The bonds and connections of adoption

This weekend we attended the annual Wanzai Sisters Reunion.    This is a gathering of some of the families that traveled to China with us when we adopted Laura.   This year the trip took us to Memphis Tennessee.   We walked and ate our way through Memphis.  We watched the marching of the ducks at the world famious Peabody Hotel, had several great meals, walked through the city, watched street performers on Beale Street, waded through the scale model of the Mississippi River at Mud Island, made crafts with the kids and caught up on what has been going on in each others lives.   Kind of like a family reunion with relatives that you rarely get to see.

Looking back to 2004 it was a cold Sunday afternoon in Nanchang, 14 families sat in a hotel conference room and waited for our names to be called to come up and meet our child. We had been together for a few short days prior to that.  We met some of the families in the airport in Japan and others at the Beijing airport and the rest once at the hotel.  We spent Friday and Saturday touring in Beijing seeing The Forbidden City, The Great Wall and other sites around the area.   Then on Sunday morning we flew off to the province where our children were from.   We got to the hotel and had to get things in order to be ready to meet our children that afternoon.   We barely sat down and we got the call, the kids are here, please proceed to the hotel meeting room. 

The kids had endured the 3 hour van ride to the capital of their province to meet their new families.  The 14 little girls that were all around 1 year old were tired and scared by the time they reached us around 4 pm.  We all sat there waiting, most of us were on our first adoption trip so had no clue what would be next.  You cold have cut the tension in the room with a knife.  When they called our names we quickly went up and were handed a child that was crying and scared.  For us it happened quickly I believe we were second. We jumped up and went to the front.  Then they called another name and the next couple would go up.  It was quick and in many ways difficult.  We met a child that did not initially like us, we smelled different we talked different, we disrupted their little lives, we turned their world upside-down.  There was a lot of crying, babies crying, parents crying, I was probably as scared as Laura was and trust me she was scared!

Job one bond with your child.  This happened more quickly for some than for others.  The first night for us was hard then on Monday we began to get into a grove. During the following days we shared meals together with our travel mates, we hung out at the hotels together and we became friends.  Our little ones played together and we all began to adjust.

Now over 9 years later we still manage to get several families together for a reunion each summer.    We share a bond, a connection that is lasting, some call it the red thread of adoption.    Our girls spent the first year of their lives in the same orphanage.   This is a key part of their life and who they are.  It is important to us that they remember this bond with each other.  We as parents share a bond, we traveled together half way around the world, some of us scared to death and wondering how we got there.   We supported each other during the trip.  We connected and developed lasting friendships that are a true blessing.  

We have traveled this adoption journey 4 times and I am so thankful that this first travel group stays in touch and that we are able to stay connected as our daughters grow up.  This is one of the blessings of adoption.  Just think we now have friends in Illinois, Georgia, Indiana, Texas, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Michigan and other states thanks to a trip to meet our daughter.  These are people we likely would have never met, lives we would have never been blessed to interact with.  

Adoption brings many challenges and many blessings and this is just one of the added bonuses that some are blessed to receive.   We are thankful for the Wanzai reunion and thankful for the years that we have been able to attend.   The worst part is that it only lasts a weekend.   It is hard to say goodbye at the end knowing it may be a year or more before you see most of the families again.   But in the end we are very thankful that we were able to attend and look forward to the next gathering.

Below are a few photos from this years journey to Memphis on Fathers Day Weekend.

 The group at a park.  Note that our other kids have just become a part of the group too.

 Some of the dads hanging out and catching up.

 The girls taking a well deserved break

 Getting ready to say goodbye for this year.

We are so thankful that God called us to adopt. It has truly changed our lives forever and in a wonderful way.  If you ever feel God calling you to adopt, listen to the call you never know what blessings are just around the corner and you never know how it will change your life in a wonderful and lasting way.