Saturday, June 18, 2011

CCAI Reunion 2011



We have been looking forward to our first CCAI reunion for a year and a half! Today was the big day and it was sure worth the wait.
We have been here in Colorado since Thursday evening visiting with the Stroh's. What a great time getting to meet their other two boys (Caleb and Gabriel) and just hang out and reconnect/compare notes about the past 20 months. The girls (Elizabeth Grace and Lily) had an awesome time together. Elizabeth Grace is just a month older than Lily.
Today at the reunion, along with the Stroh's, we also met up with the Grippo's and Salsmans'. The girls in our four families are the closest in age of all of the kids from our travel group. We may have to name them the Firecracker Quartet or something along those lines because this group of 3 year olds is something else (I know, Keesa isn't quite 3 yet)! What amazing transformations they have all gone through.
Mike and I also had a chance to finally meet face to face some of the people from CCAI who played a major role in making Lily's adoption possible. What an awesome group of people!
It is hard to explain the bond that takes place among a group of total strangers when you go through the "birth" of your children together. We may not have a single other thing in common with each other, but we were together for some of the best and worst days of our lives for 16 days on the other side of the world. We are blessed to count every single one of them as part of our family. Wish all of you could have been there today, but you were certainly in our thoughts and conversations!

4 comments:

Grippo said...

Wow, you are fast. Love it! See you soon!! xoxo

Lynnea said...

We LOVED seeing all the kiddos! And sooo wish we didn't live so far away :(
Our lives have been forever blessed and enriched knowing you all.
What a journey it has been...and we pray we can meet up with all our travel group friends sometime in the future!
But I get Vicki in 2 days!!!! :)
Yahhooooo!!!!!

Mike and Jennifer said...

Julie - the hotel was a good idea tonight. Lily had a chance to unwind and is already sound asleep.
Lynnea - we certainly missed you guys but we totally understand the distance! It was almost a 20 hour drive for us. We know we will meet up with you all again - when the time is right!

Amanda said...

It was awesome to see you. I miss you already!