Tuesday, December 04, 2007

The Big Surprise... (and a miracle)

*warning - post is a tad bit longer than normal... i do make no apologies as it is rather life changing :)

Well... it's been coming for a while. Some of you may already know about this but if not... I mentioned about a month ago I had some surprises coming over the next few weeks. I, however, have been a bit lazy in the blog world over the last few weeks so alas, here we go.

The Story:
About a month ago my mom sat myself and my brother (Brandon) down and proceeded to tell us a story. She told us with a calm yet nervous tone that when she was 16 she in fact became pregnant and had a baby boy. She then told us that due to family circumstances she was forced to give the baby over for adoption. Due to the times then and family circumstances my mother lived out her pregnancy at a "camp for unwed mothers" and due to this - no one knew other than my mom, her mom and dad (my grandma and grandpa), and my grandma's sister (my great aunt). My own mom's sister didn't even know she was ever pregnate (she was told she was going to stay with her aunt for a while). SO CRAZY RIGHT!!!!

Then she proceeded to tell us that a couple weeks ago she received note in the mail saying "I have wanted to know who my mother was for 36 yrs and I believe I have found you." He had a lot of paper work and stuff to show he was in fact her son (and our brother.) It continued to say that he had no desire to break-up her family or cause trouble to her if this was a bad idea. He did say that if it wouldn't cause any problems then he would love to meet her and any other family he may not know about.

So, she then told us that she had been in communication with him for a couple weeks and in fact met him the day before. She began to smile as she told us a little about him, his wife, and his three beautiful children.

This was (surprise) an emotional moment for my mom, me, and my brother. Brandon and I were both in tears but it wasn't sadness or anger. It was almost a sense of surreal and "wow, we have a brother... what does this mean..." and "now it makes sense why my mom loves us so hard and always has" and "mom seems as though she is free from something that she has carried around for years"

Here is where things get crazy... He (who will now be referred to as Rob - my new, older brother) and his family lives in Apex. They used to live in Cary less than a mile from where my mom and Rick live and where Brandon and I spent our high school and college years calling home.

They also attend Hope Community Church which is the church that my family and I served with for 9 years before we set-out to start Visio Dei in downtown Raleigh. Rob was not going there while I was on staff as they just started going there about 4-5 months ago but it's still crazy.

The story gets even crazier as we have some mutual friends and his adopted family is friends with some of our family... all the while we never knew.

So... I have now met Rob, his wife Kelly, and their 3 beautiful children. He seems to be an awesome guy. I am partial to think this makes him a great guy but i feel as though I can see similarities in him of both myself and Brandon in the way he carries himself and in his appearance. He has Brandon's nose and my hairline and he looks a lot like our grandpa (I really wish he could have met him Papa Gene.)

I would go on to talk more about him but I usually try and keep these posts as short as I can and this one is already relatively long. Long story short... he seems to be driven, hard working, cares about his family, and takes pride in what he does.

Here are some pics from our meeting of their family (which is really our family;):


The entire fam

Momma and her boys (mom, Brandon, me, and Rob)

Rickey and his new grand babies...

Mr. Rob Council (my new, older brother)

Rob playing photo time with his son matthew (Mathew is awesome.. wide open all the time. It's possible he is related to me ;)

Just a picture I took of my mom that night... my mom is pretty

I love this picture. In case you don't know it is my beautiful wife and sister-in-law (Brandon's wife Julie)



So the story is crazy. It honestly feels like we fell into a movie that should be coming out at Christmas time. My mom feels as though she is more free than she has felt in her entire life. I asked her if she thought about this much while we were growing up as a family. She told me "only everyday for 36 years." I am not sure how all this works from here. I am thankful God has allowed me to meet a guy who feels like he belongs in our family. I am thankful my mother can sleep at night knowing her child is alive, safe, and healthy. I am certain there is an element of deep reconciliation and redemption in all of this that I will probably not find words for. Whether or not I can explain it.. I certainly feel it and am thankful i get to experience it.

this is all for now...

Shalom,

-Jason

8 comments:

Unknown said...

what a story Jason!

i'm excited to see how God will use this in your life!

Anonymous said...

wow, that is amazing, exciting, and a breathe of fresh air! God Bless!

Shannon Smith said...

Crazy story indeed.

I feel bad for him that you two share a similar hairline.

Anonymous said...

a-mazing.wow-God is redemptive.

such a beautiful story!

Jonathan and Meredith Ellis said...

I have read a book about this!

Amazing story. Have fun getting to know him!

Newcomb said...

Jason- Thanks for the posting!
This is an awesome picture of God's perfect provision and timing! It has also been an answer to prayer! We have been praying for Robbie, Karen and all the families involved. This weekend was especially sweet because Karen and Rob got to spend his birtday together for the first time. It will be an exciting time when all the families can meet.

Romans 8:28

Kelly's sister,
Leslie
God is good all the time!

Anonymous said...

hey there
my name is sara, I'm friends with chris surigao and he told me to come read this. I won't lie it made me tear up. I agree with everyone else when they say that this is a moving story but I can relate some. I can't remember never not knowing I was adopted. My parents never kept it a secret from me and if they ever found anything out about my birth mom they would let me in on it. I never actually "found" my birthmom until right when I turned 18 years old. And come to find out she has lived about 15 minutes away from me for a long long time. I was an only child until I met her and now I have been blessed with two sisters and a little brother and they are my world. I hear adoption stories all the time but it's so nice to hear one that I can relate to a little more. Thanks for putting your story out there. It touches people more than you think.

Anonymous said...

Jason (who used to be the oldest, but now he's not!),

I have known and loved your Mom since we were in 7th grade. You're right, she is pretty. For a matter of fact, she's more beautiful than I have ever seen her and I know she's the happiest I have ever known her to be. You know she is so extremely proud of all of you. Her boys are her world.