Praising God for a Wonderful First Visit With My Newfound Brother!

[BrotherTony]

As I had posted in one of the forums (believe it was the prayer forum), I went to Illinois this past weekend to meet a brother my other siblings never knew we had. He was found through a blood test by 23 and Me when my baby sister from that side of the family took the blood test to find out if she had any issues in her blood. Little did she know that it would lead to us finding out about this sibling. So, it was by the grace of God that we found out. It had been a lifelong dream of Shawn's to find his birth father. He had taken the tests in hopes of finding out who he was. He was disappointed to find out that Dad had passed away in 2000 from colon cancer, but, was greatly excited by the discovery that he had many siblings from his father's second marriage! 

My sister Becky, from Pekin, IL, and my sister Michele, whom had flown from Augusta, GA to Peoria, IL, and my wife and I, who of course, drove up to Pekin, IL from Murfreesboro, TN were the only ones who could make the trip to meet Shawn, but this was good! We got to face time with our brother, Mike and his wife Melenda (from outside of Tampa Bay), which made Shawn's day! He has received a very warm, loving embrace from my family. My mother has adopted him as her second son, in line of succession, me being the oldest. Shawn is one year younger than I, with Mike following two years behind Shawn. 

We showed Shawn around that town we grew up in, ate at our fathers favorite diner in Pekin, IL, the Busy Corner Grill, and spent several hours talking with him at Becky's house and at the hotel where we both stayed during our visit to Pekin. It was a GREAT visit, PTL! We are praying that Shawn and his family (his daughter, son-in-law, son and daughter-in-law, mother and grandchild) will come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. We covet your prayers as we continue to get to know Shawn and the rest of our newfound relatives in Boise.

Thank you.