Caption:
Whitney Dickens holds a sparkler for 4-year-old daughter Finley who’s frightened by the fireworks during a Fourth of July family gathering in Ward, Arkansas. Her younger daughter, 2-year-old Wesley, confidently participates with help from dad Chris Dickens. This is my sister-in-law with her two daughters and husband. We’d just met them for the first time that Fourth of July weekend in 2019. My husband is adopted and though he was raised by loving parents, he always felt out of place with his dark hair in a blonde family. He took a DNA test through Ancestry and discovered he has three half-brothers and one half-sister. He and his sister look alike. She immediately welcomed us into her family and traditions including this gathering. We know outcomes from DNA tests aren’t always so pretty, but we feel like we won the lottery with this one.