So a few posts ago, I had said that I was going to make it a goal to blog every Sunday just to give a heads up as to what was going to happen for that week... So much for that goal right!? Lol. But anyways, I honestly can't tell you everything that has happened since my last post. Let's just say this past weekend was MORE THAN ENOUGH, but all in a good way. I don't even know where to start!
This is probably really sad and I know you all are gonna think I'm a bad daughter, but one day I just happened to realize that I knew absolutely nothing about my mothers past. Like NOTHING. I didn't know where she went to school, I didn't know how many brothers or sisters she had, didn't know where she grew up... All I really knew was that she was born in Samoa and came to the United States when she was young. I also have, till this day, never met my grandpa and my grandma had only came down and visited at least once or twice. Only because tickets from Samoa were so expensive and we or they just never had the money. They still live in Samoa with my moms youngest sister though, I think.
Through time I started meeting people who I later found out were my cousins on my moms side. I was happy because my siblings and I usually spend our family functions at my dads side of the family. Not that that was a problem but I was always just so curious why we never, and I mean NEVER, did things for my moms side. Every time I tried asking her about her past, she always changed the subject or became very bitter and would ask me to leave her alone. I never understood that, until now.
A couple of weeks ago, I had recieved an email from a female friend on facebook. I remember adding this her awhile back before I left to college but I didn't know her then nor have I ever seen her before that but it was just my understanding that we were related on my moms side (the joys of Facebook right!? LOL) and with polynesians, you know how that goes. Lol- but anyways, since my sister's wedding is coming up we were having alotta trouble trying to hand out invitations to family members, even if we never met them. So I decided to write her a message asking for her address, and her reply was something I NEVER expected.
Reading the message, I was speechless. Completely stuck and lost for words. At first I was really angry, but not definitely not at her............... I was mad at my mom. Mad for not telling her kids and mad that she had kept this a secret from us for so long.
Her name is Tupouleota, and she is my older half sister :)
I don't think anyone could imagine that look on my face and my reaction when I was reading this message, the message from her telling me that she is my moms eldest daughter. I was angry (at my mom), shocked (at such BIG news), sad (for her that she grew up knowing she had siblings but never really got the chance to meet them till now), and happy (that I had another sister!) ..it was all just mixed emotions. When my dad came home, I showed him the message and to my surprise he said he knew about it all along but felt as though it was my moms place to tell us, not his. That's when he sat me down and explained to me my moms story.
My mom was born in Samoa and when she was 2 years old, my grandma had given her up to a friend of the family who brought her to California and raised her as their own. That was also the last time she saw her siblings. She went to highschool, but not college.. and the apparently the family she had lived with treated her badly. Which explains why my moms bitter most of the time. Then 4 years after that she had Tupou, but left her in California and came to Utah. Where she met my dad.
After confronting my mom about it she broke down in tears and asked if she could have Pous number so she could call and speak with her. This past Saturday was my moms 48th birthday, but there was also a wedding that was going on that same day........... and if things weren't crazy enough.. Tupou was related to the groom of that wedding and had planned on coming down to Salt Lake this past weekend. Coincidence? I think not. Lol.
Long story short, my sisters and I had planned to meet up with her before she left back to California. On our way to pick her up, Pumpkin and I were sitting in the car with our stomachs filled with butterflies. Lol. We were nervous yet excited yet scared she wouldn't like us.. all at the same time. Lol. Right when we saw her, Pumpkin and I got out of the car to give her a hug and the very first thing we noticed was that she looked just like our mom! :) Not kidding. She was small and petite just like her too..... Ain't it crazy how things work out? :)
So we decided to take her out to Leatherbys and just get to know her a little bit.
My 1st thought about her:
She's so pretty
2nd thought:
She sounds like an amazing independent young woman
3rd thought:
Why can't I be skinny like her? Lol..
..I think the whole time we were there I just kept staring at her thinking to myself how crazy it was that she looked like my mom! Lol. Same size, same hands, same facial features.. Is that creepy? The more kept describing herself the more I just saw our mom in her. It was so surreal I almost don't believe it happened. But it did. Afterwards we took her to FINALLY meet my mom after 25 years.. I think I was more nervous than she was! Lol. But watching my mom walk towards her with open arms and then watching the both of them hugging each other with tears of joy in both their eyes was truly the most loving and heart-warming thing I've ever seen in my life. Pumpkin and I just stood there watching them with our eyes filled with tears of joy as well.
I'm happy for my mom who finally got to meet her eldest daughter, and I'm happy for Tupou that she finally got to meet her mother. My siblings and I will forever be grateful that Heavenly Father led her to us and the He helped fill in the emptiness that our family had. Our time with her was short but we are very much looking forward to hopefully seeing her again in the near future.
The lord really does work in mysterious ways. I know he has a plan for all of us and by following it we'll get to eternal happiness. Even though sometimes things happen and you don't understand WHY or HOW it happened, sometimes you get caught in a situation where you feel as though EVERYTHING is going wrong or falling apart, or even when some of the things you don't expect to happen... Just happen. But we just have to remember that it's all for a reason :)
Till next time..
.xOxO.
