The View From My Front Porch: I Can't Believe It's Been 24 yrs. Today....

24 yrs. ago today I found my birth family. wow, it doesn't seem like it's been that long. What a journey it was. I won't bore you with the whole long thing. I'll just tell you that I received a call from a Judge I had written a letter to asking for information about my adoption and my birth family. Now I will tell you that Judges Never, and I mean Never call you. I don't know if he had ever done it before. I just know for some reason (It was a God reason) he called my Dad's house. He found my dad had passed along with my older brother Tommy. He spoke to my sister Pennie. she was a bit surprised. The kids hadn't heard about us. They knew dad had been married before, but they didn't know there were 2 more kids.

well after that conversation, he called me. I was shocked to say the least.. I'd only known about an older brother for a couple of months. Now to know I had a sister.. I would soon learn there were even more kids.. between my mom (6) and Dad (2) and the 3 of us.. there were 11 kids.. oh my.. I about fainted..

The judge asked if I wanted to talk to my sister.. of course I did.. so we talked.. well we cried for a while to each other.. then laughed and just jabbered about everything.. We made plans to meet at my step-mom's house.. My mom-Ella is so wonderful.. she knew about us kids (my brother and I.. Keith passed in 1982 so he never got to meet everyone. He would have loved it) She and my dad had hoped we would look for them someday.. but I don't think she had planned on it being that day.

My adopted family was awesome and wonderful and big and huge and loving and well just everything that anyone could ever want in a family. They loved us and many didn't know we were adopted.. I just had a need to know about my birth family. I wanted to know some things.. and well I mostly just needed them. I had lost my Papa (my name for my adopted dad) and Keith and I felt so alone in the world. God answered my heart prayer, and He did it in a wonderfully fast way.

I made my way that evening to mom-Ella's house and we all met. I'll tell you there were lots of hugs and kisses.. lots of tears, and lots of questions and answers. The photo albums were brought out and I got to see pictures of my Dad and Tommy. Then photos of aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins. It was so weird to see pictures of people who looked just like me. I'd never seen that. It was wonderful. A party was planned for the weekend. I met my Aunt Janet and my Uncle Mike and heard more stories about the family and all the Aunts and Uncles..

I got the phone number of my aunt Shirley from mom-Ella, and called. Within a few short days I made the call to my mom-Lillian (I was a bit hesitant) and the plan was made for us to meet and then we had a party with all the family here. It was so strange to walk into a room and see a woman who looked a lot like me. The party was great. It was so much fun to meet more Aunts and Uncles and cousins.

I will say I have my dad's hair.. "the Woodruff hair" White white.. all the aunts and uncles had it too. I'm not sure if any of the nieces and nephews have it, but I do and I love it.. I think I look a lot like my Aunt Janet (dad's sister) I have the same body shape as my mom. all us girls do.. well I think we do.. it's just so much fun to see how much we look alike and then how we look different.

Since then I've met many more of my Woodruff/Christie/Rodarte/Donelow family members. Some I've only talked to on the phone, but that's fine. I hope to meet more of my family that live in Texas.

Today I'm celebrating Family. They are really the most important thing. they make life so much fun and so interesting. They are our history.. and our legacy. I am so richly blessed with family.. It is so great to add them all in with my huge Pennala Family.

I can't wait for the next 24 yrs.