Disney Trip Day 6: Wednesday, 12/19

Today was very special; Grace and her family came to visit. Terrye, Grace's Mom is a member of the DTC (dossier to China) April2005 Yahoo Group (aka as the April Pandas) which I've mentioned before is an amazing group of women who began by supporting each other during the long wait for referrals & adoption and has evolved into a large network of friends; most of whom have never met each other although we are all trying to change that!

Grace is from Katerina's orphanage and is one month younger. She was adopted the week before Katerina's Gotcha Day and I was glued to the family's blog during their entire trip and continue to check it out religiously. I have always felt a special connection to this family and it was a real thrill to finally meet them. I know so much about the family from the Yahoo posts and their blog that it was like getting together with old friends/family. There are so many "shared" experiences. Terrye and I wonder if Grace & Katerina may have been crib mates. Their referral pictures were taken in the same crib.

Terrye, Doug and Grace drove an hour and a half from Tampa just to meet and spend time with us. We had a nice lunch and then hung around the resort area where the kids got to decorate Christmas cookies and we got to talk, talk, talk. The time went too quickly and we all agreed that we would make it a point to keep in touch and visit. This is a wonderful connection for the girls to have and a real bonus that we all enjoyed each other so much.

Hey, you look familiar!

Come on, let me show you around my vacation digs.

Immediate Friends

The guys with their little girls

Wow, I love pink ice cream

The Moms and their little girls

Time to go, but we will definitely get together soon!

On Friday night we were supposed to meet another family, the Wiltsie's, but Katerina got sick. They live in southern Florida and were passing through on their way to the family farm. We'll catch up with them next time which will probably be sometime next year.