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