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| Photo: A size 20 basketball shoe is displayed, sole-up, under the floor of the Utah Jazz store. John puts his size 11 shoe next to it, for comparison. |
1. I'm thankful that we live close enough to family to visit "just because." Sunday night, John and I spent the evening with his parents. We showed them some of our Italy photos, and we ate lemon pie that John's dad had made.
2. I'm thankful that it's convenient for my youngest daughter and I to get together. Every time I drop Drexel off for his monthly bath appointment (whether he needs it or not! haha), I swing by and pick up my daughter for a quick brunch. We get together more than once a month, but it's nice to have that standing date.
3. I'm thankful that John's sister invited us to go with her and her husband to a Utah Jazz game on Monday night. Even though the Jazz lost a game that up until the end of the 4th quarter it appeared they would win handedly, it was still enjoyable. Once again, I am reminded of how nice it is to live close to extended family.
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| Photo: Utah Jazz player, Rudy Gobert, hangs on the rim after making a slam dunk, while New Orlean Pelican players look on |
- (5) I'm thankful to have found articles from my hometown newspaper about the good work my dad did with his junior-high students. (They won the National Keep America Beautiful competition for 2 years--no small feat in the early 70's!)
- (6) I'm thankful to have found articles that mentioned my mom, as well. I didn't remember she had been the reader for story time at the library! And I loved reading the article about the Faculty Wives' Club meeting, even though my mom didn't win the door prize. 😉
- (7) I'm thankful to have found articles that even mentioned me, including one that prompted this Six Sentence Story.
- (8) I'm thankful and amazed at this next thing. Two of my daughters are adopted, and I decided to try typing in their birth dad's name into the search bar at Newspapers.com. We know a bit about their birth mom's side, but not a lot about their birth dad. Not only did I receive several results, but some of those results were from my hometown newspaper! Their birth dad grew up in my own home town! As their adoption took place in a different state than the one I grew up in, I never imagined that there would be a connection to my home town.
- (9) I'm thankful that through a series of amazing steps (an obituary for their birth dad's mom mentioned her religious affiliation, I happened to remember a childhood friend belonged to that congregation, I happened to still be in touch with her through Facebook, she KNEW them, and she asked if she could give my phone number to birth dad's aunt) I was able to talk on the phone to birth dad's aunt, and she offered to send some photos. My girls have no photos of birth dad (and he is no longer alive), so this is huge! Additionally, on the what a small world spectrum, in talking to the aunt, I learned that she lived literally just around the corner from me when I was growing up. There was a little store on the corner. She lived right next to it, and I lived on the street perpendicular to hers, two doors down from the store. What are the odds?
10. I'm thankful, as always, for John. This week, he has heard me say, "Guess what I just found?" about a million times, and he has been as excited as I have been.
Every so often, family history research yields some really exciting discoveries. I highly recommend it!
Have you been bitten by the genealogy bug? If you're not ready to make your own discoveries, you might still be interested in watching others find their relatives. The new season of Relative Race starts this Sunday, March 10.
What are you thankful for this week? Link up below! If you are having difficulty in linking, please let me know. Due to a change in Inlinkz, it no longer works with accessibility apps. I am happy to link your post up, if needed. Additionally, I will be adding in text links to the bottom of this post, so those of you who might not be able to access other bloggers' posts with the thumbnails below, should be able to get to them via the text link. I want everyone who wants to participate to be able to! Thanks for your patience as work to make this blog hop accessible!
The Prolific Pulse
Messy Mimi's Meanderings
Carin's Gratitude
The Wakefield Doctrine
A Season and a Time
Backsies Is What There Is Not
Viola's Daily Musings
Picnic with Ants
The Prolific Pulse
Messy Mimi's Meanderings
Carin's Gratitude
The Wakefield Doctrine
A Season and a Time
Backsies Is What There Is Not
Viola's Daily Musings
Picnic with Ants
What great, fun discoveries about your daughter's birth dad! It sounds like it's been quite a week.
ReplyDeleteIt really has been!
DeleteI love this! My daughter is adopted and over time she's been able to connect with most of her birth family. It's been interesting and has given her great joy. It's also great that she's updated her genealogy with them.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad things have worked out so well for your daughter. :-)
DeleteThat must be special to read about the good deeds of your dad in the 70's.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting, especially since I remember from a child's perspective. It's nice to get a better understanding as an adult.
Deleteexcellent post!*
ReplyDeletelove the notion inherent in Item 8, that the world can be so inter-related, on levels we have to 'see' to believe.
Especially the bullet-item subset ... don't tell anyone, but a big part of what I enjoy when writing a TToT post is format/layout/other different ways to present the Grat Item
It truly is amazing how small the world really is.
DeleteThis particular list required those bullet points; each one was a thankful in and of itself, but all came from number 4. Glad you liked it.
The internet gets a bad rap too often. It is SUCH a useful tool! Do you think you ever would have found all that information about birth dad without it? It's funny that I mentioned spending time with extended family this week, too. It's the main reason we left LA and moved back here with no regrets.
ReplyDeleteThe internet is a tool, and as such, can be used for good or bad. It has made family history research SO MUCH EASIER! There is no way I would have discovered the information I did without the help of the internet.
DeleteIt is so nice to be close to extended family, and I'm thankful for technology which allows me to be in contact with those who don't live so close!