Donna Byington's Ancestry DNA story post 2

Ok so back to the story. Donna was matched to a list of people top of the list was my brother who is the only other person in our family who has done the DNA test. Next close match was a lady named Deon Huntsman. Part of the ancestry story is that they let you message people who you match with. So Donna got some nerve up and messaged Deon. She explained to Deon that they matched and that she was wondering if she was related to Donna's birth mom. Deon asked Donna a couple questions, first being when were you born, then how do you know thats your mom's name, last where were you born? Then she said that she may be Donna's mom youngest sister. She also explained that if this is your birth mom you have 1 brother and 5 sisters. Donna got very emotional when she received this message. It was a tear filled exciting moment. Donna promptly messaged her back and answered those questions. Deon messaged Donna back and yes in fact that she was Donna's aunt and confirmed that Donna was the middle of 7 kids! Whoa, so everything she thought was the deal with her birth was wrong. It was not a teenage mom. Donna let the info sink in that she had siblings. She Had sisters and a big brother. Aunt Deon told Donna about her siblings.
Roger Strom-Lives in Hurricane Utah
Janis Lunt-Lives in Nampa
Penny Peck-Lives in Pocatello
Cindy Radford-Lives in Rigby
Kelly Davenport-Lives in Nampa
Roxane Cornell-Lives in Pocatello
Holy cow this info blew her away. Not only does she have siblings but some of them live very close by. Then she started to evaluate each of their names and one sounded very familiar and so some Facebook stalking was in order and turns out her sister Penny Peck is someone she has known since she worked at A&W (told you info was important later)! So Deon gave Penny a call and talked to her about Donna and Penny remembered her from working at A&W. Penny was very excited to hear this amazing news. It was November 2017 when Donna received all this info and as luck would have it all of Donna's kids and most of all of her grandkids were coming home for Thanksgiving. So plans were made for Penny to Join our family and meet us at Outer Limits. It was a fantastic opener to the family she was about to all meet. It was all very easy. Surprisingly easy. Penny told Donna some about all of her siblings. After Thanksgiving Penny, Kelly, Cindy, Roxane all decided to get together to meet their new sister and go to dinner to meet. The meeting was set for Sizzler. Kelly and Cindy drove to Pocatello to meet their new sister. It was a fun meeting. There is a lot in common with the sisters. They told Donna many stories about their mom and the life they all had. Cindy was also adopted out when she was born a few years after Donna. Cindy found the family 20 years earlier(I think I am asking and will update if its wrong)! She did some Genealogy searching and found Roger and contacted him directly. She can add her part to this story later. So shortly after finding out she had a huge biological family Donna met 4 out of six of her sibling and they are all so amazing and loving.....................More on the next post.

Donna Byington's Ancestry DNA story

Ok so I will start this story with some background on my momma! I have decided to write this because her story is amazing and I think we need it for posterity. She was born 5-28-50 in Pocatello Idaho. She was adopted by Marvin and Erma Herzinger. She was the only child they had. Donna grew up an only child and was the pride and joy of her Parents and grandparents. She had a very good life growing up in Pocatello. She started her working career as a teenager at A&W and why is that important you ask, well later on in the story it will become important. Her dad was not a Member of the LDS church and her mom was not active and their lifestyle was the party life. They liked to drink and have fun on the weekends with their friends so Donna spent a lot of time at her Grandma Eva's house during those time and Grandma made sure she got to church. She gained a testimony of the church and loved it dearly. She had a great life but always wanted siblings. She was lonely often and missed having siblings to play with. She meet and Married Gary Byington in 1968. They decided to start and family and Donna knew she didn't want just one kid because she didn't want her kid to be lonely and miss the sibling fun. So together the had 6 kids. Sadly one sweet boy Cord Aaron passed away from crib death as a very young baby! So Gary and Donna had three boys and then 2 girls. Donna always knew she was adopted. I asked her if there was ever a time when her parents sat her down and had a conversation about her being adopted. She said no she just always knew it wasn't like it was a big family secret or anything. She was a answer to prayers for them. Since she had such great parents and family she never felt the need to look for her biological family. She knew if someday they wanted to find her they would if not it was ok. She just always figured she was born to a teen mom who was sent way to have a baby like so many in that day and age. After her dad passed away from lung cancer, Donna and her mom decided to take her dad through the temple and be sealed together. At that time they had to go to the court house and have the adoption record open. Then she found out her biological mothers name and that she was an unwed mother. So that made Donna believe even more that her bio mom was a teen mom. Her Bio moms name was Dorothy Strom. Shortly after they went to the temple Donna's mom Erma passed away from brain cancer. Donna felt very alone for a while but my dad reminded her she was never alone because she had us kids and his very large family. So fast forward till 2017 and the time of lots of companies doing DNA tests to see where you are from. Mary, Donna's sister in law bought Donna a gift as a thank you and early Christmas present of an ancestry DNA kit. Mary felt like Donna should at least know her heritage and where her family came from. So in October 2017 Donna used the DNA kit and sent it off.................. little did she know that part of that service is they match you with people whose DNA most closely matches yours. So there is the background info on Donna. Come back for more to the story.

It's been a while

I have not blogged my situation since 2012! That is a long time ago! My medical stuff has been really good. I have been technically considered in remission since 2012. It is a great feeling! It was a rough road and while I am not 100%, there are still an occasional rough day! I am sure some day I will look back and not remember those days! Finger crossed anyway! So since my medical stuff is in under control for now I am going to use this blog to talk about my life and my moms journey through ancestry DNA and finding her biological family! It is a great story with a very happy ending. At first I thought I would write it all out first and then I would get all my mom siblings reactions to the situation and see about a book. But that is not working for my motivation to sit with a notebook and pen is waining. I will kind of start the journey with some back info then I will post a day to day happenings and hopefully I can remember all the day to day exciting things that happened! It has almost been a year and my post bone marrow transplant brain struggles to remember some things. Then I will work on getting all of the siblings reactions and add them to this blog! 

I will probably post multiple posts in a row to keep it organized. 

Thank You 

Marcy