Revelation
A lie dies, a guide appears, and a journey begins.
For a confession, there must first be a secret. And with growing DNA testing so readily available, millions of secrets are under siege. Today the stories abound of lives turned upside down by the secrets this technology reveals. Adults can be traumatized by the truth of their conception, family ties torn apart by betrayal, and individuals crushed under the shame of discovered deceit.
But you will also find plenty of forgiveness, compassion, joyous reunion, and the creation of extended families. There will be unanswered questions, lost stories, and dead ends. There will also be stories of long-awaited personal integration for people who always knew something was wrong. People like me. The experience of the discovery of true heritage is as individual as each human being. In my case, it went well beyond a different genetic makeup and the fuller sense of self I had always longed for.
This might have been a story of me as another Ancestry.com statistic. Instead, it would bring together unknown family I could choose to include in my life, and be a part of theirs. It would begin to heal a whole childhood. More unexpected, it would integrate a far more powerful part of myself I did not realize was there all along. As much as humans tend to see family as everything, we are all ultimately alone in…
