If you yearn for family, get a DNA test. It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I’m not DF’d but my parents/dad’s side would shun me if they ever found out anything about my lifestyle, but I feel that doesn’t matter anymore. I found cousins and aunts who love me that I didn’t even know I had.

My mom used to say “she doesn’t have any family left”.... Turns out her father had 12 siblings. What she really meant was “I left them decades ago when I changed religions.”

My tia (she’s really my cousin but the same generation as my mom) and I talked for an hour and cried on the phone yesterday. I never realized how this stupid cult tore that- MY family apart. If it wasn’t for sites like 23andme and ancestryDNA, I never would have found them. (I did both)

If only my brother who was DF’d at 18 had contact with that family... it could have saved him from so much. Maybe it can save you.