Roots & Bacon Tortellini Alfredo Bake

Growing up, my Mom always said to us, “it’s the Ukrainian in you.“ 😆 and by osmosis I believe this to be true. However, now watching my Dad, my Bro, and my Sis talk to each other and seeing how alike they all are… Reminds me that I am my Mother’s daughter. As I have talked about before, I am eternally grateful and lucky that the only Dad I have ever known in my life is, my Dad. He adopted me when I was 5 years old when he married my Mom. Never, not once, in my entire life has he ever made me feel like I’m not his true 100% daughter. But like I said, I’ve been thinking a lot about roots and how we make the same mistakes. The world does and we do too. Are we destined to follow in our ancestors and parent’s footsteps?

Do we as adults see what cracked us and try everything within our power to compensate for our misgivings? Do we overcompensate and end up tilting the scales so far the other way that we’re right back where we started? Is everything a cycle? Is it blood related or environmental?

A few years ago I took an Ancestry test. I steeled myself for what would come next. Inevitably bio guy’s DNA is it me so there is a whole side I know nothing about. I assumed that by taking a DNA test someone might reach out to me. I was wrong. Well that’s not true, I have met and spoken with, via messages, to 3 new family members that are trying to piece together their family history… On my Mom’s side! My Poppy’s family is crazy interesting!!! But although I have a shit ton of Mediterranean blood in me, all the connections I’ve made through Ancestry haven’t really been from that side at all and certainly none that are closely related to me. So I had prepared myself for nothing!

Over the past few years we built the house! I recorded it via my blog, our podcast, and through stories on social media accounts. Tons of people started following along. One woman gave great advice and became a sounding board of sorts for some of my designs. When talking to Ninja about what she said I would call her my Insta Friend 😂. After the house was finished, we continued a dialogue through social media. I get a lot of messages every day. I apologize if I don’t get back to people! Socializing is exhausting but I appreciate every single message that I have received! Recently my Insta Friend asked me about my health.

Something made me stop and look closer at our relationship over the years. I went over her social media and there was nothing personal posted. In fact, over the years the only personal thing I knew about her was where she lived, my hometown of Winnipeg. I also saw how encouraging she had been over the years. The great advice she gave me. Her kindness. Somewhere along the line it looked like Insta Friend started caring about me and my family. Or maybe she always did?

Anyways, I don’t know what made me ask but I did, I replied, “do I know you? This might sound crazy but are we related?”

Turns out she had been waiting for an opportunity to talk to me about how we ARE related! Deep down I think I always knew.

We have been talking for the past few weeks. That’s all I’m going to share for now but I feel so incredibly grateful to get to know this amazingly strong and caring woman. I’m also incredibly grateful for preparing for a moment like this. Siblings, cousins, nephews… it’s a lot! Thankfully, I had already made my boundaries. I already have a Dad. I’m not interested in a relationship or getting to know or really even talking about bio guy. However, if there’s other family out there, and there is, that looks like me (it’s SHOCKING) and has similar ways of doing things because of generations of blood running through our veins… It’s exciting to have an opportunity to explore that 💛.