My Dad and his two brothers all had kids. There were two more kids from Mom’s brother. We all got together often. Each of us kids had cousins of comparable ages. It was good to grow up with cousins.
As adults we all scattered but most of us have stayed in touch. Now, after all these years, we discover two more cousins some of us didn’t even know we had! After we were all grown up and gone, one of Dad’s brothers divorced, remarried, and had two more kids. What a surprise a few weeks ago when word filtered back to us through our niece Christy that she had been contacted by someone in Florida that had found a DNA match with her. With that, we now know we have two more cousins, Tania and Mark. They are much younger than us; more like contemporaries of our children, but they are our first cousins and our kids’ second cousins.
Fun for us; we have two more cousins. More dramatic than that for Tania and Mark. They grew up vaguely aware that there were other family members out there but not knowing much about who and where they might be. Growing up with just each other, no other family, suddenly they’re in touch with twenty or so newly found family members! Even better for them, some of this pile of people are even more closely related than cousins, some are half-brothers and sisters. We’re all talking on the phone and chatting by text and email; making plans to get together whenever it makes sense for any of us to travel again.
What a cool surprise for everybody.