Tuesday, June 2, 2009

tadpoles, water, a kazoo and lots of fun!

The top pic is Grace and her best friend Julia, they share the same birthday of August 6th.
The most popular place for the kids to play was the pond with tadpoles. There was lots of tadpole catching. Another favorite was climbing on a giant rope web. Of course Will thought it was a spider web. Will also put on an impromptu kazoo concert for the group!

2 days ago on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon we met Grace's China travel group at the Morton Arboretum in the western suburbs of Chicago for a get together. I should call them our China family because that's what they really are...family. We all met for the first time almost 6 years ago. 11 families with the same LID of May 2002, who lived in the Chicago area and traveled to Shanghai, Nanchang in Jiangxi Province and Guangzhou in late August-early Sept. 2003. 9 girls and 2 little boys ranging in age from 12 to 15 mos. came into our families. We get together anywhere from 4-6 times a year. We usually have 2 big gatherings(which are a party at one of our homes), one in the summer and one right before Thanksgiving and smaller get togethers in between. We love and support one another through the good parts and sometimes disappointing parts of life and cherish the bond our children have. Most of the children were in foster care but Grace and 2 of the girls lived in the same nursery in their SWI. And someday we'll be celebrating graduations and weddings!

11 kind words:

Number 6 and no more counting! said...

Looks like a pretty fine day spent with some pretty fine people. It is so nice that you have this special bond. I am sure on lookers like myself can't imagine what that is.

Love the photos Gail.

Lea
xo

Jboo said...

Great photos! Again -- we see that Will is "all boy" and such a cute one!

How fun that you are able to get together like that! Sweet that Grace and her friend have the same b-day!

Janet

JinXiu said...

what amazing pictures. it looks like you all had a great time

Rachel said...

Sounds like a great day and a great group. You are so lucky to be so near your travel group - ours is spread out from TX to MI to Rhode Island and all sorts of places in between!

Great pictures!

Kim said...

Looks like a wonderful day of PURE FUN....
LOVE the photos..
Have a great evening..

Truly Blessed said...

I love it when travel groups make it a priority to get together (wish I was part of one!). Our groups will get together IF we travel to them, but most of them won't go out of the way to get too far from home. {{{Sigh}}}

Still, it looks like you have a wonderful time, the pictures are great!

Karen said...

What a great day you all shared!
Pretty special travel group, too- how fortunate that everyone makes/keeps this commitment to get together.

Doug and Terrye said...

I had a kazoo when I was little...drove my mom nuts!! How exciting to be able to have those strong ties to their early lives.

Terrye in FL

Kerry said...

Oh! So wish that we would have run into you! We are going to the Arboretum with our playgroup this Saturday- so we will miss you by one week. Bad timing. So fun that your group is all near enough to get together. Looks like the kids had a blast. We so love the newish children's gardens there and have already played with the tadpoles twice!
Hugs- fabulous photos.

Half Gaelic, Half Garlic! said...

Oh no.....don't rush the graduations and weddings:)

Looks like a wonderful day spent with some special friends!!

As always, you captured the day in pictures perfectly!!

Lisa

Kayce said...

Looks like a fantastic day was had by all! Love the kazoo!

 
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