It's tomorrow! This is FOR REAL!

As i lie down for bed last night i started to feel like all this was finally real. i mean i know Mandi is a real person, and anyone who saw a picture would know she is my sister. but i have dreamed and ached to meet her for as long as she has been alive. (note: Adam, if you're reading this, you know i am dying to spend some time with you and Ricki too, but there is a totally different bond with sisters. :-) i love you too and you will always be my FIRST sibling!) because i wanted to mark this moment, and didn't have time or energy to write this post right then, i posted this on Facebook:

Winding down. Trying not to wind up when I think of this next bit:

Mandi: when we wake up tomorrow we will only have a day and a few hours left apart! I love you!

I woke up this morning to a whole host of facebook notifications, but the one that sent me to view this was my favorite.

Mandi Kelly Maegan: in one day and a few hours I will have the whole weekend with my sister!! You have no idea how excited I am! I've waited my whole life to meet u! N now I have my sister!! Yaaay! I'm so freakin excited! I love u!

Even re-reading it now my eyes well up. my own joy at finding my sister is huge, and even if she was merely happy to meet me i would be thrilled. but look at this! she is just as excited and happy as i am! i am overjoyed. i have no words for how happy this makes me!

then, i clicked over to her facebook profile and saw this status message:

Friday can't get here fast enough!! Get to spend the weekend with my sister I havnt ever gotten to meet! Holy crap!!!

Again, i was floored and touched! When Mandi was born, the six year old Mae was so excited that she was finally going to have a little sister who she could do everything with. we would be best friends and inseparable and life would be a fairy tale. This bubble was sharply popped when, a few months later i came to understand the terms of my being adopted- which of course was the best thing and i have no complaints-and was promised that if i wanted to find my sister and brother when i grew up i would have help from my mama. from then on, i hoped and wanted the relationship i;d dreamed of for Mandi and i, but it seemed like a longshot that i would ever even find her, and if i did would she want to know me? and the longest shot of all would be her wanting to be close to me and love me like i love her. but y'know, now i have all of it. i have fantastic relationships with Christina and Melissa, and this takes nothing at all from them, but there is a definite sense of completeness now.

i've put off all the packing and prep till now (2:45 Thursday afternoon) because i know myself and i know it will help ease the antsy this afternoon and evening to have something to do. expect a looooong blog post or series of posts on this weekend with tons of pictures. i cannot wait!