TWIST

    A little about how my immediate family came to be.....

 The tree is twisted, but ever changing and happily enjoying the wind in it's leaves.  Our son, Dylan, is living testimony to the twists and turns our families can lead us to.  I am unable, biologically, to have kids.  It took YEARS to handle what this meant.  As soon as I had accepted this information heart, body and soul - Dylan, my sweet, sweet, boy was in our life! - TWIST-

     There he is, four years old that week,  the plan is to take care of him for a year.  Dylan's biological mom is my sister - TWIST -  and experiencing hard times.  So, we stepped in, with Dad's help and my sister's permission of course and loved him immediately.  He tried to call me Mom within a few weeks and while my heart filled up with more love than I had ever before felt I had to let him know while I would always be his Anna, his Mom was in Houston working hard to bring him home.  Truely the most bittersweet moment I will ever experience.

      My Dad has been married a few times.  Twice to my Mom and once to Omah.  -TWIST- Omah is Dylan's biological  grandmother and the biological mother to my adopted sister,( also Dylan's biological mom)......got it?  By marraige and adoption Dylan was our nephew! -TWIST-  I also have two sisters with the same name for the same reasons -TWIST-

     Once again my life has benefitted from heart ache.  Omah passed away too young, had she lived Dylan would have never made his way to us.  But he did and after 2 years with us we, his biological mom, Jay and I, decided for us to adopt Dylan in an open adoption. The second hardest thing I have ever done is listen to my sister relinquish her parental rights.  There are many parents in this world taking care of children and barely hanging on.  There are many children abandoned one way or another for these reasons.  Some mothers make the right, and brutally hard decisions.  My sister is one of those mothers.  I am proud of her.  I saw the pain in her face and the courage she found within herself to do the most selfless thing a mother can do.  She provided a better life for her child that didn't include her anymore as his mom.  Our roles were reversed.  She , now the Aunt, me now the  Mom.  Dreams I had given up on come true. -TWIST-