Blog Friend Playdates and Reuniting with Cribmates

One of the biggest perks of blogging during the adoption process was the opportunity to connect with other adoptive families across the country. We learned so much by reading blogs of families that went through the process ahead of us. And our friendships with families alongside us on the adoption rollercoaster journey kept us sane! Our blog friends are treasured and have provided more encouragement, support, inspiration and smiles over the past couple of years than words can even explain! In recent months, we’ve had the opportunity to meet some of our “virtual” blog friends in real life. It’s been so much fun!

We discovered that the S Family (from The Road Less Traveled) and the P Family (from The Parsons Flock) only live about an hour from us, so when the C Family (from Love is Spoken Here) traveled to Florida to visit, we all met up for a sunset beach picnic. AC captured this adorable shot of the her son S with our Miss K and the P family’s twins. It’s just more cuteness than I can handle! Seriously.

What up, Ladies?

A few weeks later, we got together with the P twins again, and I finally got to meet R (from Love With Abandon) and M (from Along the Narrow Road) at a pool and cookout gathering hosted by some mutual friends. We’re excited that they all live fairly close to us and hope to be able to get together with them regularly in the future! R will be bringing home a sweet 4 year old little girl (Miss A's age!) in January and M is waiting to be matched with her future son!

These baby girls are the same age and always have the most adorable interactions.

Next, W (from Pratt, Table for Three) and and her sweet son M visited from Texas. M is one of K’s Hannah’s Hope cribmates. He and K arrived at Hannah’s Hope on the same day and they were both there until December. That shared history is so special, and we think it will be so meaningful to them as they get older. When A&W were at Hannah's Hope picking up M (they received an earlier court date traveled a couple of weeks ahead of us), W visited our K, read her a book and snapped this picture for us:

Look what a difference a year makes! We met W and M for a park playdate followed by a yummy Tex-Mex dinner.

(I’ll be storing these in my “possible wedding slide show pix” file! heehee)

While Mr. B was in Rwanda, the V crew (from The Vogeltanz Family) vacationed in Florida. Little E is another one of Miss K’s cribmates. We got to know the V family through our blogs during the adoption process and ended up traveling at the same time to pick up our girls! Our first real-life meeting with them was in the airport when we arrived in Addis Ababa. The next day, we walked with them to Hannah's Hope to meet our girls:

Our friendship with the Vs deepened that week as we shared the experience of meeting and bonding with our daughters, exploring Addis Ababa and inventing new items for the Union Hotel's menu (I wonder if they’re still serving the Emily Burger?). We absolutely love this family. Love them! We decided an African theme would be fitting for our reunion and arranged for a playdate at Disney’s Hakuna Matata playground--overlooking giraffes and zebras!

K adored the V's son N!

After our playdate, the girls and I enjoyed Boma's tour of Africa buffet for dinner.

And a couple of weeks ago, the R family (from Rush Home) visited all the way from New Mexico. They are another family alongside us in the adoption journey and they were at Hannah’s Hope picking up little H the day that K and M arrived. We met up with the Rs at a playground by the beach and then went to a out for a seaside seafood dinner. Their children are close in age to ours and became fast friends. As we were unloading at the restaurant, Miss A scanned the parking lot for them, saying “Where are the cousins?” So cute! We've had so much fun turning these “virtual” friendships into “real life” ones and hope to get together with all of these families again in the future! All you other blog friends out there, holler at us if you come to Florida—we’d love to meet you too!