I come from a HUGE family. My mother is the youngest of thirteen children. Yup, you read that right, THIRTEEN. When I think of my early childhood I think of family. I think of noise. I think of laughter and dancing. You didn’t need outside friends because no matter what age you were there were always at least two family members around your age for you to hang out around. My dad’s family isn’t as close and is no where as big but even on his side I have memories of family get togethers and my dad dressed like Santa. Family has and always will be a very important part of my identity.
To give you an idea on how many of us there are on my maternal side I remember being at a cousin’s wedding a few years ago and the photographer called for the bride’s family to stand up for a group photo. When we got up he said, “no please, only blood family for this one.” We all laughed and stood standing. My cousin chat on What’sApp has over 10 of us and we represent only a small snapshot of our cousins. We all share so many values and mannerisms yet while some of us look the alike there are others of us that don’t.
And now thanks to 23andme I get to find out why. For Mother’s Day me and my mom are getting to find out more about our ancestry. I for one cannot wait to find out the results. Even when my mother and I stand side by side there are so many differences between us two. She has worn her hair short for as long as I can remember and according to pictures even before I was born. While I’ve dabbled with short hair in the past I love my hair long. My mother’s hair is straight and thin. Mine is curly and thick. My mother’s skin is milky and I’m much more cafe con leche albeit with extra leche. My mom is ticklish beyond reasoning and I’m not at all (well, only on rare occasions). I could list our differences for days but what I always hold onto is what we have in common. We both love with our all. We’re both very short. We both are nurturers. We both are givers. We both will sacrifice our wants and needs for those near and dear to us.
Being able to share this campaign with my mother was really special to me and one of the main reasons I agreed. I have friends that have done the test. They were impressed with their results and even went so far as to connect with possible relatives. I think that is really cool. For me though it is about being able to sit with the woman who birthed me and say, “hey lady, look at that you have X% more of such and such than me. Am I adopted?” Kidding, I mean I never did see photos of my mother pregnant though…hmmm. Seriously though, I think it will be really interesting to see how much our ancestry is linked and how much it is not even though she is the person that grew me in her womb.
Don’t worry, you too can bond with your mom over spit and a 23andme Ancestry kit. If you order your kits before May 14th you can get $20 off and free gift wrap!
