What a Great Way to Spend a Saturday!

Yesterday was our FCC Tampa Bay luncheon. The Guest Speaker was from Passport Health talking about all the immunizations we may or may not need prior to travel.

Saturday evening we went to a house warming party at John and Nancy Swanson's house (amazing new house may I add). We met them through the Tampa FCC group. It was so much fun because there were 4 other couples including Drew and I who are adopting from China that we also already knew from the luncheons (Eric and Cindy, Jason and Susan, and Greg and Amy). They are all adopting through the agency Commonwealth. It was great to hang out and talk in a casual way about our upcoming journey. The amazing thing is that we all know we will be matched with the perfect child for us, we never have worries about that part. We also never talked about the trials and tribulations we may experience upon meeting our new daughter, we just all keep talking about how stressed out we are about a 12-15 hour plane ride or how we don't want to be on a tour bus and realize we may have eaten the wrong thing at breakfast (that's really what we're all worried about right?)

These are the experiences along the way that I think will make this wait time so much easier. Staying connected with others throughout the process makes this HUGE decision seen so real. I have talked with people who backed away from luncheons in their area, didn't belong to Yahoo Groups or other support groups, didn't really have any connections with others adopting and they have said it is so easy to start feeling disconnected and so far away. I don't want this to happen so for me, the plan is to stay as involved as I possibly can.

Best Wishes for a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Florida Reunion

Wow, what a weekend! The CCAI Florida Reunion was amazing. We met so many wonderful people that I am sure we will see year after year as our children grow older.

There were a few families from Tampa there that we had actually met before at our Tampa FCC monthly luncheons. It was very cool to see Tom and Irene and Michelle and Neil because they will be getting their referrals NEXT! CCAA made referrals last week through families with a Log In Date of August 25, 2005. These 2 couples are August 28, 2005 so this weekend had to be extra special for them.

Also there was Theresa and Brad who are right behind us with the LID. I met Theresa at our montly luncheon when she had just moved to town from Atlanta. We had the best time together as we bonded immediately and both share this huge enthusiasm that I know will make this next year more bearable. It was quite funny because our husbands Drew and Brad are so alike in that they just go with the flow and hang back and watch us run around stalking all the adorable little girls (Theresa was our photographer for the weekend with her new camera). Neither Drew or Brad had a clue who Mulan was (she was the "suprise" at breakfast for the kids).

We also met a really nice couple, Kip and Treena, and not only are they from Tampa, but they have our same LID, 9/11/06. It was wonderful to meet them and hopefully we will get to know each other better as it will be a great possibility that we will travel to China together.

They held a silent auction where all money raised was going towards a particular orphanage in China that is in desperate need of a playground for the children. All they currently have is a big open space outside that is all concrete. I have to check the CCAI to see the grand total but I'm sure it was a huge success. Josh and Lily,founders of CCAI were there and they are just as wonderful in person as I imagined them to be. They really made it a point to greet every single family there over the weekend and they truly are a blessing for all of us.