Update: my niece Angel

My brother Cody, isn't very good about learning lessons. He had a baby, my nephew Chaise, in 2008 with a woman that he no longer has much contact with. It has been a very difficult journey with her and as of right now, we don't have any contact with Chaise :-(

You would think that most people would learn from this, and either abstain from sexual relations or at the very least protect themselves well so that when they next chose to bring a baby into this world, it would be in the best of circumstances. Not my bro...I found out in September of 2010 that my brother was likely having another baby with another girl that he no longer has contact with...paternity tests has since confirmed that yes, my brother now has two children that he has to pay child support for and has no relationship with either of them.  That statement alone could lead into an entire blog, but I don't feel like dissecting his lack of parenting interest beyond siring children.

What this blog is actually about, is that up until a few weeks ago, baby #2, a girl named Angel was pretty much unknown to me. I knew that her mom's name was Dodi, but I didn't have a last name or any contact info. I am pretty sure she was born sometime in September, making her about 7 months old now. It's been a challenging topic in my family (apparently we are all pretending she doesn't exist?) so I haven't really ventured into finding out more. Luckily for me, Angel's maternal grandma is pretty assertive, and she tracked me down on facebook to ask if me or anyone in my family was interested in building a relationship with her. I said that yes I was interested, but that I was a little leery due to being burned before (by Chaise's mom). Long story short, I am now facebook friends with Vicky (the grandma) as well as Dodi (the mom) and have made arrangements to meet Angel & Dodi in one week, next Saturday.  Dodi lives in Peace River and I'll be going there next weekend.

*Side note: I am going to Grimshaw/Peace River next weekend because my friend Allison's niece has lymphoma and they are holding a fundraiser for her there. Here niece is only 6 years old :-(  She was diagnosis at the beginning of March and is at the Stollery in Edmonton. Last update I got, things weren't looking too good, as she had no white blood cells.

Alright, so my question for y'all, is that if you were in my situation, what questions would you try to get answered before next Saturday? How would you try to get to know your niece baby momma before then so that it wasn't too awkward?

Here's a picture I took from Dodi's facebook