Band of Brothers

Through all of my recent paternity and child support drama, one thing has been very important to me. That Chandler meet his half-brother. And, on Saturday it happened. We had the privilege of meeting Chandler's half brother Grayson and his mom Tanisha. Wow! I never thought in a million years that day would come. I had heard rumors that Chan possibly had a half brother, and I am pretty sure they had been wondering the same thing about us. So funny how I found them: when we went to court, bio-dad had presented some papers proving he couldn't possibly afford any more child support and had left Tanisha and Grayson's first and last names on them. So, I immediately came home, logged into MySpace and put both names into a search and Voila! There they were. I emailed her and said that I thought we had kids by the same man. She called me almost instantly. Crazy but true story: she used to work at On the Border back in the nineties with my sister Kelli's old boyfriend. She had actually had a conversation with him about kids and baby names. They started talking about the name Chandler. She mentioned that bio-dad might have a son with that same name. Imagine the shock when they discovered that a photo that bio-dad had matched the one that Kelli's boyfriend had seen at our house. When he told me that I was stunned and in total disbelief. Well, life was busy for everyone involved and they both quit OTB, so nothing else came of it until that lovely day in court 3 weeks ago. I mean that is like something out of a soap opera or something! I wish that I had known how to contact her all those years ago. Man, you gotta love MySpace! Anyway, Tanisha and I have been emailing, texting, and chatting on the phone for the last several weeks. Our schedules finally allowed us all to get together at Putt Putt yesterday. At first the boys seemed kinda shy and nervous and as the evening wore on they got along pretty well. Grayson is almost 13 but seems much older. He is a sweet and funny kid. He seems a little shy, but as he and Chan hang out more I am sure that he will open up. He stayed the night last night and saw our nutty family in all our glory. Poor kid, I hope we didn't scare him off. They were so cute playing guitar together (a skill they inherited from bio-dad) and just hanging out. I am so glad they finally met and I hope they develop a lifelong friendship. I wish their bio-dad knew what cool kids they both are. He has definitely missed out on getting to know two amazing boys. Maybe someday he'll realize...

Grayson and Chandler


P.S. In case you were wondering, Tanisha and I get along great. Which makes this whole crazy story that much more interesting. Bio-dad would die if he knew...