We don't get to choose our family. Yes, you choose your spouse and whether or not you want to have kids, but not your parents, siblings, aunts and uncles. You are born into your family. And every family has a crazy person or two (maybe more!). I may even be my family's resident crazy person, but it's never been made official...
In most cases, you accept that person and love them, whether or not you actually hang out with them or agree with their choices, because they've always been that way as long as you can remember. Unless you meet your family when you're 35.
No, Dayna is not a crazy person. Far from it!! But we didn't know that when we drove to the airport to pick her up and meet her for the first time this past Wednesday. What if she's rude, obnoxious, creepy, or just a little crazy?? It would've been a very long 4 days if that had been the case. Instead, this last week has been incredible!
Dayna is awesome!! She's fun, easy going, great with kids, kind, and loving. From the start she was so easy to talk to and relate with. And she's brave. She flew all the way from Tennessee by herself, not knowing if we were the crazy ones!
While we waited to see her come out of her gate at the airport, I thought of the intro to "Love Actually." I wanted to tell everyone standing there that my husband was about to meet his biological sister for the first time and have everyone clap and cheer as they hugged for the first time. I wanted them to know the beauty of what was about to unfold right before their eyes, there at the airport.
We had seen pictures of her, but when you're looking down the long gate at a sea of people walking toward you, you wonder if you're going to miss her or not recognize her. Chris spotted her with ease though, and when she saw him she dropped her bags and ran into her little brother's arms. It was beautiful! And it turns out that his inability to cry may be inherited, because Dayna shares that trait. But as I am not from their gene pool, I shed a few tears taking one for the team. After she kissed him on the cheek a couple of times and hugged him some more, we ventured home.
Our two hour drive home was filled with questions and stories. The girls bonded with their new Aunt Dayna instantly. We looked at pictures and photo albums, took her to In-N-Out, went shopping, watched movies...it was perfect.
We also warned her of the animal life present at camp. We explained what a javelina is, and she was convinced that we were making it up, so we tried baiting them. Friday night we put the trash out on the porch intentionally, then went to put the kids to bed. She was sitting in the girls' room while I read a bedtime story when I heard them. I threw the book down, pointed to Dayna and said, "You! Come with me!" She had no idea what was going on until she saw them!
She managed to capture this just before they ran off. Then there was last night where we bundled up in blankets on the trampoline, hoping to get a better sighting of the nasty creatures.
We love her already. In some ways she's still a stranger...there's so much we don't know about her and only a handful of memories created in just a few days. But in some ways she's already a sister. It's weird, exciting, and just beginning. Next we begin making plans to meet J, Chris' biological mother. So stay tuned, this story is far from over!
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