I met my nephew. And y'all, when I tell you I'm gonna try to get through this without crying Cause I cried on the last episode, I ain't trying to do that again.

Speaker 1: 5:22

My sister, robin, had told me that my nephew, our nephew, looked like me. It didn't dawn on me that if he looked like me, that most likely he would look like my daughter, because my daughter looked just like me. Y'all. Why does this man have my child's whole face? I looked at him and I was like, oh, the eyes, the nose, the smile, it, just it. I was taken aback by it.

Speaker 1: 5:51

So, for those of you who don't know, my daughter passed away on April 16th, which happened to be that year. It happened to be Easter Sunday, resurrection Sunday so I get hit with April 16th and then when Resurrection Sunday comes, I get hit again, and so I don't take it lightly that I God, has allowed me to meet my sisters and my nephews and my nieces and great nieces during this time of year. It's almost like he's saying I got you still. April 19th was my sisterversary with my sister, robin. That was the first time we had a conversation on the phone after we got our DNA results and found out that we were matched. So this time that used to be so very hard for me has been full of so much joy that I can't even describe what it feels like. It does feel weird seeing people with my face, because the last person that had my face was my daughter, so I'm so very grateful Y'all.

Speaker 1: 7:08

I got a sneeze. Hold on, excuse me, all right, I don't have to sneeze or cough or do anything like that. Until I start recording the podcast I had sneezed all day Anyway, but that weekend was absolutely great. We got to sit around and just laugh, we were dancing, we ate. Good Kudos to my nieces because they did a whole fiesta for my sister Robin's birthday. It was just like this whole grand celebration because we were celebrating her but we were also celebrating our. I can't really call it a reunion because that was the first time we kind of met, so I've been calling it a gender reveal. So celebrate now, gender reveal. But I have lots of pictures, lots of video.

Speaker 1: 7:55

Like I said, if you're following me on the socials, you've already seen this. You've seen the behind the scenes stuff of us key keying it up. It was Friday night and we stayed at my sister Robin's house till about midnight 1230. And then we were still texting when we got to our hotel, 1.30, two o'clock in the morning, so we did not sleep, it was just that good. And then got up the next morning to celebrate um robin's birthday and have breakfast with her and just you know, hanging out with a lot of her friends. And what was funny about meeting her friends was they some of them had listened to the podcast where that robin and I did, so go back and listen to that. I think it's Sister, sister, that's the title of it, but it's all a part of Branches.

Speaker 1: 8:41

So Branches is a series that I've been doing, talking about this DNA journey, and I've just been updating you guys on the things that has been happening. So I don't know when this series is going to end. I don't, to be honest, because there's still things unfolding and we may never know how many siblings we have out there. So, as they reveal, I reveal to a certain extent. So there's a lot of stuff that that's going on behind the scenes that you guys don't know like, for instance, I got a picture of my father. Yeah, I won't show that online. Um, I want to keep that close to my heart. Excuse me, even though I don't have a connection with him, I still want to keep that close to my heart. But yeah, we have another sister that came forward. Um, I shared that in the last episode. We haven't had a chance to meet with her yet, but hopefully we will soon.

Speaker 1: 9:38

But back to this weekend being able to hang out with my nieces and nephews. You know it was a little bittersweet because at my sister's birthday party she had a table where all of the cousins sat together so they could bond with my nephew and everybody kind of get to know each other and they got along great. It was just the most beautiful thing to see. But I looked over at the table at one point and I got teary eyed because I immediately thought, ah, my daughter's not here, and so that thought still comes into my mind that they will never get to know her. You know, they will never get to know my baby girl. So I try to tell them about her as much as I can, but it just doesn't do her justice. So that made me a little sad, but also I was happy that to see the cousins get together and just gel so well, it's like they've known each other all their lives. It's like they grew up together.

Speaker 1: 10:39

And so my sister's friends were saying things like y'all sure y'all didn't grow up together, talking about me and my sisters Y'all sure y'all didn't grow up together. Because we really do act like we've known each other all of our lives. And it's only been a year. It's only been a year since I met Robin. It's only been it's coming up on a year since we met Michelle. So our relationships are fresh and we're basically getting to know each other. But the bond is real and I love the fact that my big sister's big sister, me. I'm the baby out of the brood. Even the sister that we just found, I'm still the baby and I love it. I love being a little sister. But my sister Robin's friends were just commenting about how great we get along and how how much we bonded and it just seems so genuine because it is like I would. I would go toe to toe with anybody for my sisters I absolutely would, and I know that they would do the same for me.

Speaker 1: 11:50

But it was also funny to have her my sister Robin's friends come up to us and say oh so you're the sisters, especially me. Because they were like they heard the podcast episode and they were like you're the one that did the podcast, blah, blah. So some of them did ask questions. A lot of them were just like oh so you're the sisters, you're real. I'm like, yeah, we're real, we're real, we're real people and I think that, um, because our story is so intriguing and it sounds like a movie or a Tyler Perry play or something, I think the disassociation of these are real people is there.

Speaker 1: 12:32

So we have to remind people a lot like we're real people. Well, yeah, we flesh and blood, and that's one of the things that I've had to learn on this. Lot like we're real people. Yeah, we flesh and blood, and that's one of the things that I've had to learn on this journey is that you know people get excited about the story and I don't mind sharing it, but I'm not sharing all parts of it. But I have to remind people like this is my life, this is my sister's lives, so what we're sharing with you are the highlights. You don't get to see the stuff that goes on, that has us crumbling, you know.

Speaker 1: 13:01

But I thank God for my sisters because they understand this journey and it's hard to explain it to people who have not walked through this. And, yes, it is exciting, but it's also very painful, because we deal with the decisions that our parents made, for whatever reason, those decisions have impacted us in our adult lives and that's the struggle. I will be honest, that is a struggle for me. Thank God for my sister, michelle, because she's the one that's constantly saying you know we can't dwell on the past and you know she allows us all three of us allow each other to feel what we feel and process that anger and process that grief. But then we go back to so glad that I have you now. So our main focus right now is getting these kids together and creating memories, and that's what we're doing. So I cannot wait.

Speaker 1: 14:02

I actually miss my sisters when I'm not around them. So when I had to come home, actually when Michelle left Michelle left first and when she left and I saw her and my nephew get on the elevator, I was just like I was just crying my eyes out because I was like, no, don't go. And when I had to leave my sister Robin, I cried going to my plane, you know, because it's so hard leaving them, because we were trying to make up for lost time, and I know that God is a redeemer of time, but it still sucks, you know. It sucks that our parents made these decisions, for whatever reason, and we'll never know, you know, we'll never know, because all of them are gone. And when I tell you our mothers took this man to their graves, I kid you not.

Speaker 1: 14:55

So, yeah, this is the quick episode. I just wanted you guys to know that I have met my sister number two. We're working on sister number three and we got so many more siblings out there we actually don't know for sure how many, but every day it's something. Sure how many, but every day it's something. So thank you for going along with me on this ride, thank you for listening to my story, our story and I hope and pray that if you are thinking about doing a DNA test, even if it's just to find your lineage, I pray that this inspires you. I pray that it equips you to be able to handle all of the things that come along with it, because I have been very, very honest about a few things. So if you just listen to Branches part one all the way up to now, what part is this? Seven, I think part seven.

Speaker 1: 15:52

If you listen to Branches from the first episode all the way up to now, you'll get an idea of what this is like and every story, everybody's experience is going to be different, but there are more people that have reached out to me whose experience with a DNA journey has been the same, and I will say this before I go I thank God that I've been having a good experience thus far, because rejection is a possibility. You know, people don't have to answer your emails or respond back to the connection. People don't have to send back letters or whatever way that you reach out. They don't have to embrace you, because it is a little traumatizing to find out that.

Speaker 1: 16:34

Okay, my parents were out here doing some crazy stuff and now I got a whole sibling. So I thank God that I've had a great experience, but I also pray for the people who have not. So just know that the element of rejection is out there and it's real, so prepare yourself All right. So I'm going to head on off of here because I got things to do and one of them is get some rest. But before I go, I always, always, always, always, want you to remember God loves you, I love you. It ain't nothing you can do about it. Boo Bye.