FAMILY REUNIONS....

When was the last time that you attended a FAMILY REUNION??  I try to visit my family in Virginia once a year now...as the years seem to slip by too quickly, and my biological mother is getting older.  It's fun, though...how all the brothers and sisters get together when we get to mom's house.  Nieces and nephews and cousins, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, and even people I didn't know existed, come together.  Isn't that what REUNIONS are all about? 

When I first met my biological mother, Minnie, it was an unusual meeting.  I had located her through the court system, after years of wondering WHO I looked like...WHAT medical illnesses ran in the family....WHERE they lived....and WHY (by her definition) did she not look for us.  I found out so much about myself and my brother at the very first meeting.

We loaded my brother and his wife up in our already full car of 3 kids at that time)...It was Thanksgiving...1988, and a cold one at that.  SNOW was on the ground..which everyone knows I LOVE snow!!  Traveling all over the Virginia and West Virginia mountains was absolutely remarkable to me, with snow all around.  I don't think we could have picked a more scenic and memorable time for our first visit.  All of my 6 brothers and 2 sisters showed up the day we arrived.  My mom wouldn't quit kissing and  hugging us.  Now I know where I get that from LOL...I always hug and kiss my kids.  Mom (Minnie) is a mountain girl...she didn't get to make it to school a lot of times because of the snow, and living way back in the mountains.  They were poor and that was one of the reasons,  I believe, that we were taken away from her.  She had looked for us for all of the time after we were taken away from her.  She said she had prayed every day that we would find her.  And we did...

Anyway...we stayed for the weekend and left for home on  Sunday.  I'll never forget that visit, though, because it had taken away years of worry, wonder, and fear of the unknown.  Now, I KNEW who looked like my brother, and who looked a lot like me...I knew which aunt I looked like, and who all favored each other.  I didn't get to meet my mother's twin sister then, but I met her last year, and the entire time she was in the room where I would be, she would come up to me and say, "you look just like me"....LOL...it was kind of cute.  

I'd like for you to share some of your stories with my readers.  Have you been adopted?  Do you know of someone that was adopted?  I know that some adoption stories do not turn out as the children would like for it to.  Sometimes the mother or father doesn't want to be found.  OR, sometimes the kids don't want to look up the parents because of anger  for being adopted out.  I was never angry.  I always knew that we were adopted by a good Christian man and woman, who to this day, I adore.....my dad.  (mother is gone, and oh how I wish she were here for me to say so many things to, and do so many things with).  

HERE is a picture of my brother and I when we first met our biological mother.  I'll try to upload some more pictures as I locate them...I have them packed away SOMEWHERE...that's a note to self,  sift through the pictures I have stored away LOL...

Another picture of one of my brothers in Virginia, my son Brandon, my biological mother, and my brother David who lives in Birmingham.

My brother Mikey and me last year

Picture of my mom, me, and my niece

picture of some of my brothers, me in blue, my sister Mary Ann in the background, & one of my nieces.  (I took this picture off once because some people in Huntsville were mocking it saying you could type in the word "inc*st" and come up with my blog and pics).  Isn't that awful..

I like the below picture of Mom, because she has beautiful hair, and wanted to show it lol...

Below is a picture of Mom, James, Brandon & me, and my beloved Uncle Charlie and his wife Martha (Charlie is the one who is registered with an Indian tribe)

Uncle Charlie, Aunt Martha and me