Contact with Mya's birth family

I have never met Mya's birth mother, neither had the case worker or anyone else for that matter. She walked out of the hospital and hasn't been seen or heard from since. BUT, the case worker has had contact with her parents. They had said they were too old to raise another grandchild (they have 3 of Mya's siblings) and declined to take Mya. Lucky for us!! :) The case worker made contact again right before the adoption and found out the grandmother was diagnosed with lung cancer in March and died 3 weeks later! So sad! So grandpa, who is 69, is raising the 3 kids: girl- 9, boy-13, girl-15 all on his own.

Right after the adoption I tried to contact the birth mother through facebook where I found her months ago. Jonathan made me wait until we were officially parents to do so. I didn't know if she'd even get the message or if she'd even respond. I mainly wanted to get a little more history and mostly some insight into who the father could be and his race. To date, I have not heard back and doubt I will. But worth a shot.

I did email the case worker a few weeks ago for the grandfathers information. I wanted to start by sending a letter and maybe some pictures. For now a Christmas card I felt was perfect. Unfortunately all she had on file was a partial address for some reason, and the phone number. I hated to just call out of the blue. I mean, how would I introduce myself? He doesn't know who Camille Christensen is, he doesn't know who "Mya" is, or "Hope" for that matter!

I put it off for a week or so and finally decided to just call. It was kind of an awkward conversation but he was friendly. Towards the end I realized he didn't know he was talking to the actual adoptive mom. I don't know if he thought it was the case worker or what. But he did tell me a little more about himself and the kids. Then he gave me his address & told me I could send him a Christmas card, but hat he would probably put it away after seeing it because the children did not yet know about their little sister. He also asked that I include our phone number in there for him. :)

This week I received a Christmas card in return! With it, many pics of the kids from infancy to almost recent. I was shocked how similar Mya looks to her sisters!! Also a letter with some more information on their family. In it, he said that he did show the oldest sister and she was "surprised, but in a good way". So I don't know if she was surprised by us: our age or looks, or that she even had a little sister at all? Maybe all of the above? :)

Anyway, I though I would share some of the pictures of her sisters:

This is the 9 year old.... (looks a ton like Mya did as an infant!)

(LOOKS LIKE MYA!)

This is the oldest sister, at 1-2 yrs old, who is now 15