A Stronger Thread

Yes, that little red thread sure is a tough one! Remember this old Chinese Proverb:

Well, it has proven itself once again in my life. Check out this amazing new chapter in my life...I have a brother. Yes, you read that correctly. Once again adoption has touched my life in ways that I never expected. Here is the brief shortened story for those of you who don't know what I am talking about:

My mother gave birth to a son years ago when she was very young and unable to care for a baby. She made a birth plan for this son and he was placed for adoption. I have always known about him, but up until now I wasn't too sure about what to do with that knowledge. Well since I have been immersed in adoption education classes and such since Shelby's arrival, I learned a great deal about adoptees and their birth parents. I soon realized how important it was for my brother to know about me and to know about his birth mom. I always knew that my mother had a hole in her heart longing to know that her son was OK and happy. So learning all of these facts, I put my resources to use!

I found out at one of the 3rd Friday group sessions about how the Georgia Reunion Registry service worked. Thanks to Denise that I met at the group, she told me how to pursue the search for my brother. Well about 3 months later, I received a phone call telling me that they had located my brother and he was alive and well! What an emotional day that was a couple of weeks ago. My mother was estatic to say the least. So since then I have been getting to know my brother through emails and pictures and such. I even received a phone call from him yesterday-yeah :)

Now here is the real freaky part about this reunion and it brings me even closer to explaining the red thread connections. He is married to a Chinese woman and together they have one of the cutest little Chinese boys I have seen! I couldn't help but just laugh at the fact that my girls now have a Chinese aunt and a Chinese first cousin. This was just so amazing to me yesterday when I received the pictures. So here you go, I would like to introduce you to my brother and his family...

So do you think we look alike: