family trees

Those of you who are not related to me, don't know that my family had a big reunion this summer, in honor of my great aunt Dorothy's 90th birthday. I think there were over 50 of us from around the country present.

This particular branch of my family tree has had reunions in the past, but it's been a long time since we'd all gotten together (years? a decade?). For this occasion, one of my aunts and I worked on a family cookbook that also included food related stories, our family tree, and other family and food related items. I worked closely with my aunt (well, we are on opposite coasts - so as close as technology will allow) for six months creating this cookbook. This project brought my aunt and I closer.

Ok, so, the point of this post. The family reunion, our impending adoption. It's got me thinking. At first we didn't really want to know the woman who gives birth to the child that will become part of our family tree. But the more we think about it, we've decided we do want to know her (there is always more talk of the birth mother than the birth father, as they are not always in the picture at the time of the birth, but we'd be happy to know him too).

Family has always been important to me. Unfortunately I am closer to some branches of my family than others. I try to think of our adopted child at different stages of his or her life. I would want my child to know the types of things I know about my family's history. I would not what my child's biological tree to be blank. I can't imagine not knowing the things I know about my family's history.

Since my family's reunion in June, I have been keeping in touch with more family members, you know how you seem to drift away from people over time. I have really enjoyed being back in contact with these family members and they have been VERY supportive of our plans to adopt.

Our child will be lucky and have two family trees.