Happy Birthday, Sis!

 Today is my sister Kim's birthday. I've been told when her birthday is before, but I forgot it. Thank goodness for social media to remind me.

For fifty-odd years I did not know I had a half-sister, but thanks to DNA technology we discovered each other. A few years ago she made the trip to Utah to visit my family. It was surreal and wonderful and strange and perfect.

Knowing I was adopted all my life and knowing both of my siblings were also adopted, I never really wanted to know about my birth parents. I didn't feel any ill will against them. I never blamed them for their decision and I never wished I could have grown up with them instead of my adoptive parents. No, I had an incredible childhood...I was truly blessed.

But, I never considered knowing others in the families. I thought about the possibility of one day meeting or finding out who my birth parents were, but the thought of half-brothers or half-sisters was not part of the equation. The adoption agency had some information about my birth parents. My birth mother had a five-year old daughter when I was born. When I first found out about my half-sister, I thought it was her. The problem was, the half-sister Kim is younger than me.

With each passing year, the chance of me actually meeting my birth parents diminishes, and that's okay. One day I'll meet them and we can have some wonderful conversations then. For now, I'm so happy I have a half-sister. She's amazing. She works with rock bands, if you can believe it. There was a time when I wanted to be in a band--maybe not as a career, but playing music was a blast. I don't think I would have made it as a rocker...I'd have to get some serious hair extensions.

Happy birthday, Kimmie! I hope this is your best year ever.

Happy Birthday, Sis! Here's A Pirate Ditty...Again!

I've only got two siblings--for Utah, that's a low number. Only having two siblings means it's easy to remember their birthdays. Today is my sister's birthday. I wanted to give her a "Happy birthday" message on social media.

But she beat me to it.

Five years ago, in the summer, I was involved in a community theater production of Peter Pan. It's interesting because this summer I was involved in another community theater production of Peter Pan. Once again, I played a pirate (Jukes, this time, not Checco...). There were several of us in both shows, same director, same choreographer, same great time.

My sister shared with me a video I originally shared with her on her birthday five years ago. I thought it would be fun to let you all see it. But be warned...for some reason the recording sounds terrible on the blog post. I mean, we weren't trying to sound good, but we definitely sounded better than that. If you can't stand to let the video finish, I completely understand.

We did a good show, five years ago. I remember our pirate band--we were a jolly lot. For fun, I had a few of us record a "happy birthday" song for my sister. One of the pirates, the one closest to me, is no longer with us. It's a shame, for many reasons, one of which is patrons no longer can see him entertain on the stage, and another is we are unable to have Parker Hedin as a fellow cast member. I sure miss him. Like I said, a terrible shame.

But, on a happier note, it's my sister's birthday (I won't tell you how many she's had...). Happy birthday! I hope it was wonderful, and I hope it's the beginning of your best year ever! Love you, sis!