Guest Post, Siv Ottem: Lost and Found

It's my privilege and honor to introduce this guest post. Siv Maria of “Been there, done that.” has an amazing and personal story to tell that will warm your heart and perhaps bring a tear to your eye. Don't forget to visit her personal blog, too.

One year ago today my son found me, 35 years after I had given him up for adoption. Those of you that have been following my blog this past year probably know the story, but for those of you that do not, I am re-posting some of those posts today. Here is what happened and how it has changed my life forever.

The three of us, lost and then found

May happens to be an amazing month for me. Do you have a certain month where for some unexplained reason; life grabs you and makes you pay attention? May is that month for me. Maybe my mother, who was born in May, genetically imprinted this month for future events into my DNA. I married my husband in May, my youngest son was born in May, and two children who were lost to me found me once again, in the month of May. Two years ago on May 12th my daughter, who I lost through a messy divorce years ago, found me on Facebook. Last year on May 10th my firstborn son found me as well.

You cannot possibly imagine the effect this has had on my life and the life of my family. In one year, I gained two more children, two grandchildren, a son-in-law and various new friends, including the estranged father of my first son. My husband became a step-father, my mother a great grandmother, and all my children gained more siblings. My son, who lost both his adoptive parents and had no siblings, suddenly had a huge family with grandparents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and cousins. I often think how overwhelming this must be for him, and how many more surprises are still in store for all of us.
My youngest daughter traveled to the states last summer to meet both her sister and older brother for the first time. I traveled there soon after and got to spend time with the both of them. I also got to meet my grandchildren for the first time. There have been a lot of first times for everyone and this summer there will be even more. My son is coming to visit us and finally meet more members of his family!
We all connected through Facebook and keep in touch using Skype. My son learned a lot about me before we even had the chance to talk. He found my blog “Been there, done that” on Facebook, went there and read all about me and my life. Questions he has asked himself his entire life were answered in one tiny corner of cyberspace called blogger.

One year ago I got out of bed and started the day with ordinary expectations, when I went to bed that night I realized that my expectations would never be ordinary again. How could they be? In one year I had given birth to two grown children, and the funny thing is ...
No matter how grown up they may be,
they still feel like--- my babies to me.

All of us can get lost, but thankfully we can also be found.