Friends: meeting some new ones and catching up with the old

This weekend was a busy one because we celebrated CNY with some brand new friends on Sat. night, and some old friends from Grace's travel group Sunday evening. We live in a small town (population ~10,000) just north of Madison, WI. I happened to meet a fellow adoptive mom 2 months ago at a meeting, (we sat across the table from each other) started talking and came to find out we both have daughters from China, and they are 4 months apart in age. We live 2 blocks from this family. We've attempted to get Grace and Kaili together a few times, but with the Christmas holidays and kids being sick, our girls hadn't met in person. Sat. we met Kaili, her 3 brothers and 5 other families with children from China that live in our little town. We met at a local Chinese restaurant and the girls hit it off from the start! So did the parents. We met some wonderful people, and even found out that one family used the same agency that we did for Grace. They traveled 5 months before we did in 2003. We'll be getting the girls together to play from now on!
Sunday we drove down to the Chicago area and went to a CNY party that my dear friend Michelle and her husband Mark hosted. Grace is one of 11 children in her travel group(9 girls and 2 boys!) These families have become part of our family now. It's so great to catch up with everyone. When we adopted Grace 4.5 yrs. ago I first thought that adoption was about bringing a child into our hearts and home. Adoption is so much more than that, because when you adopt you become part of the most amazing, large, giving and caring "family." It doesn't matter if you meet in a travel group, through a friend, on a yahoo group, waiting parent group, or as fellow bloggers, we all share something in common as far as adoption...maybe we are waiting parents, or perhaps we are home now with our child or children. We not only share this common experience, this extended family supports each other in every possible way on the roller coaster of waiting for a child, offers help and advice after we are together as families, and gives back to the children not yet adopted too. I'm so proud to be part of this community, it's one like I've never remotely experienced before! :)