Adoption Group Dinner

I was really looking forward to our adoption group getting together for a reunion.  We had our agency training a year ago this month and this was the first time for any of us to meet again in person.  We have communicated over email through out the year but pretty simple stuff.

One of the couples in our group of 6 couples did not ever reply much to our group emails and was not able to join us.  We have recently found out that they were placed last month.  They have a daughter a year younger than B as well.

We were planning on it being the five couples.  We have B of course, one couple had a biological son through IVF about 6 months ago, one couple was placed with a boy two weeks after their profile was active last December (this little guy shares B's bday!) and the other three couples (us included) are still waiting families.

We had planned to meet in a central location for most of us that meant we drove about 50 minutes one way, 2 couples drove about 50 minutes the other, one couple lived about 20 minutes away and the final couple about two minutes away.  Didn't they luck out!!! :)  Our meeting spot was a bowling / entertainment place that was very nice.  They had a huge modern bowling area, laser tag, go garts, and arcade games.  There was also the restaurant section that was sort of like a sports bar.  It was really slow when we were there and so we had plenty of space.

Matt, B, and I arrived first (as usual) no one else was there.  B and Matt went to play laser tag and get that out of the way before everyone arrived.  We had planned that B could have an arcade card and play games and come back to check in with us every now and then type of thing.

The second couple came in and they were the ones who had adopted right away.  They have a beautiful boy with such dark handsome eyes.  At around 10 months of course they were busy the whole time chasing him!

As we were admiring the first little guy, we saw the third couple walking in.......carrying a baby seat!!    They were not one of the couples with a baby yet!!!   They had a tiny little guy who was around 30 days old.  He was such a cute little bug.  It was such a wonderful surprise!   When we had set the date for this meeting, they did not have him yet and decided to just surprise us instead of emailing again.  Of course we enjoyed passing him around.

The next two couples arrived and we moved to the table area.  We talked, passed babies, laughed, ordered food, more baby passing and story sharing on things like how are the relationships with the birthparents, how things went here and there with different situations, cases we were shown on, etc.  It was big time fun.

We took this picture before we left and I am so bummed we didn't take one a year ago.  But, we intend to do it again each year (at least) and will continue our picture tradition!  Next time we pray there will be at least two more babies in that photo!

I am only going to leave the photo up a few days since it has other families in it.

This picture makes me smile so big!  I just love it!  I love how we have grown!  Please say some extra prayers for the other waiting couple.  Our meeting was very difficult for her/ them.  They are such a great couple and we really enjoyed meeting them last year.  We can not wait for the day when they get their magical call!

I am totally smiling like a big ol' dork in the middle but I was just so happy!