Branches Part 3: An Unexpected Gift

Imagine stumbling upon a revelation that alters the very fabric of your family. That's precisely what unfolded for me when a DNA Angel confirmed the existence of a half-sister I never knew I had. In this episode, I share my shock, joy, and profound gratitude. And just when you think you've grasped the magnitude of this encounter, there's the mystery of a great-nephew revealed by another DNA match, prompting the question: How many more familial threads are waiting to be pulled?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, hey, what's good everybody, welcome to the
Charging Station podcast.
It's your girl, tracy Massey ofLiving my Empowered Life.
Baby, I know I left y'all on acliffhanger, but go ahead, let's
get into it.
I'm not even going to do allthe regular introduction stuff.
If you the first time, if thisis your first time here, go back
and listen to the first twoepisodes.
If you're coming back, hey,welcome, come on in, grab your

(00:29):
coffee, grab your tea, grab yourwater, grab your wine, whatever
your beverage of choice is justgrab that thing.
Let's get into part three.
So I have this lovelyconversation with this lady.
So many things in common.
After I get over the phone withher this was on a Friday after
I get off the phone with her,I'm like thinking, like, huh, it
would be crazy if we aresisters.
So I go back into the DNA appand I'm looking at our match and

(00:50):
let me tell you what this matchsays.
It's just so weird how theyhave it labeled because it's
confusing for me as a lay person, right?
So I look at it and look at theDNA shared and it says the
possible DNA relationships underfrequency.
It says 100%.
So this is 100% guaranteed thatthis lady could be one of these

(01:15):
relationships.
My grandmother I knew thatwasn't true because we're around
the same age.
My granddaughter I knew thatwasn't true because I don't have
any grandbabies.
My half-sister uh-uh, now, thatcould be.
She could have been my aunt orshe could have been my niece,

(01:38):
being that she didn't know whoher father was and we, you know,
x'd out the fact that I wasrelated to, I'm related to her
mother in any kind of way.
That half sister is lookingpretty good, isn't it?
So I go back to the Facebookgroup and I say yeah about this.
When we did the top five, Iasked about that very first

(01:59):
connection.
When we did the top five, Iasked about that very first
connection because she, in thisparticular, in these particular
results, she is the highest DNAmatch that I have.
And so I particularly go backand ask about this DNA match,
because it was the number oneand I said I got off the phone

(02:20):
with her.
We just, we just had a greatconversation.
I think she's my cousin, one ofthe DNA angels comes back like
no, let me ask you this how manysegments of DNA do you share
with her?
So I say how many segments wehave?
The DNA comes back and DNAangel comes back and says no,

(02:40):
that's your half sister child.
I threw my phone.
Oh, I threw my phone.
Oh Lord, I threw my phone.
I said, oh Jesus, oh Jesus, I'mhaving a whole like Holy
Ghost-filled, five-baptized fit,like, oh, wait a minute, I done
found a sister.
I done found a sister.
So I immediately text her andsay, hey, when you get a chance,

(03:02):
please give me a call.
I found something.
But when you call me, I needyou to be sitting down.
I need you to be sitting down.
It's nothing bad, but it's big.
She calls me back, probablyabout two or three hours later.
Funny, funny fact she gave meher burner phone number.
I was so tickled by that.
I was so tickled by that.
So she calls me back and I said, hey, what you doing?

(03:26):
And she said, oh, I just wentto the store.
I'm unloading the car, putting,you know, taking stuff in the
house, I said, and I could hearher wrestling with bags and
stuff.
I said, okay, I need you tostop, I need you to stop for a
minute and I need you to sitdown.
I said it's not bad, but whatI'm about to tell you?
I need you to sit down.
I say, uh, I say her name and Isay we're half sisters, and she

(03:50):
says I knew it.
So it's like we both knew, it'slike we both knew.
But we went, you know, we justneeded to confirm it.
Y'all, when I tell you, we hadthe same eyes and she showed
pictures.
She showed my picture to herchildren and they were like
y'all got the same eyes, likepeople, like I showed her
picture too.
They were like y'all got thesame eyes, like we really have

(04:12):
the same kind of facial featuresand all of the similarities,
like how much we we have so muchin common.
It was scary, um, but we, we'relike settling in the fact that,
oh my God, we are half sisters.
This was not on my 2024 bingocard, because what are the

(04:36):
chances that two women, bothgrew up in the DC area, both
grew up in the DC area, don'tknow who our father is, would
find each other by a simple DNAmatch.
And y'all, when I tell you, wehave just been trying to process

(04:58):
this and we're not doing it.
It has been a wild ride, but Iam so thankful that she has
accepted me, I'm so thankfulthat she has accepted me and I'm
not alone on this journey offinding out who I am, and we've

(05:24):
both decided that, even if wedon't find our father or find
other siblings, because thereare other siblings out there.
She actually took a DNA testwith another company and our DNA
angels have said that.
You know, the more we put ourDNA out on these sites I know it
may not be like the safestthing to do, but I'm like at

(05:44):
this point nothing in this worldis safe except loving Jesus.
But the more we put our DNA outthere, the more matches we can
get.
So she did a DNA test withanother company and I'm actually
waiting on the results.
I did a test with that companyas well, but on her results, on
that other company there's agreat nephew.
So we know we have a greatnephew, which means we got other

(06:07):
siblings out there.
And so now it's become likethis, running ha-ha for us Right
now I'm the baby.
Right now I'm the baby of thebrood, but as we find more,
could there be more after me?
How are before me?
How many are before her?
But we have come to the resultthat, even if we don't find them

(06:31):
, the fact that we found eachother is a miracle in itself and
we are going to make thebiggest, best blessing of 2024
so far, the best things of ourlives.
We have committed to buildingour relationship as sisters and

(06:52):
as someone that grew up as anonly child being able to say I
have a sister and nieces and anephew and a great niece after
losing my own bloodline, Icannot tell you how much that

(07:19):
means to me and how grateful Iam to God for this revelation.
God, I thank you, because forso long y'all I felt alone, even
though I've been surrounded bya beautiful family.
My cousins have become like mysiblings.

(07:40):
I have great girlfriends.
Y'all know I talk about my divasall the time.
They're like my sisters.
My big sister mentor, like I,have people who are like family,
but at the end of the day,they're not my blood, and if you
have never been in thissituation, you can't even fathom
what I mean by that.

(08:01):
It doesn't mean that I don'tlove them.
It doesn't mean that I don'tappreciate them.
I just know where, wherethey're in hierarchy.
In hierarchy, I'm low on thetotem pole, as it should be, but
now.
Now I can see part of me.
My God, thank you.

(08:25):
See, I told you this is makingme emotional.
This is such a roller coaster,y'all, I can't even explain it
unless you've walked through it.
It is such a roller coaster andand being in these Facebook
groups and just seeing peoplelike the heartbreak that comes

(08:45):
through some of these foundnewfound information, newfound
siblings.
You know, everybody doesn'thave a great story and so far my
story is great and I'm thankful, but we are fully preparing
ourselves for it to take a turn,just in case we're not focusing
on that.
But you know, we just have tobe aware.
You know, you just have to beon alert.

(09:06):
But I am so very grateful forwhat it is right now.
And we, my sister and I it'swild that I'm able to say that
and it's really like my blood mysister and I we talked every
single day since we found eachother when the police shootings

(09:30):
happened in Charlotte a fewweeks ago.
Well, at the recording of thispodcast a few weeks ago, my
sister was actually flying outto California for work.
When she landed, she saw thenews and texted me immediately
when she, when she was got offthe plane for her layover, and
saw what was happening inCharlotte, just to make sure

(09:51):
that I was okay Blown.
I'm blown by that becausenobody else, nobody else checked
on me.
I'm just going to throw thatout there.
But my sister who just met me,nobody else checked on me.
I'm just going to throw thatout there.
But my sister who just met medid, and even you know she's
been in California at the timeof the recording of this podcast
.
She has been in California.

(10:12):
So even when Charlotte got badstorms that came through here,
what did she do In the middle ofher work?
She called, she texted to makesure I was okay.
I can't tell you what that meansto me.
I can't tell you how that mademe feel, because this is the
thing that I do for other peopleand to have it being

(10:33):
reciprocated, it's like whoa,hold on.
I'm still trying to process it.
I'm still trying to allow thatsettling feeling of reciprocated
love penetrate my heart,because it's like yo, it's like

(10:54):
I'm living in a prayer, becauseI prayed for siblings.
And so we talk each and everyday, we text every day.
She loves to travel, I love totravel.
Um, she, she's just amazing andit's just the things that that

(11:17):
we have so much in common.
Y'all, we got on um, we've seenpictures of each other, but we
got on FaceTime for the firsttime a couple weeks ago and we
both looked at it like other.
But we got on FaceTime for thefirst time a couple weeks ago
and we both looked at each otherlike we.
Just our eyes got big, we justkind of stared at each other
because the similarities in ourfaces.
We got the same facialstructure.
It is wild.
It is wild and, what's funny, Ihaven't even told her this.

(11:43):
So big sis, if you're listening, I'll probably tell her this
today when we talk.
But looking at her, I see mydad, the memory of that man that
was at the door when I was akid.
Looking at her, I see him.
Hmm, hmm, oh, okay, this isgoing to be a short episode

(12:08):
because I really got to go andjust process.
I just got to process this.
So y'all come back for the nextpart of this series entitled
Branches, and I'm going to sharewith you a few things maybe not
all in one episode because I'mtrying not to keep them long,

(12:31):
but I'm going to share with youthe backlash of finding this
information.
I'm going to share with youwhat that's like for us, what
that's like for me.
I'm going to share with youwhat it's like to go through the
process of finding family.
It's just a lot.

(12:52):
It's a lot, and this journey is.
I'm thankful for it.
It's wild, it's unpredictable,it's exciting, it's scary.
It is all all the things, allof the things.
So thank you for listening,thank you for going on this

(13:14):
journey with me, thank you forallowing me to share, because it
is therapeutic for me to shareit.
Um then, don't get me wrong, mytherapist heard it first.
My therapist heard it first.
Maybe he got an earful, um,when this first came out.
But thank you for listening andallowing me to share.

(13:35):
It is very therapeutic, um, Iappreciate you all.
So, before I head out, you knowwhat I gotta do.
I got to just remind y'all, notonly to come back next week,
but also remember, mostimportantly, that God loves you,
I love you.
It ain't nothing you can doabout it.

(13:55):
Boo Boop, see you next time.
Bye.