After the beach, and on our way home, we took a little side trip and stopped in Columbus to visit some friends.
We are in the final stages of our adoption, and there is a large group of families that have adopted or are in the process of adopting through our agency and from India. We have a Facebook group and we all help and encourage each other through this journey. It has been such a blessing in my life to have these families to walk together through this experience. A few of them just recently got their children and hearing their stories are such a great learning tool for our family as we prepare to go. Our Facebook group consists of families from all over… TN, GA, NC, SC, NE, VA, TX, and FL, but there are a large group of them in Columbus.
But instead of just talking on Facebook, we got together in person! Not all of us, but here are four families here. And then that night it turned into five as we stayed up until 2am chatting with each other. I loved it! Next time, I hope I get to meet the rest of the group as well!
The pretty lady on the far left…this is my dear friend Amanda. She and I have become good friends since last Fall. We chat on the phone frequently and Facebook often. We have a special connection among the group, because we are the only two families with children in the same orphanage. She is adopting siblings…a boy and a girl. They are a little older than our daughter, and they will become a family of 6 after their adoption. This was my first time meeting her in person, and she was gracious enough to host our entire family at her house for the night! Her husband cooked us breakfast, and we went to church with them. (Some of the other families go there too) And then we topped it off with an Indian Restaurant for lunch, before we headed back home. Amanda feels like a best friend to me, because we have talked so much and we have that special connection. And, even cooler…our husbands hit it off! We see lots of visits with them in the future…especially, since our kids will know each other! We hope they are coming to see us in September, before we go to India. It is my hope that when we go to get our daughter that we can take pictures of her kids and deliver presents to her kids on behalf of them. And there is still a slight hope/chance that maybe we will travel at the same time?!?!?
Also at our meeting at the park, we were also able to celebrate her daughter’s birthday, who is not home yet. (she has to bio daughters) Next year we hope to celebrate with ALL the kids in tow!!!
The next pretty lady, second from the left, this is Kristian. I only know her through Facebook, so it was cool to meet her in person. Her family has an incredible story of faith. They felt the call to adopt, but little did they know God was going to call them to adopt a sibling group of three. Three precious little girls! Now that is faith! They will become a family of 7 (like us) after they adopt.
And then, next to me…this is my beautiful friend Jenny. Jenny and I went to high school together, as well as we danced together at Greenville Ballet. She was always the principle dancer….she was and still is awesome! She is now the mother of seven children, two of which she adopted from India ( a boy and a girl). Her son is pictured with us above. Jenny is how we found our agency and has personally given me a ton of encouragement through this process. We had not seen each other in 18 years, so we had the best time catching up with each other.
Amanda and I at the Indian Restaurant
The Carroll Fam! Hope to see you all soon!!!