Cool, chowder! I’m very glad it all went well 
That’s really great to hear chowder!
Glad to hear it went so well, chowder!
My bro is not the only lucky bastard…his owning a villa there means yours truly just has to buy a flight and whoopee 
I also have a lady friend who works for BA 
Course I’ll have to buy my own food and drink but I reckon I can handle that.
Michael also has a car over there which he shares with a Spanish guy, when Mikes there he uses it, rest of the time El Cid has it. Sorry but I don’t know his name.
This seems a very lucrative arrangement seeing as El Cid has it most of the time he has agreed to pay for 66% of repairs and other incidentals
Aw. sniffle
Ach, El Cid’s probably only using it to facilitate the shuttling of herbal tobacco and breath mints around the livelier pubs and clubs of the Balearic Islands! 
Now if we could only get Speed and Rex to share in your joy.
That’s was beautiful, Chowder. <teary-eyed here> I’m happy for you that you fell into each other’s lives so readily.
When I met my long-lost brother in May 1998, it felt like the joy of birth and a sense of loss all at once. He’s wonderful, and I only wish my mother had been alive to see him. I wish he’d had a chance to meet her. He’s the one of all her children (10) who most resembles her- physically as well as interests-wise.
9 years later, and I can’t imagine our family without him, his wife, his son, his daughter.
Oh that’s marvellous. Well, not that your mum was not around any more, of course, but everything else - terrific. What a great set of coincidences about the names, too.
What a nice happy happy story. I hope you never lose touch again.
Yes the names thing was a total stunner.
We asked her why she hadn’t told us this before we met and she said that she was saving it as a surprise, it certainly was that.
We’ll never lose touch, never
What a wonderful story. Thanks to you, chowder and the others who’ve shared their adoption stories. I just read The Girls Who Went Away which had me in tears, and these stories here have really touched me, too.
Well I guess that about wraps the saga up except for a few things.
I have to thank all of you for bearing with me, for the support and advice given. All of it was much appreciated.
Finally, I told my sis that I’d posted the story on this board, do not be surprised if at some time a guest pops in to say thanks
What a truly excellent story. Thanks for sharing.
+1 - congrats on navigating potentially choppy waters very successfully!
Congratulations chowder! That was a really touching story and I do know exactly what you mean about meeting a close relative for the first time, it’s really a strange thing to see your own features in someone you’ve never met before.
I had a similar experience with a long-lost relative with duplicate names. It also turned out that he and I owned the exact same car: same make, model, year and color. Makes me wonder where on the human genome are the proteins that code for ‘light gold Acura’.
Best wishes to you, your brother and sister for a long, happy relationship.
Slight update here.
Last Saturday, Sept. 1st, was my sisters birthday so my brother and myself booked a room at a restaurant and invited as many people as we could think of.
Imagine the look on my sisters face as approx 100 people burts into a rousing chorus of “Happy Birthday”…we’d kept the number of guests invited a secret, wanted to surprise her and we sure did that.
Oh, chowder, that’s wonderful. We need more stories like yours.
What a lucky family you all are.
I read The Girl that Went Away too and it is devestating. A must read for anyone who is adopted, IMHO.
Another update folks and apologies if I’m boring you.
As I said in post 76 we had a bit of a do for her birthday.
She obviously brought some friends with her, one was named Kath and I got on famously with her, nice person, very sensible.
Earlier this week she phoned me and asked if we could get together sometime for a drink and a meal.
Woo hoo!!! I’m 65 and romance once again rears it head just when I thought my days of wine and roses were over
A lovely story. Here’s to happiness!