He had already begun hearing from some of his offspring he has at least 10 , and he wrote back a warm introduction about himself to Share, attaching a page biography that he had written and shared with his other biological children.
For the next five months, Share and Long continued to exchange messages. Then in July , Long invited all of the biological children he had connected with by that point to visit Seattle. Weeks after meeting Long, Share, 42, and Alice were having trouble with their landlord in Oregon. It ended up going well — so well that Long and Share began dating and now live together, with Alice.
For Share, the new living arrangement is a welcome twist. But everyone in the family is quick to acknowledge that while they live in close quarters, Long is not a father figure to Alice — especially Alice herself. For Ellenstein, the new relationships with his 24 children have gone well — so far. He sometimes worries that more offspring will be discovered and that he will be spread too thin to give each the attention that they want and deserve.
Elizabeth Chuck is a reporter for NBC News who focuses on health and mental health, particularly issues that affect women and children. IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Southlake Podcast U. Share this —.
Follow NBC News. By Elizabeth Chuck. Elizabeth Chuck. The real Alice, who lent her name to the story, was the daughter of Henry Liddell, the dean of Christ Church College at Oxford, where Carroll taught mathematics. Gift of Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. Haber, He eventually turned it into a written novel, presenting it to Alice as an early Christmas gift in Carroll commissioned prominent English illustrator John Tenniel to create the accompanying art for the story. When he saw an early copy of the book, Tenniel was so dismayed at how badly his drawings had been reproduced, Carroll scrapped the entire edition, spending more than half his annual salary to get it reprinted and leaving him in a financial hole before the book even came out.
Luckily, once widely published, Alice enjoyed instant success. The books from the subpar printing were later sold in America. There had been no conflict in our family, so I was shocked and heartbroken. She said she did not want to talk about it and there was nothing I could do to repair our marriage.
I continued parenting the sisters five days a week for a few years. But when Alice was 10, my ex-partner blocked Alice on her phone, cut off all contact with her, and refused to return her younger sister following a vacation. On my ex-wife's side of the family, Alice's grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins haven't so much sent her a birthday greeting in two years.
Alice spends her days dreaming of the sister she was raised with and who she is afraid she will never see again. Alice knows more deeply than most children that family is neither genetically created nor forged through parenting alone.
Parenting did not make her mama stay. And although genetics was a small piece of what her family looked like for a decade, that also seemed like an unimportant part of who she was. However, Alice wondered where her ancestors came from. My mother had often told stories about the family's Cornish heritage to anyone who would listen.
Wanting to know what her genetic heritage was, Alice requested a DNA testing kit from her grandmother for Christmas when she was 11 years old. The results came back about eight weeks later. I clicked on the DNA Relatives section of the site, not thinking anything would come of it. Half-brother" was right behind.
Of course, I had known this might happen, but it hadn't seemed likely. Before writing a note on the site, I searched for Aaron online to see what I could learn. There are a lot of Aaron Longs in the world, so I set to work finding "the one.
Squinting at each Aaron Long, I wondered if I would recognise the donor right away. One of the sperm vials listed the date of donation , which helped narrow down birth and college graduation years. There was just one man with a master's degree in literature in the correct age range, with the name Aaron Long. In his photo, he was wearing an olive-green silk turban and blowing a trombone. His profile said he was employed as a "communications specialist" and placed him in Seattle.
A writer and a musician. On another social media site, I discovered a Seattleite named Aaron Long with the correct workplace and with photos of each of his school portraits through the years.
There was no doubt. My daughters make that stupid face. I quickly wrote a message to him on the DNA testing site. It read:. Hi Aaron, I actually have two daughters who'd match you my ex has my youngest daughter; she's not on the DNA testing site. If you're interested in trading family photos, etc. I used the "curiosity hook," thinking he'd have to write back to see pictures of my youngest daughter. Aaron wrote back immediately, sharing details I already knew from my sleuthing.
He asked if I had any questions for him, and I asked if he was the shortest person in his family. I already knew the answer.
He was. We agreed to become friends on a social networking site and Aaron sent a page long life history, which I devoured. He'd spent several years in a band in the town where we lived. How many times had we walked past him in the supermarket, I wondered? I also wrote to Bryce, who had just graduated college. Or if there are 25 days and 2 hours that would be 26 sleeps left until Christmas. Make sure you keep checking the best Christmas Countdown regularly to see how many shopping days there are left until Christmas.
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