I lost a check like a year ago for about $600 and forgot about it. looks like the check finally expired last month and they realized it and added it to my payout. kudos to Google for that
Why didn't you request to Google to send you another check? They could have cancelled that lost check and sent you a new one.
That's good of them. But then again, they would have counted that as outgoing expense for last year, so it's in their best interest to have actually paid it!
Congrats!! I hope you continue with adsense I remember finding a surprise also when I logged in after... not going so for months.. but it was more like $11