Wild mustard growing down by the road. I know it’s considered a weed, but like most flowering weeds, I change that to ‘wildflower.’ There’s a beautiful clump in the secret garden.
I managed to get Microsoft Word back on my computer after signing in to my Microsoft account. Under my account information, I found my purchase history which gave me the option of downloading the version from 2016 – which is really all I need. Hurrah!
Then I tried printing something from my laptop and discovered I really didn’t need the software for the printer. And then I went on Canon’s site and put in my printer model and there was the software for the ‘scan’ option on the printer, so I downloaded that. I scanned the Italian dialect notes that I need for my coaching session today. Success.
So I think I’ve, at least temporarily, solved my problem. I’m not downloading a bunch of photos and documents that I really don’t miss from my backup drive. I’m keeping it spare. Just what I need.
A quick story for you. My dear friend Jan, who lives in my hometown, is 79 years old. She, like my friend Joe and my best friend Laural, was adopted. Joe gave her a DNA kit from Ancestry for Christmas and she did the test and submitted the information. Ancestry contacted her with a DNA match saying she had a cousin or sibling. She has recently been contacted by her half-brother and half sister! At the age of 79!
She knew that her mother was from Boston and came to Detroit to have her baby. And her adoptive mother showed her the birth certificate. But she never had any inclination to find her birth mother. She was raised in a loving family and her father was a Methodist minister. Her half-siblings didn’t know until later in life about their older sister. Their mom had married a man several years after giving birth to Jan and though he knew about the baby she gave up for adoption, they didn’t. When they found out, they started searching for their sister. They’ve been searching for years. And now, this miracle! Her brother contacted her right away and they’ve been communicating. Last week, she had a zoom session with her siblings. And next month her brother – a Unitarian minister – will be traveling to Detroit to meet her.
Isn’t that amazing? She sounds so surprised and happy and I couldn’t be more thrilled for her.
There you go, Some good news today.
Have to go prep for my session today.
Stay safe.
Happy Monday.
It is interesting what is found on Ancestry. I have found two Aunts , half sisters of my father that I didn’t know existed. My father and his two siblings were abandoned by their father after their mother died. The three children were brought up by their maternal Grandmother. My father only met his father once when he was 15. His father married a second time and had two more daughters. One with his wife and another with a different young woman (who gave the child up for adoption). We haven’t met, however we have spoken on the phone and emailed one another.
Wow! How interesting! I’m glad you found your two Aunts, Miche.
Stay safe.
how wonderful for your friend jan and her siblings! :) very happy for them all.
and i’m happy for you to have solved some laptop problems. happy, but not surprised.
you are very tech-smart.
happy work-day today to you! and happy monday to don and everyone else.
taking a very sentimental journey today with some members of my family … heading to central nebraska where my parents were born and raised. will be fun, also bittersweet. oh, life …
kathy
Have a lovely trip, Kathy.
Stay safe.
That is a truly happy story. Jan must have been thrilled to know her half siblings had been searching for her. We watch “Finding Your Roots” on PBS. It’s facinating what a little bit of research can turn up. Your wild mustard is so pretty. I call them volunteer plants. It’s Victoria Day here so I am off to make a Victoria Sponge Cake in her honour. Have a lovely day. Hugs, Elaine
Have fun making that sponge, Elaine.
Stay safe.
That’s very happy news for your friend…and her newly found siblings. We need more good news stories like this in our lives.
Enjoy your day! ;)
Yes, Donnamae. We do!
That’s why I shared it!
Stay safe, Donnamae.
It really is amazing about all the new information coming from DNA . That’s so exciting for your friend! We’ve been having a lot of the mustard weeds around here… I call them wildflowers, too! They give a nice splash of color! So glad you’re figuring everything out with your new laptop!
Thanks so much, Barrie.
Stay safe.
That is some great news for your friend. I found my birth Father when I was in my 50’s and met some half sibilings. It really is nice to find some pieces of your puzzle.
That’s so wonderful, Linda. I’m glad you did.
Stay safe.
What a happy story! So glad that you shared it with us.
Thanks so much, Mindy.
Stay safe.
The Ancestry/DNA thing is interesting to me and I like to watch Finding Your Roots on PBS, but we haven’t done anything about it. We have friends who have found missing relatives, too. My family kept pretty good track of my roots, the names, anyway. But individual’s stories are not so common. It would be fun to dig into Fred’s stuff—lots of Native Americans in there!
I know where my family is, as well. There are no lost relatives. So I have no need for that and, honestly, I’m wary of some organization having my DNA information. Maybe I’m a bit paranoid.
Stay safe, Shanna.
In reality, I guess I’m a bit worried about unknown eyes on my details, too.
xo
Love your blog. I enjoy it every day. Just a note: instead of ‘gave up for adoption’, better wording is ‘placed for adoption’. Our son is adopted and that is what we learned from the adoption agency. We were told that many birthmothers place their children so they will have a better life as they cannot care for the child. While it can be very hard on the birthmothers they put the child first.
Thanks very much. Although I’ve always assumed that is why most mothers do that. For a better life for the child.
But I used the words that Jan uses – the adoptee. She was adopted in the 40s and that was the accepted language at the time and the language that my adopted friends use. It does involve ‘giving up’ which is indeed heartbreaking for the mother.
I respect ‘placed for adoption’ yet that implies something – at least to me – that doesn’t involve the mother’s emotions. Somehow, for me, ‘giving up’ does. But it’s all semantics, isn’t it? The essence of what happens and the enormity of the decision is the same no matter what words are used.
Thanks for reading the blog, Wendy. And bless you for adopting a child.
Stay safe.
What happy discoveries recovering what you want for your new laptop. My tech advisers (my sons, LOL) tell me my 7 yr old laptop is too full so I’m currently backing off lots of stuff I don’t access on a daily basis. Amazing how much you accumulate.
My mom died 2 yrs after dad and by then the same funeral home was offering a DNA testing option. We said yes, of course, and what fascinating info we learned about her ethnic background. Several in the family do genealogy and they take that info and really use it.
Take care,
K.
Thanks so much, Kay.
For years I did just fine without a laptop!
Stay safe.
Love today’s photo.
And your little story is very sweet; the DNA connections are amazing; as I’d said here sometime back, just before he died, my biological first cousin (adopted; my aunt gave him up), unknown to me entirely til I was well into my 20s (hushed up in the family) and whom I’d never met but at least got to speak to just before he passed in his 80s in 2020, was helped with DNA tracing to where he was finally able to find out who his biological father was as my aunt, regrettably and beyond my understanding, would not reveal his name (we think she’d been embarrassed and afraid to learn at some point that the dude was married, cheating on his wife, lying to my young aunt about who he was and misleading her about his intentions; I think my aunt, in the less-enlightened age of the early-1930s in the rural U.S., was just trying to protect everybody and maybe herself all the way around, finding her own path to deal with circumstances as best she could [since she was left in the lurch], always her biological child in mind to give him the best life possible which is exactly what he got with his well-off adoptive family [with whom she became well-acquainted in a curious twist at the time]; a life he would not have had with her since she simply did not have [never did, never would have] the financial means to raise him on her own [her whole life, although she worked really hard to support herself, was very difficult; she lived on very little money doing low-paying jobs]).
I do enjoy watching the Henry Louis Gates shows on PBS, “Finding Your Roots” (their DNA findings are amazing; the connectedness is so intriguing).
Miracles indeed. So many mysteries solved for families.
What I’ve found with people I know who are adopted, more than wanting to make an actual contact with the birth parents and start up some new relationship, is that there is always the underlying nag of ‘who am I?’ and it doesn’t mean they don’t love and appreciate their adoptive parents but it’s always a wonderment of, ‘am I French, am I Norwegian; do I have Native American heritage here in America; what is my biological lineage, what is my bloodline, where did the people live, where did they come from, to where I came to be?’
My husband isn’t adopted and he doesn’t care about any of that kind of thing, but I’ve found a majority of folks do care. One of the reasons (I’d been told this more than once by an adopted person) is that there can be a desire to find out on the part of the adoptive person if there is certain disease in the bloodline of which it would be good to be aware; to be able to do anything proactive but to also just be able to give a physician some indication of family propensity to say, heart disease; I’ve had to fill out those questions too many times myself on medical forms when they want to know medical info on parents and siblings. It must be hard to be adopted, go before a doctor and say that you don’t know anything about medical history of your family and that the doctor can only go on what’s in front of him.
Thanks, Vicki.
Stay safe.
I’ve heard some really wonderful family reunification stories and this is another that makes me smile. I’m so glad that your friend has found her other family. It never means that the one she grew up with isn’t real family either — but sometimes “more is better” and this is one of those times.
You’re WAY smarter with computer things than me. Bravo!
She lost her adoptive parents many years ago as well as her sister, so she has no immediate family. This is wonderful for her.
Stay safe, Jeanie.
I learned a lot about my mother’s side of the family because of DNA. I learned that my mother’s mother (my grandmother) married her step-uncle who happened to be the brother of my great-grandfather’s first wife. And the lady that was my foster grandmother was my grandmother’s half-sister by my great grandmother and her first husband. When I think of this I can’t help but think of the song I’m my own grandpa. ( My great grandmother was married 4 times)
Oh my heavens, Trina! A complicated family tree!
Stay safe.