Jiangxi Girls Together Again

A couple of weeks ago we were lucky enough to be able to spend a few days with 5 of the 10 families we travelled with to China. It was the most amazing time. We're fortunate to live in the same city as one of these families and close enough to two of the others to have visited with them a few times over the past 3 1/2 years, but we hadn't seen two of the families (one from each coast of Canada) since China and it was wonderful to see them again.

Our Jiangxi girls: Bryn, Roshandra, Ava, Claire, Caia and Elizabeth. The girls are all 4 years old with Bryn the oldest and Caia the youngest, 2-1/2 months apart.

We only had 2 1/2 days together so we had a lot of visiting and catching up to do in a short time. It really is hard to explain how amazing it was to see the girls together again and how, despite the fact we spent less than two weeks together in China, we were all able to pick up where we left off -- it was like visiting with old and dear friends we've known forever. It's a bond we'll have for a lifetime and we're so very blessed to have such an amazing group of people in our lives. To see how much all the girls have grown and watch all the little personalities interact was pretty awesome.

The kids are at the age where they don't need a lot of planned activities to keep them busy, they had a blast just playing and being together. They got along famously with each other and all their siblings. Our hosts went above and beyond to make our reunion special. The kids did crafts, had an indoor picnic and a party at Build-A-Bear. We had the best smoked brisket ever -- Paul would come out on top at any Texas barbecue challenge -- and the pizza baked in a clay oven in Beth and James' backyard was the best I've ever had.

I took hundreds of photos and still didn't manage to get all the shots I wanted. Between visiting and just watching the kids interact it was impossible to capture all the special moments but here are some (I did steal some photos from the other shutterbug moms, thanks ladies!)

Catching up on the past 3 years.

Bryn and Roshandra checking out Claire and Ren's loot.

Claire, Caia and Roshandra having a tea party with Roshandra's sister Kaio.

Since our hotel was only about six blocks from West Ed we made a side trip to show Bryn the big mall. She was most impressed with the Disney Store and thrilled to find her favorite guy, Nemo.

The kids watching their Canada Day shrinky dinks melt before they

turned them into necklaces.

Craft time!

Ava and Claire discuss the finer points of jewellery design.

Our proud little Canadians.

Caia making sure she's not missing anything.

Claire's brother Ren is a brave little man hanging out with all these girls!

Busy playing house.

Canada Day picnic.

The beautiful (and delicious) reunion cake.

Build-A-Bear was a huge hit with all the kids.

Bryn concentrating very hard on making sure her new stuffy

has a happy heart full of love.

That was fun!

Bryn and Kate, Elizabeth's sister.

Roshandra's brother Luca had a very important job.

Ava's sister Helena and Kate, two of the three Jie Jies.

No reunion is complete without the kids being weighed and measured.

Dress up time!

Bryn and Elizabeth.

"Mom, this is so good I can hardly stop tasting it."

Bryn and Eli have a special bond -- they lived together in the same foster home in China and I'm sure, on some level, they remember each other. It tugged at my heartstrings when Bryn grabbed her foster sister for a huge bear hug and happily posed for photos.

I'll help you, girlfriend!

One big happy family.

Our last day together.

The days flew by much too fast and saying goodbye again was hard to say the least. Thanks to Monica, Paul, Beth and James and their kiddies for all the planning and the delicious meals and letting us invade your homes, and to Kevin and Catherine and Rob and Aggie and their families for travelling so far. And also to Shea, Caia and Grandma Dar for being our Jiangxi family-in-residence, we'd be very lonely without you here. We had tons of fun and we miss everyone!

We especially miss the families who weren't able to make it to this reunion but look forward to our next one and seeing everyone there. Vancouver 2012 anyone? Maybe Nanchang 2013?

Friends forever!!

The Lost Post

Somewhere in the busyness of last fall and summer, and amid computer and grey matter crashes, a post was lost and/or forgotten.

So before all the special times of this summer begin here is a quick look at some of our visits with family from last summer.

We love you, Grandma.

Girard's brother and family from Kentucky were in Saskatchewan for a visit.

Bryn loves doing crafts with Auntie LeighAnn.

Cousin Brianna.

All of the Hengen grandkids (except Michael) with their Nana and Pubba.

Anna, Ramey, Bryn, Brianna, Matt, Katja, Nick and Kirsten.

The Hengen clan.

Bryn finally got to meet her oldest cousin, Michael.

It was great to see Michael, he hadn't been here for a long time!

We also went to see my family.

Here is rapper Bryn with her cousins Cara...

Jacey...

and Bretten.

Bryn's special cousins Mack and Emmy.

We helped Papa celebrate his 75th birthday.

Even though she thought it was a bit too loud, Bryn loved her first fireworks show.

Lady "Ham"tebellum

Our Reunion

In March we had our annual Xinyu girls reunion. This year was extra fun because we had one more family join us. Shea and Caia live here of course, and Beth, Helena and Ava came for their annual visit. But this year Monica, Paul, Claire and Ren came too, which meant we had four Xinyu girls, and one Guangdong boy, all under one roof!

We had an awesome time. The kids had a blast and so did all the moms (the dads did too, but for some reason they hardly ever make it into a photo). With four of us snapping pictures there are literally hundreds of photos I could post. Here are a few that show how we spent our time together.

Bryn, Claire, Ava and Caia. Together again after 3 years.

Ren joins the girls.

The kids played and played and played...

They swapped stories...

had some girl time...

posed for countless photos...

created some masterpieces...

were weighed and measured (for my pie chart).

and had a few snacks.

And we all had a great time at our friend Adia's 3rd birthday party

(thanks for having us, Lorraine!)

All the little ones love Helena and she's such a great "sister" to them.

Bryn was fascinated with Helena's iPod.

Thanks to Beth and Monica for making the trip, we appreciate you traveling all this way and hope we can do this every year. And thanks to Shea for co-hosting, we love hanging out at your place and eating all the yummy food you and Grandma Dar prepare for us! The doors are open to any of the rest of our group who want to join in the fun next year!