I have always loved history. It was my favorite subject in school and when the History Channel was actually about history and not reality shows, it was my jam.
I just sometimes feel I was born in the wrong time period. Not sure where I belong in time yet but I do know it is near an ocean.
My Husband made a comment the other day about how I get so emotionally involved in my cases I work on. If you go to my facebook page (you can find the link under the Contact Us tab), I detail how my latest Search Angel case progressed.
When it was all said and done, I was emotionally drained. I felt the hardships my clients family had to go through as Portuguese immigrants and there was even a murder suicide thrown in there. The story was just a lot to process and in the end, I felt her anguish in learning the truth behind her adoption. It truly left me at a loss for words. How do I tell her to proceed when the situation even for me was hard to understand.
I find myself wondering oftentimes if I am doing the right thing sorting out all of these situations and then along comes a case that has a happy ending and for the time being I put aside the bittersweet case that affected my psyche for a moment.
I love being a Search Angel as it helps me deal with the pain of my own loss and in a way I like to think what I do does make a huge difference in the lives of the people who have reached out for help. I read the posts that people share on the Facebook group DNA Detectives and I want to run and help everyone but I have to hold back as I would certainly overwhelm myself if I tried. I do offer help to one or two people a month while dividing my time between home, my blog, and those searches. It is a balancing act as I could and would spend all of my time researching for someone if I could but I do have a life outside of family history.. I think..
I do want to tell people if you do go to the group and ask for help, NO ONE SHOULD BE CHARGED FOR HELP. This is a volunteer group and we have a mix of people offering their expertise and there is no reason for anyone to ask for or expect payment.
Here is the group link if you would like to join the group. Be sure to answer all the questions and posts on how to request your own Search Angel.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/DNADetectives