Blood draws and more birthdays

Hey everyone,

I’ve been preparing for a blood draw since yesterday. I have to go out today and get it done mostly because my dr is leaving my hospital and wants to see my blood work before leaving at the end of this month.

The big thing about yesterday was it was my big brother’s birthday. To clarify, my brother hasn’t spoken to me or my family in nearly ten years. If I listen to my mom or older sister, he disowned all of us. That thought has always hurt me deeply because he was my favorite sibling…

My mom wanted to wish him a happy birthday but was having trouble with her messenger, so I tried to help her out. I put her on speakerphone and detailed the process of creating a new account (even though I really don’t like *** or social media much).

I found my brother’s accounts, sent a friend request, wished him a happy birthday through chat, and even got a reply a little later on. We chatted briefly about how things have been going.

I told him I’ll keep in touch, he didn’t seem to mind the idea but also said he doesn’t use *** a lot.

I want to say that this was positive.

And of course after I did everything and told my mom about my brother, my mom decided that she didn’t really want to do it anymore. I rolled my eyes and had to stop myself from saying something mean because I’ve done the same damn thing before too! Years ago I’d found his account, noticed that he was still around and doing okay but refused to pursue anything because I didn’t want to make contact or come face to face with conflict.