Saturday, August 30, 2008

Did You Ever Wish For a Twin?


It sounds like a tabloid story: "Young schizophrenic woman gives birth to identical twins, gives them up for adoption. Two families are blessed with beautiful baby girls, unaware that they are twins, and are unwittingly enrolled in a secret child-development study. As a thirty-something adult, one of the girls is shocked to discover that she has a twin. They finally meet, search for their birth mother, and uncover the secret study that separated them."

Sounds amazing, but it's true. This story really happened, here in the United States, in the late 1960's, and Paula and Elyse were not the only ones. Along with telling their story, the authors include reunion experiences of a few other separated multiples. Warmth develops as two individuals learn to love as sisters in perfectly matched skins.

This book was, for me, a compelling read. It was fascinating to observe the joys and irritations of watching your mirror image, the months-long process of emotional adjustment, the wonder of finding out there is another person who is your exact DNA match. Of course, I couldn't help but check out the photo section first, and I was intrigued to see that the girls as youngsters looked more than a little like me. Button nose, curly reddish-brown hair, narrow lips. But the real kicker was finding out when they were born. Except for a few years, we could have been triplets!

***UPDATE*** The book will be released in paperback October 14, just a few days after our birthday! And these ladies are the most communicative authors I've met. Prompt replies to two emails -- very kind, very appreciative. Nice gals, intriguing story.

YouTube book trailer:

The book's website: http://www.identicalstrangersbook.com/index.html

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Time's Up -- Done Listening?


Way back when my husband was the pastor of a teeny-tiny church in a teeny-tiny town, grocery stores introduced the first lightweight plastic bags. Several of the ladies in the teeny-tiny congregation used the bags to carry their Bibles to church. At noon, whether the sermon was done or not, out came the bags [scrunch, scrunch] and in went the Bibles [scrunch, scrunch, scrunch, scrunch]. He quickly learned to heed the hints of the scrunchy bags and give the closing prayer.

Some of those scrunchy-bag ladies were very sweet, but the noise meant they were done with listening. Time for dinner, time to chat, time to be done with church, no offense intended.

I wished I'd had a scrunchy bag last week. Sitting in classes all day, listening and processing things I wished I didn't have to listen to or process. It got old. It made me exhausted. I was ready to be done listening before the closing prayer (if there had been one) was said.

All things considered, however, it was good that I sat there, good that I endured, good that I didn't use the scrunchy-bag technique. I learned things I needed to learn, I applied things I needed to apply, and I pondered things that needed pondering. It was good that all of us sat quietly, took it all in, and thought about what to do with the new information.

My library has introduced a new kind of bag for patrons. It's a new material, made of plants or vegetable oils or something, and it's soft and very quiet. No more scrunchiness! Bless their hearts, what would those ladies do now? They'd pull out their bags, shuffle their Bibles and bulletins into them, and the preacher would never hear a bit of it! Maybe they'd get to listen to that final tag at the end of the sermon, the one that wraps up the whole message, the one that you're supposed to take home and ponder.

Besides that, if the bag is biodegradable and non-toxic, you could probably take a bite and chew on it so you don't die of hunger before you get home to dinner.