2nd Post for today- My Laptop....

 Ummm, yeah, not so much when there are teenagers in the house!!

Ding, dong, dash!

That would be what I'm doing to the few of you left reading my woefully neglected blog. The drugs for my aching back have had limited success...meaning I will be scheduling some tests to see if it is a problem in my spinal column ):

Meanwhile, I've slowly merged files from the old hard drive and the new. Guess what tonight's post features? ANOTHER BIRTHDAY!?!?!? One of the greatest joys of being from a large family is the fact that your special anniversary is never forgotten. I say this because the birthday boy tends to work quietly in the back ground of our family. He's not one to push into pictures or pat himself on the back for deeds well done. There is a risk that his big day falling in the midst of the winter doldrums could be over looked...but not in our family!!

Even Grandma came over for the celebration!!

Wouldn't you if you knew these were the birthday 'cakes'?!?!?

But in all seriousness, dearest Uncle Peter, you are truly 'the rock' upon which this family is built! 

We don't celebrate your labors and support to any where near the extent it deserves. You have always been our 'knight in shining armor' in moments of crisis and our biggest sideline cheerleader in moments of great achievements. Frazzled parents bow in gratitude for the respites you provided...the 'camp outs' in Uncle Peter's backyard tent and the hotel swim parties that gave us 'nights off'. The chocolate fix you provide every week for our Family Night desserts and the homework fixes when Math and Science

problems stump both children and parents alike. 

Most of all for the Herculean task you now shoulder in caring for our aging parents. 

Happy Birthday to you and MANY, MANY, MANY MORE!!!!

Beyond Belated Birthday Post

Well a funny thing happened on my way to taking my Mom to the Emergency Room today. She had taken a fall and thought it best to be checked out. Then, being a typical 83 year old, in the time it took for me to drive from my house to hers she changed her mind!! The sore hand had improved enough to make the stubborn Irishwoman decide "it would heal without the addition of a hospital bill". I was so NOT amused. Should not have gotten to me but I ended up in tears....because I have been gritting my way through a nasty bout of sciatica for almost a month now and this was the straw that broke my back...well NOT LITERALLY but dang near.

So guess who made that trip to Immediate Care???? Yep, time for this stubborn daughter of a stubborn Irishwoman to admit the obvious. My yoga, chiropractor visits, and diet changes had not done one darn thing!! The IC doctor did the finger wag lecture. My pride in not having missed a single meeting, day of work, or home life obligations was my undoing apparently. Seems I may have a bulging disc...MAY HAVE...but needs scans to check first...and that disc just might have irritated the nerves...and then my "pushing through the pain" may have pushed them beyond irritated to darn angry and inflamed!! I am now ordered to bed with steroid and narcotic companions.

So how does this explain the title of the post? In my good old Catholic guilt at feeling angry at my Mom, it dawned on me that her birthday dinner celebration was one of the February posts that were missed because my the computer virus episode! Considering it was back on February 9th, I'd consider this a very belated post!!

Grandma and the girls. 

 Per her request the whole group of us descended on my house for leg of lamb...not much left on the bone by the end of the night!!!

 

Nature vs. nurture?? When it comes to leg of lamb dinner there's no question!!

Happy Belated Birthday Mom!! 

My new companions have arrived and I expect my mood will improve so if you want to change your mind again about getting that hand checked out just give me a call. I'll have Peggy come right over to get you....bed rest, remember?!?!?

And the winner is....

the VIRUS!!!!

I battled on my own for a while. I walked away for a while. I was distracted for a while.

Last night I heard desperate cries from Mari and ran back into battle! This time I decided to hire mercenaries to aid me in the battle. They wanted a stiff fee for their services with no guarantees of success....

I surrendered.

Sometime later tonight I pick our new computer up from Best Buy. It just was the fiscally responsible option given the Geek Squad's quotes for Diagnosis, Recovery, and External Hard Drive set up [due to our nearly full memory capacity]. Wishing our Income Tax Return didn't always fly back out the door without a proper visit in the interest bearing accounts of our bank!!

At least I'll be able to get back in at my picture files loaded since the last time I made a back up CD!! Then I can catch up with our Springlet week of weather and more family events so I won't have to listen to Mari complain about the lack of pictorial representation of Julia and herself.

Space Age Genealogy?

My forays into the files of the past to unearth ancestors has been the topic of a post or two in the past. I'm well aware that not everyone has the emotional need to know their progenitor as I. On more than one occasion I have been asked just why I care about people who have been dead for years! I can't say I have words for what drives me to find these humans who's lives lead to mine? There's the thrill of the chase. There's the unique stories of lives lived in times of hardship and plenty. There is the portrait of myself that is evolving. A subtle shading here with the discovery of one ancestors contribution and a splash of color there from others. It fills some longing in my soul to be connected within the circle of life.

This passion of mine comes with it's complications as well. My two daughters so far have watched my endeavors from afar. Those old people that they see in pictures cannot possibly compete with Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift don't you know?!?! But there will probably be that day when a head cocks and a furrow appears on the brow as they realize that there can be no climb through the branches of their family tree! I've fought the fight with those who say that they are now my daughters and therefore my family tree is their family tree. I am resigned to the fact that there will be many people who just are not ready to embrace the uncomfortable fact that my daughters HAVE a first family. Their first family are real flesh and blood human beings who did not melt into the mud of Mother Earth the day a judge signed a paper giving me the legal right to raise them to adulthood! They too have stories that shaped the very beings of my daughters. Someday my daughters may just want to feel the thrill of the chase and watch their portrait evolve...and that very thought reduces me to tears.

Adopted from Guatemala. That means a lot. The obvious is adopted. The difficult is Guatemala. I am doing all I can to open that door to their past that the process of adoption closed. There are many who would criticize my actions. Some think I need to keep Pandora's Box closed. Some think it is not my right but something to be left for the girls to do when they are ready. I know I'm right. Lots of doors get stuck shut with time! More importantly, people die over time...especially in Guatemala. Finding the family who can show you your tree is hard enough when you KNOW the family. I can only imagine, especially given the fact that one of the birth mother's has trouble even remember the ages of her own children, how hard it will be for them to get accurate information! I will keep safe and guard this information for the girls until the time they are ready. It will be their journey to make. I just plan to be there with the supplies they need to get started down the right path. My grandfather left my mother a notebook with notes of his recollections of his relations which has been a treasure trove for me in my endeavors. I see my actions of using a searcher to find the first families and then obtaining family information to be the same gift!

Now, after another monster of an introduction, I come to the post I meant to share!! Not only am I interested in genealogy, but I am a bit of a science geek. The burgeoning field of genetic testing has been singing it's siren's song to me every since I discovered that my girls would have DNA tests to prove that the woman placing them for adoption was indeed their biological parent. I mean really, what more tangible way to 'meet' your ancestors than look at those microscopic strands of protein that they handed off to you at the moment of your conception? The literal brush strokes they made on your portrait?  The problem up to know? Accessibility and cost!

Then one of the adoption forums I read mentioned how one of the bigger laboratories working in the field of genetic testing was having a sale. A significant, just in time for a great stocking stuffer sale!! It still was far from cheap but it was drastically less. So this past Christmas break the girls and I had a 'spit party'. The company mailed out special vials for us to spit into and when we had filled to the mark we closed the lid and mailed it back. Now these many looooooong weeks later we have the beginning of our results!! There are pages upon pages of information about the many different alleles and how they are interpreted. For the first time I feel a bit better about my girls future in genealogy. Just like I can quickly surf from file to file on the internet and in Ancestry.com to find documents that previous generations of researchers took months of traveling and paging through old tomes in government buildings,....I'm feeling like my girls will get to fly along chromosomes and look at their ancestors. Maybe not as emotionally satisfying as seeing a name in print or a picture but better than the 'unknown' they would come across routinely in this day and age? Only time will tell how far this field will progress. But for now we have the first brush stroke in their portraits....

Called an "Ancestral Painting" by the 23andMe.com laboratories!! 

The segments are designated by the original source of the DNA from 15,000-50,000 years ago. This is Mari's 'painting'. Her Asian portions are traced back to Siberia and 'paint' the picture of population migration across the Bering straits to the Americas. But this child who has always been thought to be Maya...to be indigenous...clearly has the DNA from

the Spanish conquerors as well!

Julia, the one who's birth certificate from Guatemala reads "non-indigenous"....has 41% Maya in her DNA!! This new scientific field is redefining the 'label'. Redefining the portrait of who my daughters really are! Giving them their first peeks at those people in their past who made them into the human beings they are today. Who knows where this science will go with the information it can draw from those precious strands of protein? It is still in its infancy. There are not yet enough people participating in the studies to make it an exact science...but if they could just get the price down I'm convinced there would be interest! With just a limited number of participants we have already 'met' two of Mari's third cousins [based on % shared DNA] also adopted by Americans. Yes, the service offers you the option to be matched with others who share your DNA!! We will probably never know the names of the family members that connect our children but at least we can see the genes that do and that is better than nothing!! [PS-both of those 3rd cousins were born within 5 miles of where Mari was born!?!?] My fervent wish is that this field will continue to blossom and grow and that I have provided the girls with the first key to their past by the simple act of collecting saliva.

Oh, and guess who's DNA is in this Ancestor Painting??? One hint, Patrick only did his spit fest on Sunday....guess those Irish relatives I keep finding are no lie?!?!

 

Mid-winter blahs...

The weather gave us a bit of a break this week! I took pictures and uploaded them onto my desktop...but have been battling a series of hardware issues. As a matter of fact, I have been also battling a stubbornly persistent case of sciatica. I have not missed one day of work or any other commitment as I stooped and hobbled my way through daily life! Pair a frustrating computer bug with two weeks of sucked up pain and you get....a not so nice Mom Meltdown.

The  cure as diagnosed by my family....

A veeeeeeery early delivery of my surprise birthday present!!!

My present, right?

Those are just from the first night we had it opened and up and running. Since then they have given me my time and space to play with my new toy. Time to firm up some details on my other birthday present which is supposed to help with the cure for Mom Meltdown.....

Ahhhhh, makes a girl giddy at the thought of her birthday when she knows it is going to be spent on Lido Beach!!!!!

The brief break in the weather did give me enough sunlight to get some pictures of my new version of the Guatlinda dress. It's up on my Etsy site finally!!!

When Irish Eyes are Smiling..

Today is February 17th. The weather has broken and our snow banks are turning into giant puddles. Today I saw the first signs of spring....

Tender little shoots pushing their way through the soil. Fragile little tendrils of green still bent from the journey through seed coats and wet peat. A magical moment that lifts the winter weary soul to rejoice in the season to come. That bright golden time when millions of faces sport smiles.

Today is February 17th....one month from today is St. Patrick's day!!!!!!!!! The shirts are bought, the parade route is set, and the shamrocks are sprouting. It's never too early to prepare for March 17th!