All my life I’ve known that I was born through donor insemination. I am an only child. I learned about our half sibling family when I was 14 years old.

Prompting me for a conversation about having something parent wanted to talk about – terrified me. When I learned it was really cool. Because of how much information, photos, recordings of donor and this half sib group in Facebook. We stayed up until 1 am looking at pictures and reading – talked about the similarities in pictures and learning about the next reunion. At first it was just weird to think about but it didn’t take long to feel that this was really awesome and this will be a fun adventure to get to know them. I’ve always thought it would be great to have a sibling to know into my adult years. I was really excited and curious.

I first met four of my half siblings when we were in Florida over spring break in 2012. WE met up at a pizza place just to have dinner. It was really awkward at first because all of us who were meeting each other would typically be considered introverts. But once we spent some time together, with one of the moms helping us engage in conversation, it became more comfortable. By the end of the few hours we were together we were have a really fun time.

I don’t know what it is like to have a sibling, but I do have cousins and my half sibling are similar to having cousins but are closer. Although I have many friends my own age, and enjoy hanging out with them; when I hang out with my half sibs it feels more like family than friends. I have always been able to be myself and everyone accepts everyone else.

The next time I met a group, it was out in Arizona. We had all met up to go to the Grand Canyon and spend 4 days together at a family reunion. There were 6 families and 8 half sibs all together. The first morning all of our moms wanted us to line up to take pictures together. It was really awkward standing shoulder to shoulder with people I barely knew. By the end of the day we were taking more pictures, giving piggyback rides and it felt fine. It was really fun spending time with them. It felt natural. We found that we all have similar interests like rope courses, math and many of us want to be engineers.

Since then whenever my family goes on vacations we always look to see if there will be any half sibs in the area that we can meet up with. It is a fun thing to look forward to when you are going on a trip. So far I have met about 15 of my half sibs, and look forward to meeting more this summer at another family reunion.