In the mid-2000’s, I decided that I wanted to write a song. I honestly can’t tell you what spurred this desire in me, outside of I know I was listening to Carrie Underwood’s debut Album “Some Hearts” at the time. At that time, I could not sing (still true) and I could not play the guitar (still mostly true, though I learned a little bit along the way). But I remember reading the lyrics to her songs and thinking “I’d like to try that.” And since, as I mentioned at the start of this blog, I never let a lack of talent, skill or ability get in my way of thinking I can do something, away I went. I’m not going to bore you with that entire journey (as I currently have another journey I’m going to bore you with), but suffice it to say I met some very talented people along the way (who could sing and play the guitar) and managed to come away with several fairly decent songs, if I do say so myself. The very first song I wrote that was finished completely was a song called “Out of Love” – in short, it was a bit autobiographical about a young mother who puts her son up for adoption and her wondering about him and his life after that (in case you didn’t figure it out, I’m the son in this, not the young mother). I wrote this song sometime around 2005/2006. And then in 2019, an amazingly funny and wonderful thing happened.

I have always known I was adopted. Well, at least for as long as I can remember. My sister Stacie was adopted as well. And for most of my life, I never thought twice about it. I couldn’t have asked for better parents, outside of my father sharing more of his milkshakes with our dog than me. Other than that, I consider myself incredibly lucky for the family that I have. As we got a bit older, Stacie and I grew a bit more curious about our backgrounds. Stacie, being a bit more assertive and go-getter than I was/am, filed the necessary paperwork and court orders to unseal her adoption paperwork and successfully found her birth mother.  It was all very exciting and they got to meet. While I was curious about my background as well, whether it be hesitancy or laziness (the most likely culprit), I did not commence my search. Little did I know my laziness would eventually pay off.

In January of 2019, my wife and daughters got me an Ancestry kit for my birthday – I was very excited to find out if I was 65% Anglo-Saxon or 70% Anglo-Saxon. Just kidding. I was very excited though. So excited that it took me 9 months to finally stop eating/drinking for 30 consecutive minutes, which is what is required to be able to spit into the test tube that comes with your kit. It was a long 30 minutes, but I survived, spit, and sent my test tube into Ancestry. On November 5^th, I received an email back stating that my Ancestry results were ready for my review! Oh boy! When I first logged in later that evening, the initial results presented were those of where my ancestors typically came from and there were no surprises there. I then moved on to the DNA matches. If I am honest, I had not put a lot of hope into finding anything earth-shattering here. But as often happens when I think, I was wrong.

There it stood on the screen, front and center – “Anne Wilson – Full Sibling”. I’m not lying when I say that I sat staring at the screen for a full 5 minutes, trying to digest what I was looking at. I remember purposefully going through in my head if there could be any other meaning for “Full Sibling”. And outside of Ancestry somehow knowing she had just eaten a big meal, I could not come up with one. My birth parents, whomever they were, had had another child and I had another sister. A little further poking around on Ancestry helped me find that Anne did not live that far from me. Sleep was hard to come by that night.

The next day I worked up the courage to message Anne. I was a bit nervous doing so because at this point I had no idea if she was adopted as well and/or if she had any idea I existed. I was also not sure she would even see the message anytime soon as it appeared that she had not logged on to her Ancestry account in over a year. Once again, I was wrong. When I went back five minutes after messaging her to review what I had written (to try and convince myself I had not said something stupid), the status indicated it had already been read. Being the calm, emotionally mature person that I am, I proceeded to lose it and commenced walking in circles, muttering “Holy sh-t” over and over again. Fortunately for my sake, she responded rather soon:

“Hi Don. I absolutely would love to talk. I joined Ancestry (and a host of other sites) in the express hope that it would help connect with you at some point. I’m happy to chat in whatever way you prefer — email, phone, gchat, facebook chat, text — whatever works for you. You have two other full siblings as well, my younger sisters, and they are happy to talk also.”

Mind blown once again. It did not take us very long before we were in touch with each other. A short conversation that afternoon broke the ice – shortly after, my other two birth sisters, Maggie and Vicki, reached out via email to introduce themselves as well. We spent most of November emailing one another, getting to know each other and answering endless questions we all had about each other. We very quickly decided we would like to meet in person and chose the day after Thanksgiving. Armed with a photo album of pictures throughout my life, I met these three amazing women and five hours flew by. As amazing as that night was – it would soon be topped. Shortly after Christmas, Anne was kind enough to host my entire family for a get-together with Vicki and Maggie. Only this time, there was another guest. This time, I got to meet my birth mother! Without sharing too much, suffice it to say it was a very special night for all of us.

When you are adopted, it is inevitable that at some point you will have questions about your adoption. Who were my parents? What were they like? Did they sense the number of bad jokes I would tell over the course of my life and think “No Thanks.”? All of these thoughts/questions went through my mind at some point. But for some reason, I never really thought about the possibility I might have a sibling (much less 3 of them). And, as often as I entertained the possibility of searching for by birth family, I very seldom considered the possibility that they might be searching for me. Self-centeredness is funny that way. When I wrote that first song, that was one of the first times I thought about my adoption from the reverse perspective. I never expected to be able to live it out in real life. And so it was a special moment for me when I got to share that song with Anne, Maggie and Vicki. And now with you, if you are so inclined: Out of Love.

The majority of 2019 was a tough year for our family. My mom had battled through numerous serious surgeries at the start of it and unfortunately succumbed to her illnesses later in the year. So my “discovery” at the end of the year was truly a bright spot I needed at the time. My father and sister shared in my excitement and were incredibly supportive of me throughout the entire process. And given the fact that they knew I existed long before I knew they existed, Anne, Vicki and Maggie could not have been more gracious in how they handled everything. It was truly a special time for me and my family. And since this is a wine blog, I feel like a special story like this needs a special wine to go with it. And that wine would be Woodward Canyon’s Old Vine Cabernet Sauvignon.

I first had this wine on our trip out to Walla Walla last fall and it absolutely floored me. As grape vines get older, they naturally produce fewer grapes and smaller clusters. The result is more concentrated juice that leads to richer, more concentrated flavors in the wine. The vines the grapes come from for Old Vine Cabernet Sauvignon are some of the oldest Cabernet vines in Walla Walla. When we initially tasted it, we were given the 2022 vintage, which was absolutely amazing. Our server then upped his game and gave us a taste of the 2013 vintage and I was blown away – it had aged so well. It is a full-bodied wine of inky, purple color, with aromas of ripe black currant, dark cherries and dark chocolate. On the palate, you will get black fruits with a hint of earthiness, with well-integrated tannins. A wine worthy of your special moments!