Part of their road trip

(June 3)
On November,7 2008, I missed meeting my "bloggy friend" Andrea by mere hours.  In fact, we were probably in the Beijing airport at the same time,  but we were on our way home with the newest member of our family and she had just arrived in country to go meet hers.

While we adopted children of different sexes at different ages, both of us were going through the "holy cow, why didn't anyone tell me how rough going from one to two is?" as the same time, and we exchanged emails and blog comments frequently.

Back in May Andrea emailed to let me know that her family was headed east via their Honda Odyssey on "the long road" to Disney World, stopping to visit family and friends along the way.  And she wondered just how far I lived from their proposed path.  I was super excited when I realized that I planned to be at my mom's over the days she and her family would be the closest and we figured out a place halfway in between us to rendezvous.

It took our kids about three minutes to warm up to one another and then they were off exploring the play area together. 

Which left me the delight to sit and talk face to face with someone that I've long suspected would be on my phone speed dial if she didn't live out in the Rockies.  (My instincts were correct and I did my best to lobby the East Coast in their consideration list for the next military move).  We were only interrupted by the occasional blur that was Lydia

(perhaps it is best that they live so far away, I think Lydia and Caleb are soul mates ~ but together they would give Andrea and I a run for the money!)

and my kiddos who were working up a sweat by playing so hard and had to constantly come quench their thirst with lemonade.

For the longest time Caleb was content to hang out with some other little boys who were there, but eventually he wanted in on the action with his sisters.

Kylie saw that as encroachment on her budding friendship with LeighAnna and clearly was not pleased.

Thankfully a few sips of lemonade helped chase away the looming thunderclouds and Andrea and I were able to return to chatting within minutes.  It was a blessing to finally meet this dear sister in Christ.

(Though I'm still trying to forgive her for appearing as if she's still not old enough to be an adoptive parent of a Chinese child...)

All too soon it was time to part ways, and of course we made a valiant effort at getting a group shot of our five kids before we did.  I could see the photo shoot was quickly going to head south when Caleb decided to turn around and give us a view of his backside.

Luckily LeighAnna sprang into action and gave him a swift swack.  I think she even surprised herself.  If the Lord guides Andrea and her hubby into a third adoption one day, LeighAnna proved she has what it takes to keep a little brother in line!  That little swat was just what my clown needed to turn around and get focused.

Well, for a second anyway.