A New Brother and Sister!!!

Today was a very interesting day....

Chris' grandpa, Jim Snow died this past week at a whoppin' 96 years old. This is the father of Chris' father, Gary: who Chris never really knew. Chris and I had gone to Cresco, IA this past summer to see his Grandma Snow and see what we could learn about Chris' dad (who passed away when Chris was 19). His grandma took us around town and took us to see Chris' grandpa Jim at the Cresco care center. He was a funny guy in the later stages of dementia, but seemed glad to have visitors, he played harmonica for us and made us laugh. Chris' grandparents got to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary just before his grandpa passed away.

So, today we went to the funeral. Chris' grandma knew Chris worked at Culver's North, so one of his aunts called him up at Culver's to let him know about the funeral. Today we met a lot of people. Chris doesn't really know any of his dad's family, but they certainly had heard of him. Everyone seemed glad to finally meet him and put a face to the name they've heard for so long. Gary (Chris' dad) has several brothers and sister and we were able to meet many of them, along with Chris' many many cousins at the funeral.

Gary had three other children besides Chris. One is about his age and lives in Georgia, she was not there, but Chris also knew he had a brother and sister in IA that he'd also never met. He had tried to meet them a few years ago, but it didn't work out. However, they were both there at the funeral today! So, we got to meet them! It was awesome seeing Chris see his only brother for the first time. Pretty amazing if you ask me. We ended up getting to talk to both of them, Dustin and Amber, for quite some time after the funeral. They were very talkative and interested in Chris' life. Chris found out that him and Dustin share a few things in common, such as wresting and Culvers! Dustin started working at Culver's a few months ago, so that was a cool coincidence. We got their school pictures, numbers, and emails and have already heard from Amber tonight!

They live in IA, so we won't see them a whole lot, but hopefully we'll get to become closer over the years. I'm still in disbelief that Chris has a brother! They look like they're brothers too, little resemblences here and there, like the curly hair and such. It was a blast to see them talking to each other and to hang out with them for the day

It was so fun for me to meet so many people on Chris' dad's side. I feel like I've come to realize I'll never have many in-laws, where as Chris gains a whole lotta in-laws, but today I feel like I suddenly have a whole new group of them. They were all very kind and glad to meet us. Hopefully in the future there will be little gatherings or something that we're invited to so we can see them all again and get more familiar.

One of Chris' uncles Keith said he would send me pictures of today that he took of Chris, Dustin, and Amber, so if I get them, I'll put them up for y'all to see!

So, Dustin and Amber if you read this, it was awesome to meet you two today :)

Later on tonight, Chris and I went to Culv's (of course) and Chris got to tell some friends there how he met his bro and sis. Then we came home and I got the urge to clean! So, I spent about two hours making our place all tidy, heehee. Then we got a pop at Wendy's, I talked to Brice and Mom on the phone, and Chris did some homework.

It's been a pretty awesome day, I'm very thankful that God arranged for all of us to meet today, under unfortunate circumstances, but nonetheless, a very good day.