MEETING MY COFFEE BUDDY

One of the best things (and probably the ONLY thing!) about the wait for Ava was the opportunity to get to know others that were also waiting. Some people you just "click" with right away and Lynn was most definitely one of those people. We first met on Rumor Queen when Lynn's mother sent me a message, in response to a post I made about where I grew up. It turns out that Lynn's mother went to High School not far from where I did. I can't remember how Lynn and I first started talking (as it was YEARS ago!), but we became friends quickly. Lynn was all about the numbers (as was I!) and trying to figure out when we might get our referrals (Lynn's LID was 14 days after mine) and we would send many emails back and forth and have long conversations on the phone....Our phone conversations started to be known as "having coffee together".......And my week doesn't seem complete, unless Lynn and I have one of our coffee dates! We've been together during all the ups and down and twists and turns of the China adoption rollercoaster.....That most definitely creates a stong bond. It's always nice to have someone to talk too that "gets it." FINALLY, we got to meet this Saturday in person. We only live 3 hours from each other and decided to meet in the middle....How cool that the middle happens to be an outlet mall! ;)

Here are two pictures of Lynn, Kate, Ava and I:




Lynn's daughter Kate was reaching over to give Ava a kiss. Ava wasn't too sure about that! ;)

Here is a picture of Lynn's son Chris with his baby sister. Chris is such a great big brother!

I just realized that I don't have a pictures of Lynn's husband. J and Ian also came, but I didn't take any pictures of them either. I think the husbands were good sports to head off to meet more "internet friends" of their spouses and spend the day outlet mall shopping on top of that! But, we knew our husbands would hit it off and we were right.

Lynn and her family received their referral last month for the most ADORABLE little girl and will be traveling to China very soon to get her (Bring on that TA!!). It was so adorable watching Ava and Kate walk down the sidewalk together this past weekend. The only thing that will be cuter than that will be when baby Hope joins them! Here is a picture of the BEAUTIFUL Miss Hope:

It was so wonderful to FINALLY meet Lynn and her family in person. I'm so blessed that during the long wait for Ava I made such a wonderful friend along the way. It's not very often that you find a life long friend, but that's exactly what happened when I found Lynn.