Sunday Snapshot {intertwined}

This group of five year old girls brought our families together this weekend.

But what is really cool is that the weekend wasn't only about them.  It was about everyone who was there ~ all 40 of us.

We managed to squeeze in as much fun and conversation as our short 40ish hours together would allow. There was firefly catching, a campfire with s'mores, swimming, horseback riding, canoeing, a Sunday morning worship service, plenty of eating, and every time you looked around you would find another configuration of kids or grown ups ~ or a mix of them ~ catching up on life since the last time we were together as a big group in 2008.

It all sort of makes me laugh a little.  Mainly because I distinctly remember telling Ian that our lives were full before we traveled to meet Kylie and that we didn't need, or really even have time in our lives, for a new group of friends.

But we did have room.  And so here we are, 4 1/2 years later, heading off to the mountains of Virginia for a weekend, less than 10 days before we leave to bring Daniel home ~ thankful that timing worked out that we could attend.

Glad to see an ever growing group of girls in white dresses.

Loving seeing the brothers.

And all the children who have come home from distant lands to be part of our eight families together.

Why do we travel long distances to be together short periods of time?  Oh, there's the thought that we want to keep our girls in touch with who they've known longer than they've known us.

And there's the fact that it takes our girls aproximately 8.3 seconds to fall back into being best friends after three years apart.  But I suspect that if that were all there was to it, we would have slowly drifted apart and lost touch with one another by now.

Rather, I believe it has more to do with the fact that our lives are forever intertwined with two loves.  The love we have for our Guangdong girls,

and the love we share of our Heavenly Father who loved us first.

Hallie, Sarah and Olivia ~ and families ~ we sure missed you.  Oh how we pray to see you all next time!

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Don't know what Sunday Snapshot is?  Stefanie, the creator, describes it as:

"Sunday Snapshot is just a way to capture that special someone or something right now, because we all know time is fleeting... right now will be a distant memory before we know it!"

To join in, stop by her blog to get details.