We started out bright and early Saturday morning 4:45 to be exact and headed west. We had a travel group reunion with Faith's travel group. We were not together since Christmas, I think. We sat around and talked, met new friends, the girls took off and played. I still marvel at the way they are still close even though their everyday lives are quite a bit different from each other...One of the girls is an only child, one is quite athletic and doesn't like too much "prissy" stuff. The 3rd child seems to be about 5 years older than her 8 years, poised and always perfectly groomed. And then there is Faith, the sort of girl that is a tomboy one day and a shrieking "ew-yuck" type of girl the next. Hope is usually the big sister to the group, but they all play well together riding scooters and rip-sticks or painting bags and making rubber band bracelets. They were all about 9 months old when we met them, so they really shouldn't remember each other, but they share a bond that I don't see even with cousins that are the same age.
Knowing that international adoptive families have been fingerprinted and examined to within an inch of their lives, we figured they were safe....:^)
We of course needed to make an impression at a brand new church...Shekinah needed to have a royal hissy fit. Thankfully I had sat close to the rear of the church. This church practices segregated seating (men and women seated on opposite sides of the aisle). I was shooting DH pointed glances and he remained oblivious to his daughters shenanigans...after church I noted that I wished I could have listened to the sermon better. His response "Why? didn't Shekinah sit well?" Ah well at least he heard the message.
We met a family that adopted 11 (?) of their 12 children. Seven were from Asia, so it was a treat for our girls to play with that many Chinese girls that are also Mennonites. Joe also had the unusual experience of being one of three Chinese/Mennonite boys at church.
We stayed overnight Sunday night and went for breakfast on Monday morning...even though they were dairy farmers they took out time to take us to breakfast...
I realize that I need to work on my hostess skills and maybe we need to build on to the house so we can actually have a free bed for visitors.
Then there are the things that go through your mind afterward, the trails of conversation that never finished
Even though we played the Mennonite game, I know who Krissie's husband's cousins are, but forgot to ask what Krissie's mother's maiden name was...or Marie's.
Then even though I listened to a wonderful CD that the children in the one family produced, it was only today that I realized they are a group and they do this kind of thing regularly...Hope said "mom, the "boy" that lived at that house sings the solo on this song, I know because I heard him singing it at their house..he's the bass."
OK...does that have something to do with the conversation about being able to "get into federal prisons, but not some state prisons."?
Faith's travel group plus her two sisters
The house with the people whose names all mean something...got pictures of them too, but not sure about posting....there was a Grace, Christian, Mercy, Promise, Charity,Jubilee, Song, Ransom, and Blessing...and "mom, the one girl...not the older one, the second one, combs the other girls' hair in the morning and she even does French braids on her own head!"
So that's how you get to church with all those little people!
Oh, sorry to ramble, but we had fun!
The littles were trying to jump rope
Ezekiel managed to have two little friends hanging on to him after the hay ride
We put up some of those neat Ch*nese lanterns
Sounds like an awesome weekend! I had to laugh about meeting other adoptive families and having been fingerprinted so much, etc. My hubby loves to give me a hard time when I have met a new family and agree to go somewhere or do something with them:) Have a blessed week!
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