Adopted War Babe - Part 12 - The End and the Beginning

My birth father is William Russell Tackett. 

I am rendered speechless at the moment. Way back in June of last year (2017) my search angel told me she was SURE that I had to be a great granddaughter or granddaughter of Thomas Tackett and Sarah Barber or of Henry Tackett and Lettie Barber.  I am not exactly sure how she reached that conclusion, but each time I was trying to track my bio dad in another direction, she kept insisting that no, it was one of those two families.  Not that I didn't believe her, it's just that I kept following what I thought were leads in other directions.  I am a pretty smart gal really, but all this relationship stuff with its first cousins and once removed etc, just confuses me.  I guess maybe like using an iPhone confuses others?  Not sure.  So it has been confirmed.

A couple months ago, if you have been following my blog, I was able to get in contact with a second cousin who popped up on ancestry. (well, he is actually first cousin once removed) He is the one who led me to sending an Ancestry kit to my suspected half brother, Tim. I have been speaking with Tim off and on these past couple months and also his uncle (my Uncle Rick), as well as a couple of cousins. I am blown away by how excited and accepting they have been.  After looking at pictures everyone was very sure that Russ was my birth dad.  To top it off, he had confided in one family member that he had met a girl in Germany and that she was pregnant when he left. Although he said that he had heard she had twins. ( Heavens, I hope I am not a twin!!  :-0 )
So this morning, I get a text from Tim that his ancestry results have come in and he can't log in to see them.  I go and look and there he is, right up alongside my half brother from my birth mother's side of the family!  Congratulations, Tim, you are a little brother!   Here we are, not good pics of either of us, but I think you might see the family resemblance.  I mean if he had hair.. right?  (ribbing a little brother may be something to have fun with!) 

If you are adopted, then you know how you search and search for someone somewhere that looks like you. Even though your children look like you, it just isn't the same thing. So I am sitting here trying to absorb all of this.  It is for real as proven with DNA, what a marvelous thing. I know how over-the-top lucky I am to have a wonderful understanding adopted family and an equally wonderful accepting bio family now!  I can't wait to see more and more pictures. I will continue this blog and probably write more of my feelings when I have sorted them out.  It is like discovering a whole new group of people who you know will be friends, just because.  Does that make sense?