“You’ll need coffee shops and sunsets and road trips. Airplanes and passports and new songs and old songs, but people more than anything else. You will need other people and you will need to be that other person to someone else, a living breathing screaming invitation to believe better things.” ― Jamie Tworkowski

I awoke this morning at 5:43 with something of a start.  WE LEAVE TOMORROW FOR EDISTO ISLAND!!!!!!  I was awash with both anxiety and excitement.  

Come on, admit it.  You guys think we are just a little nuts to be undertaking a week long beach vacation RIGHT BEFORE we go to China for two weeks on an adoption trip. I know you do because, truthfully, so do I.  But I have never been accused of being level headed and having a firm grip on reasonable and rational thinking.  I mean, honestly?  I'm a 46 year old women adopting a 19 month old baby! At a time plenty of friends are welcoming grandchildren, I am actively pursuing an tiny tot halfway around the world.  How rational and reasonable can I be?  But then again, I never want to be so level-headed and rational I miss out on the wonder all around me. I want to run headlong into life embracing the mystery and beauty of all it can be.

So why a week at a beach in South Carolina?  Actually this is a very important trip, for many reasons.  But the 4 biggest reasons are(in order of age):

1. Grace

2. Serenity

3. Katie

4. Madeline

Four little girls that shared their first months together.  Our Serenity has no known biological connections.  These girls share a history, a story.  Serenity calls them her "China Sisters".  I love that.  This trip is a chance for them to all reconnect and nurture the bond they share.  Now on the cusp of double digit age, it involves lots of giggling and squealing. But it is all good.

And the parents?  Well, let me tell you, Oy the support!  It is so special to share something so precious and intimate as those first moments with your child.  When we first started thinking about adopting again, these were some of the first people we talked to.  When we were considering which special needs we were comfortable with.  Boom, text Kelly. Noreen was quick to offer to help us with adoption travel since she works for a major airline. Think Belle may have Thalassemia, Michelle is in the know since she is 1. a pediatric nurse and 2. has two kids with different forms of Thal. I mean how awesome to have that kind of support?  

And the dads, well the dads do what dads do.  The joke and guffaw and love being crazy uncles to the kids.  Jason makes sweet tea, Don cooks low country boil, Jim and Matt love to talk sports. And Jim has helped us arrange our trips to and from China.  

Every year we laugh about the same stories.  The nervousness at meeting the girls, the hallway parties, Dean eating squid, McDonalds, Chinese hot dogs, the trip to the zoo.  It is a reunion in every sense of the word. 

And to add to the fun?  There are now 3 'to cute for color tv' Chinese little brothers thrown into the mix.

The first thing I said when I found out that our consulate appt was Aug 6 instead of July 31 was, 'Well, God must think Serenity's reunion is pretty important too.'  Hey! Who am I to argue?