Crazy Kismet

My sister sent me a chain text today. One of those, “now text this to six people and see what happens” things.

This one asked the question: What’s the first thing you remember about meeting me?

Now, considering she’s my sister and we’re the same age, that sounds like a silly question to ask. However, she was adopted when we were eight. So, not so silly after all.

Little info on my family: My parents collected kids. My parents are AWESOME. My husband calls them the world’s poorest philanthropists and says they’re too good for their own good. Then he smiles smugly, extremely pleased with himself.

My first thought when one of my favorite sis’ asked me this was to go back to that incredibly awkward day when I was pulled out of school early by my parents to meet my new sisters. (My parents usually adopted in multiples of two. They actually made the font page of The Daily Iberian once with the headline “Two By Two By Two”.)

Anyway, Shiney and Susan were the first adoptees in our family so we hadn’t figured out exactly how things worked.

When Shiney asked that question my mind went to standing there like a dolt wondering what to say to these two girls that were suddenly part of the family. Then, I remembered the fact that Shiney and I had met before that.

See, I had this best friend growing up named Kelly. She lived in the same trailer park and we had the exact same birthday. Well, Kelly’s parents had upward mobility and moved to Lafayette into an honest to goodness house. I remember they were the first to get out of a trailer.

Anyway, Kelly moves to a new city, goes to a new school and gets a new best friend. What’s really weird is that Kelly’s new best friend turned out to be Shiney. Our parents decided to throw Kelly’s and my seventh birthday parties together and, of course, Kelly invited her new best friend Shintina (Shiney).

That’s how it came to be that I met my sister over a year before we adopted her. Being the freak that I am when it comes to memory, I was the only person who actually realized this.

But, seriously, how crazy is that? That my adopted sister, who didn’t even live in the same city as me, just happened to end up attending my seventh birthday party a year before we adopted her.

It makes an argument for predetermination or kismet or fate or SOMETHING.

Incidentally, I also was best friends with one of my other future sisters about two years before we adopted her and one of my foster sisters turned out to be distantly (and I do mean distantly) related to us.

It just goes to show that we’re all a lot more connected than we like to think. At least, that’s what I like to think.