NEW FAMILY

Sorry if I have been away a while - but we had a death in the family and it really slowed things down around our little hacienda.  The odd thing is that God seems to close one door and open another around the same times - giving you a new path to walk, a new place to work or be as it were.

   45 years ago my Dad died.  My adopted dad actually, and the next day my future son was born.

Now that may sound a bit confusing considering I did not know the lovely woman who gave birth that day.  But I was to meet her and marry her some 10 years later.  The same son took his life in August this year - and again within 24 hours prior to that my research to find my birth parents had taken a leap and I had found  my birth father.   Odd that it worked that way but again its part of big picture I am sure.  Then a few weeks later we found what would turn out to be a distant cousin on my birth grandmothers family - and she by email put me in touch with a closer cousin - who actually knew my birth mother.  Today I expect to get pictures in the mail (snail mail) of my mom and be able to see her for the first time since I was taken from her at 4 days old - over 61 years ago.  Am I excited ? Sure!  I talked to this closer cousin on the phone and then to a niece I never knew I had and then last night to an older brother - and everywhere I go (by phone or email so far) they are genuinely glad to visit with me and share stories of my missing family.  My adopted father died in 1969 when I was just 16 - but my birth father died in 1990 - its a shame that we could not have found him sooner.  I also have an older sister,  My birth dad was in the Army during WWII and Korea - and married another woman in the early 1960s - and adopted her children.  It appears he had lots of love to go around and would have welcomed me if he could.  These other children are also mostly deceased and the trip thru Ancestry.com to find them was a real roller coaster - finding you who have always been an only child have a brother or sister - then tracing them to find out they were nearby but have died from this or that is a bit of a bitter sweet thing.   However I do feel enriched knowing I have more family - and that they can share the history and ups and downs of the group with me today.
 
   All I can add in closing is that if you have a missing family or family member - please start getting back in touch with them as soon as you can. Even if they reject you - you will have the satisfaction of trying and doing it - and most likely they will at least be interested in connecting - and could be glad to see you.  After all this time with no siblings it was a real hoot to talk to my older brother on the phone - to see the resemblances in his pictures and the way he talks - we even worked in very similar areas of expertise and both appreciate many of the same things in life.

This is a picture of my birth father at a lake in the mountains somewhere. Colorado, California, Washington?  If you have an idea of where this is - please let me know. It was probably taken in the late 1930s or 1940s.