I'm Leaving!

Hey everyone! Oh, man...I can't believe its finally here. I leave for Calcutta in a few short hours...my hours in the great 'Ham are numbered (at least until I come back, that is).

I can't wait for my adventure to start! I'm so nervous, though...I'm not taking very much, because I don't want to take too much, but I'm afraid I'm going to leave something important behind (like my Malaria medicine), but I'm sure everything will be okay. Oh, goodness...

So, This is where I tell all of you the big news that I've been putting off telling all of you. O, wow, this is making me more anxious than I have been in the last 24 hours. I'll give you the short version.

Back in April, I was randomly Googling people's names. I do it all the time when I'm bored and have nothing better to do. One of the names I google often, as you might imagine, is Lewis Glover. Well...the last time I googled "Lewis Glover" +"blues harp", I got more hits than I ever had before. I found a website for the Hank Davison Band. I went through and looked at the pictures, and there were pictures of a black guy playing blues harp. It happened to be the same black guy that I found in some pictures a little over a year before. When I clicked on Contact Us, each member of the band had an individual contact email, and I figured, what's the worst that could happen? So I wrote up an email, and added things that only my biological father would know (e.g. his middle name, where I was born, the fact that he had been in the army, as had my mother, when they separated, etc). The next morning, I had a response email. He said several things in that email that only he would have known (like where he was from originally, that our birthdays are the same). So...Lewis Glover and I have been emailing back and forth since the beginning of 2007.

Bigger news than that, is that he still lives in Germany, and he is meeting me for breakfast between my flights on Wednesday morning. Several people know this, and I have people expecting me in Calcutta about half a day later. We will be in a very public place, I know what he looks like, where he lives, both of his phone numbers and all that jazz. I will be fine. I've been putting off telling all of you this information because I didn't know how to tell you. But I also didn't tell you because I didn't want you all to tell me what to do. This is my life, these are my choices, and I have been waiting for this particular thing to happen for as long as I can remember. I have made it very clear to him that I have a Dad, I have a family, and I don't need any complications in my life. I told him that he is my father, but he is not my dad. David Kinney is my dad. He is Lewis to me and always will be. Now, I know some of you know this, but this is my mantra - "I take it on faith; I believe that everything happens for a reason." Do you think its coincidence that I decided to go to Calcutta, that I bought my plane ticket in March, that I then found my father in April, that I just happen to be going via the Atlantic, that my flight happens to pass through the Frankfurt International Airport during the few weeks that he is not on tour with his band...I believe that this happened for a reason. This may be the only time I get to meet him in person. So please, don't be mad, don't be jealous, don't be upset. Be happy for me.

Well, I have to go finish packing and cleaning, and I need to go to the grocery store to buy some last minute things. I love you all, and I will blog away when I arrive in Calcutta!

Peace and Love,
Briana