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OMG, it's a Brother "Part 2"

It's been a little bit more than a week since I posted OMG, it's a Brother! That blog detailed how I took an @Ancestry DNA test and found out that I have a biological brother living in Arizona. 

The last week has been a roller coaster of emotions (it was a tough week to focus on selling copiers), my brother and I have had quite a few phone calls, shared some pictures (facebook) shared some laughs and shared some of our earliest memories about growing up in New Jersey.

Twenty Miles

Get this, we grew up less than 20 miles away from each other! Like, OMG really. I can remember in my younger days attending parties, to this say I remember someone coming up to be and thinking I was someone else. I was told I look exactly like that person. Okay, you've had a few, I've had a few let's continue the party an never really thought about that again.

Hazlet, NJ

Thus, the surprises keep on coming.  While speaking with my brother he told me that his parents (adopted, still Mom & Dad) had lived in Hazlet, NJ.  My brother attended Raritan High School and upon graduation entered the Marines. He was shipped to Paradise Island for boot camp. He was then stationed in Vietnam for the last year of the war.  He stayed in the Marines for 20 years!

But, I want to to back to Hazlet, NJ.  This is where the connections are just amazing.  My wife is from Hazlet, NJ (go figure), and when speaking with my brother and where he lived,  my wife knew the exact house he lived in.  In fact he was the paperboy that delivered papers to the house where my wife grew up. I thought, this is wild!  First thing I stated to my wife was, "okay, so you had a crush on the paperboy, and then 20 years later I came around snapped you up". Well, we all had a couple of chuckles with that one. 

Facebook

After the first day or so, we connected on facebook. His page, just like mine does not contain many pictures of ourselves. After a quick look at my brothers page I was able to find his wife, and like all great wives the pictures of the hubby were many!  Thus, there it was, I saw my first picture of my brother and I was floored.  No joke, he looked more me than me and me and my twin brother. For some pics it was like looking in the mirror. It was a little freaky at first.  Like I stated it's been a roller coaster of emotions and still is.

In turn my brother connected with my wife's page and all of my pictures where there for him and his wife to see.  "OMG, he looks just like you!", his wife stated.  Hold on now, we both have a full head of hair, but at least mine is still salt and pepper and his is all grey. Thus the next step was a posting of each other on our facebook pages. The comments from everyone was awesome and quite helpful.

Realationship

As we continued to have conversations, one conversation led to some of the cars we used to have. Turns out my brother had a 1960 Ford Thunderbird (he bought when he was older), well I didn't have 1960 Ford Thunderbird...., I had a 1964 Thunderbird that I had purchased in my early forties.

We shared some medical info which is always good since neither of us had any family medical history. I only knew the medical history of my twin brother but he had passed away in his mid-forties.  Thus we're trading our medical war stories and we find out that we both had the same medical issue at the same place on our bodies (nothing major, just some minor stuff). The similarities are just astounding.  You know, you seen this kinda of stuff on TV, but you never ever think that you would experience finding a sibling and then finding out that we shared many experiences and never even knew it.

The last week of April I'll be traveling to @ITEX in Vegas. My brother plans to drive up from Phoenix (4 hours or so) and we'll get together on Tuesday somewhere and spend the day together. It's a working vacation for me, however I also plan to spend some time with him on Wednesday evening also. Thursday mid-day I'm back on a flight to Jersey, and my brother will be heading home to Phoenix.

For the last week or so, I've had some help from a very special person that was also adopted at birth.  She's a great friend and I thank her for digging in to help me with finding out more about my family.  Turns out we've already located some information on our parents (both deceased), but have connected with a number of cousins who have given us some incredible information.  Some good, some not so good.  For others who may be doing the same research it is a daunting task working the leads and trying to piece them together. 

I'm hoping that when I get to see Peter, I can tell him more about our family and where we came from. 

It's about 10:30 Friday night and I'm still amazed and grateful that my wife got me the DNA test for my birthday. Oh, wait a minute I forgot about this. My brother was given his Ancestry DNA kit from his wife last Christmas.  Thus he had his results probably about the first or second week of February. My results were posted about a week ago.  How freaky is that?

Everyone have a great week and thanx to everyone who PM'd me, emailed me and called me about this wonderful experience!

-=Good Selling=-

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