A DNA test was never supposed to change my life. I ordered it out of simple curiosity, expecting little more than a breakdown of ancestry and distant relatives. When the results arrived, I sat at my desk refreshing my email, excited in the way people get over small discoveries. That excitement quickly turned into confusion when I noticed a close match listed at the top of the page: a sibling. I stared at the screen for a long time, convinced there had been a mistake. I had grown up as an only child, deeply loved by my parents, surrounded by comfort and care. Nothing in my life had ever suggested that my family story was incomplete. Yet the test was clear, and no matter how hard I tried to explain it away, something inside me knew this discovery mattered.Continue reading…
