New Family in Armenia

A few years ago I started an account on Ancestry.com.  I did their free trial and then every year I pay for a month here or there and update and do some searching.  All I have on my family tree for my dad's side is his biological parents names, approx birth dates and death dates.  We do not even have the correct spellings of their names because when you came to the USA they always got changed.  My dad and his family immigrated to this country when he was 4 months old.  His oldest sibling was 5.  A few years after they arrived their biological mother left the home and their father did his best, but wasn't able to provide care for the children while he worked, so social services stepped in and took them away.  One brother was adopted at birth and we were able to meet him many many years ago.  One sister is mentally challenged and has always lived in a home where she can get the help she needs, I have been told she is at the level of around a 3 year old.  My dad, his brother John and his sister Toni all went into foster care.  They bounced around from homes for a while, my aunt went to live with their biological mother and my dad and his brother spent most of their years with who we now consider grandma.  Back then they didn't like to keep the children in one foster home to long because they didn't want them to get attached.  My dad's biological father always kept in touch, sending money and visiting, but there wasn't much known about him or his history.  We knew he was born in Armenia and was a prisoner of war in Germany.  Married my dad's mother in Germany and then they came to the USA.  We did know that my dad has a half sister in Germany, but no way of contacting her.

So this is where things get interesting.

Yesterday I got an email through Ancestry.com from a Mkrtich Asatryan, saying he was named after a Mike Assaturian (Mkrtich Asatryan) and has been looking for the family of Mkrtich that he had in America.  He left me his phone numbers and email.  I emailed him back and he called last night.  We talked for 20 minutes and it is definitely family.  He said that his father and his siblings had been looking for their father's family/siblings in the USA for over 40 years and they have contacted so many people in vain.  He immediately sent me some family history and some pictures to verify we are really related.  He is currently visiting his wife's family in Los Angeles, so hopefully my parents and Aunt can visit with him this weekend before he goes back to Armenia.  He said he called Armenia and they are going to look for more pictures and things to send.  I had never seen a picture of my dad's biological father and the family resemblance is scary.   He was so happy to have finally found us, he said that the family would always say there is no way he could find us because there was no information about us, just some pictures.  My dad and his siblings all have very Armenian names and come to find out they were named after his siblings and family. 

Here is brief history that Mkrtich sent me.

Dear Kety,



Mkrtich Asatryan was born in Western Armenia in a big and prosperous Armenian family. He had seven brothers. All of them lived together, so the houshold consist of 20-30 peaople. In 1915 the Armenians genoside took place and Asatryans family was sloughterd like 1.5 milion Armenians in Turkey. Only Mkrtich Asatryan and his brother Hunan survived. They escaped to Estern Armenian. The many Armenians died from starvation or malaria after surviving the genoside. It was cruel time. He met my an orphan Tsotse and they get married. They had 7 kids, 3 doughters and 4 sons. They lived in village in Soviet Armenia called Martuni. When second warld war started Mkrtich Asatryan was mobalized to army and soon was caprued and brought to Germany as military prisoner. In germany he married with german women who was about 20 years younger than he. This lady saved his life, because otherwise he would share the doom of million other prisoners. After war they emigrated to USA. In 1962 and 1965 Mkrtich came to Soviet Armenia and met with his first family. In 1967 this kids receive an message from USA that their father died.


This is just a part of legend about Mkrtich Asatryan, who survived genoside, Stalin repression, world war 2, had 14 children in different parts of world.


After that more than 40 years my father and his brothers and sister tried to find children of their father in USA. They live in the country (Soviet Unio) where even a trial to have contacts in USA could be very dangerous.


As I am the only nephew of Mkrtich Assaturian (or Mike Assaturian) who was named after him I continue the search. I contacted a lot of people in my life, but all in vain


The story of your family/ ancestor had a lot of coincides with the story of my grandfather.


Please, review the photos attached. I have seen these pictures all my life in my family albom and always know I have relatives in USA.


If you Identify them. The the search will be completed.

Here are the pictures he sent and I have added who they are.

This is my dad's high school graduation picture.

This is my dad's biological father.

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This is my Uncle Jim who was adopted at birth.

 

This is a younger picture of my dad.

It is truly amazing and a blessing that Mkrtich was able to find us.  My dad's middle name is Mkrtich, we spell it different.  We have emailed throughout the night and exchanged more pictures.  Mkrtich said he is going to try to get more pictures and send them from Armenia. 

Bryan and I have decided tat Armenia is now on the top of our list and we hope to get there this next year.

Out of my dad's 7 half siblings in Armenia 5 are still alive and the oldest is almost 90.  It would be amazing to get back to Armenia and meet them and learn all we can about the Assaturian (Asatryan in Armenia) side of the family.

New Blanket and BYU Football

Bradley has been asking for a blanket to take to school and snuggle with during his nap time. I have had these minki squares for a really long time and decided to make them into a quilt/blanket for him. It is my first time making a blanket and I think it turned out pretty darn cute. It is a little girlier than what I would have liked for Bradley, but I honestly think that Alex will take it over pretty soon. The back is solid blue dot minki and the binding is lime green dot minki.

 

We went out to TCU to watch the BYU football game.  BYU lost but we had a good time with our friends.  It was way more crowded this year than 2 years ago, but TCU is ranked in the top 5 this year so people are coming out to support them.  BYU had a good showing of supporters too.

Update

We will stay a family 4.  I have miscarried pregnancy #5.  It wasn't completely unexpected since my 1st sono didn't look amazing.  But it has happened and we can't change it.  So here is a list of things I keep reminding myself to try to stay positive considering I have miscarried double the children I actually have.

We will be out of diapers in our house in under 12 months.
We do not need another car.
I can eat Sushi again.
I can start running again and training for another marathon.

These things might seem simple and stupid, but it's what I have right now.

Baby update

So this is really boring post.  I had my first OB appt a few days ago and things didn't go as planned.  My record with babies and miscarriegs is 50/50.  The doctor gave me a 50/50 shot of carrying this baby to term.  My inside and outside measurements don't match and the heart beat is not very strong and there is some extra blood where it shouldn't be.  I go back in a little over a week for another ultrasound and we will see what happens.  We are just leaving to the Lord since there isn't anything we can do about it and I have realized that I can't worry and get all stressed out, it will just make things worse.

On a happier note, we landed in Cancun today and our hotel is amazing.  We have an amazing view.  I didn't bring my new camera but I brought old digital camera and will get pictures up soon.  This hotel is JW Marriott and it is very high end.  A big thank you to Dealersocket and the amazing benefits we get from the travel Bryan does.  We got back in room after being out a little bit and our bed was turned down with mints and the room had been cleaned.  It is awesome.

Pics

I got a new camera for my birthday and it is more than a point and shoot camera.  I took the kids out to the stockyards today to play with it.  I was only able to take 2 pictures because the bigger memory card I ordered hasn't come in yet.  Here is my first shot of Bradley.  He had his eyes closed in the other one.  The camera is super nice and I really want to get into some photography classes to learn how to use the extra lens and flash.  I am hoping to be able to get a lot of good pictures of our kiddos and not pay an arm and leg.  If anyone is willing to let me practice with their kiddos or family, let me know.  There are a lot of good places out at the stockyards and I am sure there are a lot of other fun places around here too. 

Nothing really new is going on around here.  Alex is starting to try to talk more which is cute.  Bradley likes to play football with her (it's just him tackling her) so she has gotten really tough.  She has her own little personality and screams or grunts when she wants anything.  I am trying to teach her some sign language to help with the screaming, but she isn't into it and is starting to say more.

So far the baby #3 seems to be good.  I go to the Dr for the first time on Friday so we will see what she says.

A few things...

Last week Bradley decided that going to bed wasn't for him.  He will sneak around the house thinking I don't see him, but I always do.  So I have started shutting down the house at his bedtime and going in our bedroom and shutting the door, so if he comes out of his room it is completely dark.  Well I went one night around 10 to make sure the alarm was on and this is what I found, it was completely black. 

I moved him to his bed and he didn't even move.

Today I purchased a used juicer from my friend and immediately went to Central Market and bought organic carrots and apples to juice.  I grew up on carrot juice and love it and Bradley will usually pick it over chocolate milk if I give him the option.  Carrot juice is expensive so I don't have it as often as I would like but with a juicer it is much cheaper and probably better for you.  Here is my first glass.  It is so easy, I am going to try the apples tomorrow.  Bradley loved it, so we will definitely be having it more.  I am hoping to be able to let Bradley help more with the juicing.  He has never been a big fruit juice drinker and that is fine with me. 

A friend of mine from the gym recently had twin baby girls.  I found these adorable bathing suits at Macy's and made towels to match.

"Bryan wake up...

I have something to tell you."  Is how I woke Bryan up a week ago.  He rolled over and said what and I told him "I'm pregnant."  He about had a heart attack since we had decided to re visit the subject of a 3rd child next August when Alex turned 2, but apparently our decision was made for us.  We are really excited and this will be a new adventure for us.  Bradley and Alex are 3 1/2 years apart and we really enjoy that.  Alex and baby #3 will be under 21 months apart.  I have already had blood work done twice and all of my counts look really good.  They are higher than then normal so that is a positive and we will keep our fingers crossed that everything is ok with this pregnancy.  I am more nauseous than usual with my pregnancies and my sciatic nerve is already acting up, but I am thankful that my blood counts are good.  I will post more when I know more.