This is Not My Narrative

Small Epiphanies: December 27

My parents had four kids before Mike and I were adopted. Joni, Jaci, Dave and Steve fill our photo albums, and star in all of our home movies, as though they are, indeed, my parents’ children. Their own parents make the occasional appearance in a home movie, but it’s clear my parents all but kidnapped my cousins for a few years there.

I think, sometimes, that if my parents had had children the usual way, instead of adopting Mike and me, my cousins are what those kids would look like–who Mike and I would be–since their parents are my mother’s brother and my father’s sister. Almost an alternate, parallel universe. A what if? come to life.

We almost don’t have to ask, “If we weren’t adopted, who would we be?” But of course it’s not that simple.

Here are my parents and my cousins, running around on the sidewalks of E. 2nd, along with a brief glimpse of my cousins’ parents, and even Grandma Cone.

This entry was posted on December 28, 2012 at 4:31 am and is filed under Small Epiphanies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.