My Single Mom Life

Ok, sorry this part took so long, I just really needed a few days to rest my tired and sore body.

When we were in the lobby talking to each other, Katie came up and told us that the crowd outside wanted to meet us, see us, so we were all escorted outside to the area where all of the people stand to watch the Today show.
People started clapping for us and taking our pictures, we all stood together and people took our picture, that was kind of weird, we're not celebs, just a bunch of people who found each other, but we did it anyway.
This is how we posed for about 100 people to take our picture.

It was really cool to see the whole thing how the fans of the show do from the outside too.

After doing that, Katie said that the limos would come and pick us up and take us back to their hotel (Joanne, Gary, and Randy's) so that we could all have breakfast together and talk for about an hour before they had to leave for the airport to go home.
So we all went to the Hilton and had breakfast together and talked for about an hour.
It was so great to be able to just sit down and talk to each other and Gary's adoptive Mom and Joanne's fiance too.
This is where Joanne and I learned that we have a ton in common aside from looking a lot alike.
Both of us have pink cell phones that had charms that fell off, her charms were a sterling silver 'J', mine a sterling silver 'K', and she had an animal, can't recall what she said it was now, but my animal charm was a cat.
We both swear like sailors, smoke, and one of our fave foods is cinnamon rolls.
We were both bummed out that they didn't have any for breakfast...LoL
Both of us were married for 4 years and divorced, and both of us have bad backs.
Joanne has never had hers treated because she hasn't had any insurance, but she said her back has been in pain for the last 20 years.
I hated to hear that, but relieved at the same time, the bad back stuff really is genetic.
Sitting there looking at her and Gary, Randy was at another table eating with his fiance and her kids, I could see so much of myself, of my kids.
For the last few years Sebastian has been saying that he doesn't have my nose or the Cooper nose, but he definitely has Gary's nose.
So weird to finally say hey, that's where you got that feature.
The hour just flew by, eating, talking, I could have sat there all day talking with them, learning all about them.
We made sure to get each others info, phone, cell phone, addresses, so that we could all stay in touch and figure out the holidays.
It was such a fast hour, they had to go get their stuff and check out, they had to be at the airport at 11:30 to fly back home, but Joanne made sure to show me a printout of our bio-mom's health issues.
Quite a few of my health problems were on it and some other stuff, she said she will make sure that I get copies of all of the medical records that she has.
I hated to see them go, I just found them, I didn't want them to leave.

After they left, Sebastian and I had about 5-6 hours before we had to leave for the airport to go home, so we wandered around Times Square that whole time.
We went in like every store that we liked, the M&M store, Hershey's, the Toys R Us, Sebastian wanted a slice of real New York pizza so we made sure to get some, it was awesome.

Sebastian loved the Toys R Us store the most, it was wicked cool, 3 stories of just tons of toys and cool stuff like this T-Rex from Jurassic Park.

It actually moved and roared, way cool.
We hung out in Times Square for hours just walking around and people watching, there is so much there to look at, it was just an awesome afternoon hanging out with Sebastian, everywhere we went though, we kept saying how much Mark would have loved it if he had come.
We missed him so much, we bought him a Star Wars toy in Toys R Us while we were in there.

Around 4:50, the limo SUV came to pick us up and take us to the JFK airport to come home.
The flight home was nice, Jet Blue is an awesome airline man, tvs in every seat so you don't get bored flying.
Sebastian loved that, something to do to pass the time that won't make you motion sick. ha ha
We got back to Tampa airport and our limo driver was already waiting for us, so we grabbed our 1 suitcase and rode home.
Mark was up and trying to clean the house for us, the kitties all came running and mewing for us, it was good to be home but sad too.
I had just met my bio-siblings and only got to spend about an hour with them.
I came home to find like 1,200 emails, some from my new extended family members who were all so happy for us, reading each of them made me cry.
This is so hard, I just found them, it's still such a shock to me, I'm still in shock over the whole thing, I don't know when that feeling is going to go away, if it ever does.
I keep thinking if I hadn't watched the Today show on Tuesday, I would have never heard Joanne say my name, Claire Marie.
It feels like a dream, like did she really say it, and I know that she did, but wow, so huge, it's all so huge.

Joanne and I keep texting back and forth, and I plan on writing Gary a letter, he's not online but his mom is, and she has emailed me, and several of his aunts too, so there's a way to get in touch with him.
I also have Randy's info so that I can stay in touch with him too.
It still feels like a dream, I never thought I'd ever find any blood relatives, I never knew my birth parents names, I had nothing at all to go on except for my birth name, so finding out that I had 2 bio-brothers and that Joanne from back in high school really IS my sister, is totally freaking amazing.
I can't even explain how this feels, all of the emotions that keep coming up, it's so hard to put into words, I just keep saying wow.
How do you even begin to put it into words?
I have blood siblings now, I have this huge extended family now, the empty places are finally filled up, it's impossible to explain how this feels.
I'm just so grateful though, grateful that they went on the Today show, grateful that Joanne said my name, grateful that the Today show flew us out there, words cannot explain how I feel.
I'm overwhelmed and overflowing.
I don't even know what else to say really, I'd be happy to answer any questions people have, I'm sure that I've left something out of the whole thing, so if anyone has any questions, feel free to post them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them in another post.
And thank you all so much for the amazing show of love and support, it's really so awesome, thank you.

*Edited to add*

I need to say a HUGE thank you to the Today show and all of the staff there, especially Katie, Lexi, and Kari, the 3 of them went like above and beyond to make this happen.
Katie was the intern who took my frantic phone call at 8:20am on Tuesday the 22nd of September.
I made about 10 phone calls that morning right after watching the segment to every single phone number that I could find on the Today website and the MSNBC website, I started dialing at like 8:12am, within seconds of the segment ending.
All of those calls went unanswered, so I had to call 411 to try and get a good number.
The first one, someone answered and told me that I had to call back at 9:30am when the offices open, the lady wouldn't even listen to me and then she hung up.
Katie is the one who answered my second call to the second number.
The poor girl must have thought a lunatic was calling, I was screaming "Don't fucking hang up! Do not tell me to call back at 9:30! I am the missing sister, Claire Marie, from the last segment! Please!!! Patch me through to somebody, anybody who can get them a message before they leave the studio, I saw, I'm here, give them my name and number please!"
Katie took all of my info and said she'd call right back, Lexi is the one who made all of the travel plans and contacts to the local NBC affiliate in Tampa, and Kari is the one who interviewed me by phone for the local film crew and talked to me again when we landed at JFK and were on our way to the hotel.
These 3 women are amazing, they really worked hard and fast to get me and Sebastian to New York, to get the hotel, transportation, everything set up for us, so a big huge oh my god you're awesome thank you goes out to the 3 of them, they are simply the best ever.

I also need to say a BIG HUGE THANK YOU to NBC Universal for doing the segments, theirs and then mine, paying for all of us to be in New York, everything that they did to get us together, they rock.
And a BIG HUGE THANK YOU to Matt, Meredith, Al and Ann, they are all so incredibly polite and kind, welcoming and warming.
I wasn't expecting that, I wasn't expecting them to be so nice, they are reporters but they are celebs in their own right, so I was kind of prepared to not feel so 'welcomed', ya know what I mean?
Everyone at the NBC Today show studio, every single person from the reporters, the interns, the camera crew, the hair and makeup ladies, everyone was just so awesome and nice, they made me feel welcomed and not so nervous, they really are genuinely nice people.
Matt Lauer even signed autographs and talked to the kids, Randy's soon to be step-kids, Gary's Mom, and talked with Sebastian a bit more before we all went outside.
I totally forgot that I had this pic on my cell phone of him signing for the kids.

Whatever notions anyone has of the reporters on the Today show, if you maybe thought they were snobby or something, they are not, they really are very nice people, just incredibly kind and nice.
It made being there feel not so nervous.
All in all, this was a totally awesome experience.
Going to New York, meeting my bio-siblings, being on the Today show, it was all just so cool, I loved every minute of my time there and wish it could have been longer, it was just such a great experience to be a part of.