Growing up, I lived in a small town named Dexter. I always knew that I was adopted and that my birth mom still lived in Michigan. But I had never thought that I would meet her, mainly because I thought that it would be impossible. Plus, I was always busy with school, sports and hanging out with friends. I just never had time to even sit down and think about how I would go about starting the process of even finding her.

During my senior year of high school, I was driving home from a woman’s retreat at Spring Hill Camps and I had gotten a Facebook message from a person named Brennan Sutton.. First of all, at the age of 18, if I didn’t know you I usually deleted the message right away, but the second I read the first line my heart dropped.

“Hey my name is Brennan, your birth mom is Amy and I’m your little brother…”

With my mind racing a million different ways, not even knowing what I just read or if I even read it right, I quickly responded saying,

“I’m driving, can you call me?”

Thinking back on that, giving my number out to someone that quick probably wasn’t the safest but as a couple of minutes passed which seemed like an eternity, finally my phone rang. Quickly I answered it, I immediately started asking questions and I still have no idea how he understood a single word I was saying because how overcome with emotion I was.

He started out by saying how badly he wanted to meet me and how long he has waited to even contact me as well as his sister. I paused, I have a sister too?

I swear we talked forever, I got to ask all the questions I had been wondering for years, where they live, what their life is like, how they even knew I existed, etc. I got to talk to Adrianna (my biological sister) and when Brennan said that my birth mom was home as well, my heart dropped even more.

I was speechless (in the best way possible) when she picked up the phone and started talking to me. It’s a feeling that I will never be able to describe. Knowing that your biological mom is somewhere in the state that you live is way different than being in the moment and actually talking to her for the first time.

Once I hung up the phone with them, immediately my brother and sister started blowing up my phone. Talking to them felt like I had known them forever (even though it had only been an hour or two) and we started making plans for all of us to meet.

The very next weekend, I drove up to Columbiaville, Michigan. I had called one of my best friends at the time because I was so anxious that they wouldn’t like me or something would go wrong and she kept reassuring me that everything would be okay. Once I pulled in the driveway, I saw Adrianna run out of the house, I parked and she jumped and gave me the biggest hug.

Not only was my fear of them not liking me over and I realized that my friend was right, but I was overwhelmed with love and happiness. Once Amy got home, we went and picked up Brennan. The entire weekend was filled with catching up, getting to know their side of the family, them getting to know me and making memories that are still some of my favorite memories to this day.

It overwhelms me every time that I think about how I could’ve just deleted that Facebook message without even looking at it. Coming from a family that is already big, being able to know my biological family and seeing them frequently made it even better.