Anyone else familiar with this situation? Long story, sorry..

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My parents got divorced when I was 8 years old and I moved with my mom from North Carolina to Texas. Between the ages of 8 and 11 I visited my dad back in NC only about 3 times with occasional periods of no contact from him for months at a time. Then, when I was 11 my dad finally got remarried and before I was going back to visit one morning my mom woke me up one Saturday morning and took me to breakfast. There she told me that my dad, was in fact NOT my dad and my everything I knew was just ripped away from me. Apparently, when she was enlisted during Desert Storm, she met a member of a different branch while on leave and the had a relationship for less than a month. During that time, I came to be. When she found out she was pregnant, she told my biological father not to worry about it and they went their separate ways. She met my "dad" while she was early in the pregnancy and he wanted to be with her, so he took responsibility for me. At least, until I was 11 when he told his new wife (who came to be pregnant herself and did not want me to be in the picture at all). Once she discovered I was not his real daughter she threatened to tell me upon meeting me for the first time which, in turn, led to the awkward breakfast with my mother. She had got into contact with my biological father and decided to drive me to see him and he just so happens to live in the same state that I do, just 3 hours away. He has his own family now, a wife and two stepdaughters about my age that he raised since they were around 4 years old. At the time, it was like I was gaining another family, but it really was the opposite. That was the one and only time I ever met or saw my birth father and his family and they still only live 3 hours away. It's been over 10 years since that happened. Since then my "dad" that raised me has been back and forth multiple times, claiming me as his daughter and then disowning me. Sometimes the gap was a year or more. I believe it was mostly because of bitterness between him and my mother. She wanted child support, he pulled away because he couldn't afford it and has his new wife whispering in his ear about me not being his. He had a second son with her and then they split up. Since their split, he has come to see me a couple of times. Just last July he came with his two sons, who I consider my brothers since I've been there since before they were born. Unfortunately, I'm at a stalemate it seems with my biological dad though. His oldest stepdaughter seems to want more contact with me than he does. She is constantly talking to me via Facebook and sometimes through text messages. My biological father recently has begun to occasionally text me once a month or so in the past year, but it only lasts a couple of times back and forth, mainly mindless chatter.. How the weather is and general "how you're doing" conversations you would have with any stranger. Then he just stops responding. I don't think we've had a full on conversation about the lack of relationship we have had, before I found out and even afterwards. I think the afterwards part is what bother me more.. even when he knew that I had found out he didn't even make an effort to be in my life. His oldest stepdaughter who contacts me all the time says he's just shy and that he doesn't know what to say. Honestly, I don't know what to say myself. My "dad" that raised me talks to me everyday, if only its to say that he loves me and see how my day has been and he lives states away.

I'm not sure what to get out of this post. I've contemplated deleting it and just keeping it all inside, but I figure maybe someone, if only one person, will read this and lend some kind of friendly word. Maybe someone has been through something similar? I guess it just helps to get it out there sometimes.

 
By CK on Fri, 02-24-12, 14:47

While the dynamics of your family situation seem far from ideal, it seems you have a lot of people to love and they love you in return. I know it must be hard to not have a close relationship with your biological father after knowing each other for at least a decade, but it might be like his step daughter related to you, he just may not know how to have a realtionship with you. For whatever reason you two don't have a close relationship at least you have some contact. Try and reach out to him in fun and non threatening ways, such as sending cards on his birthday, a cookie cake for veterans day, a text saying, "hope you have a nice day," etc.. If offers a olive branch of friendship, work on friendship and don't expect anything back from him, just do one sided offerings and see what happens.

Wishing you the very best!

-CK

Sometimes I believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast-Alice in Wonderland

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