My new-to-me sister, Sally.

Above: Me and Sally

Above: Sally with Emma and Tula

Above: Sally

Above: Me and Sally

Above: Sally, a serious shopper

Above: Our cousin Sarah, who is staying with Sally in the city for a while, my mom, Sal's dog, Oscar (yes, he's wearing an elf outfit), and Emma, at Sally's apt.

Above: Tula and Maren

So, this is hard to explain. I have a sister, two of them actually, who I didn't meet until 10 years ago. I was adopted at birth and had no idea they existed. I only knew I was born in Florida and that my birth mother was a teenager when she had me.

Then, to make a long story short, when the internet was still newish, I found a website that connected adoptees with their birth parents. On a whim, I tried it. A few weeks later, my birth mother, Tina, signed in as well. I got the trippiest phone call of my life.

"Hello, we think we've found your birth mother." Knock me over with a feather.

Even weirder, I was in NYC visiting my mom at the time and as it happened, so were my sisters Sally and Erika. We met. We had fun. I fell in love with them, but not without a bit of sadness: they were so bonded.

Erika is my half-sister. After Tina gave me up, she found another guy (my birth father was floating around, following the Grateful Dead or something) and had Erika (my half-sister). A few years later, she hooked back up with my birth father and had Sally (my full sister).

Erika is somewhere, not really in touch with me or Sally, but I hope she'll find her way back to us, or at least to Sally.

Sally and I have a connection. We are alike in so many ways (she's 11 years younger than me, btw). I adore her. I wont go into her life too much, because that's private, but suffice it to say, her life was much harder than mine.

An extra bonus: her daughter, Maren, and my younger daughter, Tula, are the same age. Cousins. They love playing together.

I can't wait to see her again.