Sister, Sister

An excerpt from my application for TLC's Long Lost Family..

"Some would say I have enough siblings to suffice. I am the fourth child of five on my paternal side, and the 7th of eight on my maternal side. I am the only child from my mother and father. 
But that doesn't stop me from wondering, 'How is she? Does she look like me? Did her adoptive parents tell her?' 
My mother gave her 8th child up for adoption in Panama City Beach, Florida in 1992. 
She birthed a baby girl and was told that the foster mom named her Elizabeth. The information from my mother is:

-Elizabeth was born in April 1992
-It was an open adoption. And she did receive photos on one or two occasions.
-the adoption agent's name was Mary Barnes (sp?)
-the agent said the adoptive mother could be my mother's sister because they favor so much.
-baby Elizabeth was born at Medical Bay hospital
-the adoptive parents lived in Pensacola at the time 

I have always thought of my sister. I used ancestry.com, and social media to try to find her. With very little information, I didn't get anywhere. My main concern is to find her parents first. I'm not looking to destroy her expectations of her family. I don't want to be the one who tells her that she is adopted. Since contact was lost at a young age, she could still think her adoptive parents are her birth parents. I want to meet them first.... "

.. they weren't able to find her either, but they did try to help. :)

To think I have been trying all that I can for the past 15 years or so to find this unknown person is sometimes so crazy to me. Like.. she could totally hate me, but I am going for it. Through the whole process, I just wanted to know that she was okay. I wanted to know that she had a good life and a good family. I always focused my search on finding her parents, because it was never my place to tell her she was adopted. I never wanted to hurt anyone. For many years, I felt like a failure. All this technology at my fingertips... and I still can't find her. I applied to be on a freaking TV show (and they contacted me back) and still couldn't find her. Where did I go wrong? 

It wasn't until 2017 that I realized all that I had LEARNED from trying to find her. Starting this journey opened up a whole new world for me. My love of Genealogy. I am sure it was always there, but it was flourished because of her. I have used all this knowledge to help so many people over the years. Some with great success and some with no solution at all. I decided to start my little side quest (insert Zelda theme here) and Genealogy Girl was born! Since then, I have been able to help even more with their genealogy, finding family members, hunting graves and returning photos/documents from estate sales/vintage stores to the original families/blood lines. It has been an amazing experience so far! For me, she is more than my blood sister. She became my inspiration for the amazing things that I do now to help others.,, and that isn't even the icing on the cake. 

As of January 1, 2022, I still had not found my sister. 15 years or so of looking, trying, crying, DNA test, searching... and ultimately, she FOUND ME!

Haley Elizabeth contacted our cousin, Dana through 23andMe on 01/01/22. I have been communicating with my biological sister for two days. TWO. DAYS!

It has been an emotional roller coaster for sure, but I have been waiting to get on this ride for a long time. 

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