The significance of this wedding is compounded by the fact that my wife has only known her brother since 1995. He's not 22, he is 40 years old. The story of an adoption reunion that happen 22 years ago has taken Elizabeth and me to Canada many times, but most especially four incredible times, including this one.
During my search from 1992-1995 for my wife's birth mother, thoughts of brothers and sisters weren't the driving forces. However, after Elizabeth's realization that she was the oldest sister in a family, she shifted from being a middle child in her adopted family to the oldest in her biological family; literally overnight. When we first landed in Edmonton Alberta, we were a young 27 years old married couple. Her new siblings were 13 to 24 years old. Like long lost relatives, we were both greeted with enthusiasm by each of them. Like a seed planted in the ground, a beautiful tree began to grow, now years later with such deep roots.
As I sit in seat 5A on American Airlines heading south, I am so happy that we were able to be a part of all four of their weddings... most recently Jeffrey to his new beautiful bride Nicole.
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| Kevin & Beverly McGonigal, their children and new bride Nicole |
We have a very unique family. Being adopted at the age of 9 weeks, sent Elizabeth down a path that I believe inevitably lead her to me. With all the things that could have happened to her, being an unplanned birth was her destiny, growing up on a farm in Texas defined the person she is, leaving a 17 member high school class at the age of 16, as difficult as that was, all brought her to the town of a 17 year old boy who would fall in love with her and in a few years, be driven to connect her to her biological roots.
T. Kyle Swicegood
