A Reason for Thanks this Thanksgiving

Well I thought this Thanksgiving I was going to be thankful for not ending up paralyzed after having surgery on my back when my lower disk ruptured. The chance of being paralyzed were high, but the pain was unbearable and if nothing was done, well there was a chance of paralyzes from the disk pressing on the nerve or permanent nerve damage. The first thing I did when I woke up from surgery was wiggle my toes and whew, was that a relief. Well that is one thing to be thankful for, but I have another one to add ...

I have search the Internet for years looking for clues to where my Mom's bother and his kids where for about 15 years to no avail. When I was about 7 years old my Mom and my Uncle got into some sort of fight/argument and my mom did what she seems to do best when she gets mad at someone: shut the door on them. Once she is mad at someone well good luck changing her mind. She doesn't seem to know how to put things in the past and move on, even if it means isolating herself. She can be pretty stubborn.

I asked her for the next 15 years many times about them and I would always get the same reply - "It's none of your business", "I don't want to talk about it", but for me it was my business and I was determine to find them. I had already made one mistake once when I found an aunt living in Florida in a phonebook and for the fear of making my Mom mad I never called. Four years later she made that call when she finally realize she needed help and finally we had contact with family members after 11 years.

However I still didn't know where my family closest to us, the ones I grew up with for 2 years when I went to live in Guatemala where. As far as I knew ,once my mom past away my brother and I were going to be the last of the Mohr family. So I kept up my search for them. I did everything possible even going in to Mormon Genealogy libraries to try to make a family tree and see if I could find any clues. The best that came out of that was being able to make a family tree all the way back to 1860.

Then came sites like Friendster and I would type their names in hoping to find one of them, but nothing. Then I had a break. On a site called High5.com, after putting my name in there, a cousin found me. She did what I was doing and after almost 25 years I finally made first contact! I was so excited, I figured now I will be able to find my Uncle and his kids, but that never came to be.

Well this weekend after cancelling plans to go to Vancouver, BC, I went home and to pass time started playing around on Facebook. I hadn't really didn't go on that website unless a friend added me on their friends' list. I had typed my cousins' names in that website before but never got a hit till Friday night!

I found a Stephanie Mohr, but so did I find about 20 others. I tried Jose Mohr and I found just one, but had no idea if that was him, figured maybe it was a a random person. After all I have found about 10 people on MySpace with my name and one person with my exact name except he spelled his middle name different. Then I tried my little baby cousin (well she was a baby barely 1 1/2 yrs old when I last saw her) and two Rita Mohrs showed up. One I knew immediately wasn't her but the other one I had a funny feeling about it. It even had her middle name and then I checked her friends list and the names Jose and Stephanie where there! What are the chances that those 2 names would be friends with a person whose name is very rare with the same last name? Then I checked her other friends and she had friends with her Mom's maiden name of Villalobos. I knew that had to be them 3! I just knew it.

I send them all basically the same e-mail and then tried to go to bed. I couldn't do it. I slept for maybe 2 hours and then after I woke up went straight back on my computer and there in Facebook.com were two e-mail waiting for me from Stephanie and Jose and as I read I just sat there with my eyes getting wet... I had finally found them.

I haven't told my mom yet and I'm even debating if I should tell her or not, or when to. I kind of have an idea of what she will do when I tell her, she'll probably will break down and cry. I think she'll have realize what she has been doing is very selfish. Whatever happens with my mom and I really doesn't matter because to me what matters is I have finally found my family. If I do tell her well then this will be the first time I have talked to her since May.

Now that I know where they are I'm planning of early next year of flying down to Guatemala to go see them. I can't wait to see my Uncle and my three cousins. I don't know what I'll do when I get of the plane. One thing for sure is that there will be a lot of wet eyes and long embraces.

This Thanksgiving, I truly have something to be thankful for.