Our China family: back row, Shea (Saskatoon); Marvin and Carolyn (Summerside); Beth, Helena and James (Edmonton); Monica and Paul (Edmonton) Kathleen, Elspeth and Pat (Waterloo); Girard and me. Front row: Caia (Shea), Ava (B&J), Kennedy and Jaida (C&M), Ren and Claire (M&P), Maeve (K&P) and Bryn. We were all in the same room together when we received our girls, who were all from Xinyu, Jiangxi Province in China.
The Xinyu sisters together again and enjoying every minute.
Ava, Claire, Maeve, Kennedy, Bryn and Caia.
All the kids! Bryn, Ava, Kennedy, Jaida, Helena, Caia, Maeve, Jaida, Ren and El. The girls all had matching skirts, made by Monica.
While all of our reunions -- big and small -- have been special, this one was one we've been looking forward to for a long, long time. The six of us moms have kept in close touch and we've become close friends and have shared all of the special moments and memories of our lives since receiving our girls. We keep in touch by email, our blogs, phone and Facebook. To finally be able to all be together again was very special indeed.
It was amazing to see the six Xinyu sisters together again and to meet their new siblings. The kids had a blast and they played so well together. We had nine kids age 5 and under so we were a loud, happy group.
I think all of the moms were pinching ourselves the first day, wondering if it was all really happening! It was hard to believe we were finally all together again after years of hoping and months of planning. We did a lot of hanging out and reminiscing. We took more than a few photos. We watched the kids play, visited the zoo, took a walk along the river, went for dim sum, did some crafts, had a bbq at Grandma Dar's (Shea's mom who traveled to China with us) and a pool party at Paul's parents'. We made countless new memories. The weather was beautiful and everything was perfect. The time flew by much too fast and before we knew it our almost week-long reunion was over. It was a tearful goodbye but we know we will see each other again and that helps. A little.
I took hundreds of photos and it's hard to choose just a few to post. The kids were such good sports with all the posing we asked them to do (treats help!) and I also tried to get some shots of them just "doing", as Bryn would say.
Maeve
El
Kennedy
Jaida
Ava
Ava
Helena, who is like a big sister to all the kids.
Claire
Claire
Ren, who was surrounded by little girls. And will be his
entire life I think -- look at that handsome face!
Caia
Bryn
A visit to the zoo. The bears are usually sleeping whenever we visit but they made a special appearance and came over to see the kids.
The kids are kind enough to humor me and let me weigh and measure them (Skittles help).
The paparazzi.
I'm so blessed to have these amazing women as my very good friends.
Shea, Monica, Kath, Carolyn and Beth.
The Xinyu moms and sisters.
Moms and all the kids.
One last group pose before we say goodbye.
One of many, many goodbye hugs.
One of many, many goodbye hugs.
One thing I've learned over the past few years is you don't have to physically be with people to form a strong bond and create life-long friendships. I know these families will be a part of our lives forever. We look forward to many more reunions with them and hopefully someday with our other travel families.
Monica took this beautiful photo.
Even though you can't see the kids' faces it's one of my favorites.
Thanks to everyone for coming, especially to Kath and Pat and Carolyn and Marvin who traveled so far. And thanks to Grandma Dar and the Wandzuras for opening their homes and hearts to all of us and helping make our reunion as perfect it was.
Miss you all and love you lots. Sniff.
Friends forever.
(Another beautiful photo taken by Monica.)
