A truly Amazing Week

So my mother in law Irene inspired me to go on Ancestry.com and start my family tree.  When my grandmother died I realized that I hadn't asked enough questions about our family.  So my journey began...

As I started filling in the first branches of the tree and finding death certificates and census records I thought "this is freaking fascinating!"  and then it dawned on me...I have spent countless nights up on the internet combing google and facebook for my baby brother who was given up for adoption when he was just 1 year old.  I was 5, just about to turn 6 when he was born and only saw him once.  My sisters and I have talked and talked, searched and searched with no luck.  I realized that if I plugged in his first and middle name with his exact birth date in Houston, TX that maybe I might find something.  Sure enough there was a hit!  I found a census record for a family in Alvin that had a son named Justin Michael born on his exact birth date. 

I sent it to my sister that night.  We immediately dug further and combed facebook!  I found his adopted mom and stepmother on facebook and from there my sister got up the nerve to call his mother.  I was terrified that she would freak out!  What if he didn't know he was adopted, or what if he knew and had no interest in finding his birth family.  My sister called her and it was a match!  She knew our mothers name, said they now live in Indiana and said she was so happy that we had found him and that he would be so happy to hear from us, so she gave my sister his number and the rest is history!  They now call me detective Kelley and we sing the inspector gadget song...
He had no idea he had siblings and was in total awe and happiness to find out that he had 3 sisters!!!  We have all talked on the phone or via text and messenger every night for a week.  In June we are having a reunion and meeting him for the first time since he was a baby.  Life could not be more complete and he could not be more perfect if we had designed him ourselves.  haha!  It's amazing the similarities too, uncanny. 

Also in my search I've tracked my dads side of the family straight back to Ireland (turns out all of the Mungovan's in the United States are related) and Germany (grandmothers side) and my moms side all the way back to the 1500's!  Her family goes back to Jamestown, VA and I almost peed myself last week when I realized that my 9th great grandmother is none other than Pocahontas and my 9th great grandfather is John Rolfe one of the 1st settlers from England!!!  Who knew??!!  Crazy, huh?  So last weekend my brother got 3 new sisters and Pocahontas.  Does it get any better?  haha!!!

By the way Irene, I found your Hendrickson tree and copied it over to my family tree for Steve :)  Truly fascinating.