Family History

My aunt Paula has been researching and documenting our family history for as long as I can remember. I am lucky to have so much information about the details of my history and background because of her dedicated efforts to researching information about our family. She just started a new blog. You can see it at http://afropix.blogspot.com/. As you can see, it is most likely her and my grandmother that have given me a passion for photography and writing. I love this new effort to keep us informed and am grateful for the constant dedication she has to journaling. Thanks Paula:)

Meant to be.

Everything in life is happening exactly as it should. I am sure of it. Case in point: The birth of the newest addition to my "Irish family", Liam Christopher, born this evening to Jim and Jo this evening on 8-8-08 LA time but technically on 8-9-08 Irish time. The reason I say this profound statement is at approximately 8:10pm Irish time I was driving in my car on my way to meet my aunt Caroline for dinner after a very busy and productive work day (just as it should be)... thank you God for sanity and productiveness... when I had the thought, "Why haven't I heard about the birth of Liam yet?" It was supposed to happen today... in my head anyway. Needless to say, as I was finishing dinner with Caroline, who was actually in Ireland very shortly after Liam's big brother James birth and had the opportunity to meet him about 3 weeks after he was born, I checked my blackberry to see the wonderful news that Jo had in fact given birth to Liam only 20 minutes after my thought.

I cannot even describe how happy I am that Liam has entered our lives and is now a part of the "Irish experience". Through everything that has happened in the last two years, Liam is proof that through the chaos that comes from picking up one's family and relocating across the world on a bit of "faith" and hope for better things in the future, miracles do happen letting us know that all is right in the world and that things are happening exactly as they should. I cannot wait for Jo and Jim and their family to return to the LA area so that I can continue to see their beautiful children grow into amazing adults. I cannot count my blessings enough that I was able to find a "kindred valley girl" all the way in Dublin, Ireland to help walk me through the experience and I cannot express how grateful I am to have been a part of the raising of their first beautiful child, James and how excited I am to soon get to meet Liam when they return for the next part of their adventure in Los Angeles.

Congratulations to you Jim and Jo and James!!! I am so happy for the newest arrival of your family. Cheers to that. You have so much support on both ends of that Ireland... it's simply meant to be:)