Beach Vacation: New Year's Eve

We woke up on the 31st and were greeted with a gorgeous day. Not only was it sunny, but it was warm too!! We spent the morning relaxing while we waited for Hugh's birth mom and two birth sisters to arrive and when they got to the condo, we had fun exchanging Christmas gifts and catching up.

We decided to head down to the beach and let the kids play in the sand, and I was super excited to take some pictures of everyone. I was excited that my mom came down to the beach too-- this was the only day she was able to head down (her hip and back were hurting too much to head down each day with us).

 

The surf was really foamy!

 

I adore her!!

 

I love love love love love this picture!!!!

 

 

 

My mom was cold

 

Double trouble   Gus and Gabby

We headed back to the condo and the kids were in desperate need of a bath, so we put the three littles in the tub together. It was so cute.

We enjoyed a beautiful last sunset of 2014 and had pizza for dinner (it was HUGE). We played Cards Against Humanity until midnight and then went outside to watch the fireworks. It was a wonderful day!!

Hugh's DNA Results

Back in June, we had Hugh's AncestryDNA House Party here at our house to reveal his ethnic background. We were hoping that his birth mom would be able to come to the party and celebrate the big reveal with us, but due to circumstances beyond her control, she was not able to come.

We invited a few close friends to come over and be here to hear the news. AncestryDNA sent us a party pack and a map was included, so we played a game with guessing where Hugh's results would be from.

It was fun to watch everyone try to guess where he's from, and to see the different areas on the map where our friends had guessed he had roots.

We had some snack foods for everyone to munch on, and then we headed into the living room, where Steve was able to open up ancestry.com and show it on the television. Everyone was able to see his results at the same time, and we all discussed his results and our thoughts on them.

Here are the official results (in approximate amounts):
Europe  56%
- Europe West 29%
- Great Britain 10%
- Italy/Greece 7%

Africa  39%
-Ivory Coast/Ghana 28%
- Africa Southeastern Bantu 8%
- Benin/Togo 1%
- Mali 1%
- Cameroon/Congo 1%

Asia  5%
- Middle East 3%
- Caucasus 1%
- Asia South 1%

The results are quite interesting to me. Hugh's birth mom is almost totally German, so the huge European dominance isn't shocking. I was surprised by the Ivory Coast/Ghana part. I was honestly expecting him to be Caribbean or some type of Latin.

The main thing that we were looking for was general information about his paternal roots, and we have that. The test wasn't for any sort of genetic information, and I'm sure there are tests that give even more specifics, but for now, this is more than enough information for us to have for Hugh when he's older.

What's been interesting is that there are people on ancestry.com that have also taken the DNA test, and the website has "matched" them with Hugh. I actually just got a message from someone that says:

I've recently received results from my DNA test and my results indicates we possibly may be related. I have posted my family tree and I am wondering if you have reached the stage in your family research where you have a tree that you possibly could post. I'd love to see if there is a definitive familial link for the two of us.

As always, thank you for your assistance with this request.

I'm so incredibly torn on this. Do I respond? Do I ignore this? I mean, there are so many "what ifs" that come to mind. The site says this person lives in Greensboro, NC (where Hugh's birth mom lives) and that that he and Hugh are predicted to be 3rd cousins with a 98% accuracy. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on exploring this!!