A sister's point of view

Ah yes! The week leading up to the moment when my sister and brother in law met their children for the FIRST TIME EVER! I told everyone! I have lots of friends who have adopted children internationally. Vietnam, China, Kazakhstan... the list goes on. The ladies in my Bunco group - most of them have adopted children. One of the bunco ladies, even does home studies for a local agency that handles adoptions from China. Well, I told all of them. I told my boss... my high school friends.... the lady behind the register at the grocery store where I get groceries... you get the idea.

I would be at a campground with several other families and our 3 sons, while my beautiful younger sister was meeting her children for the first time. Mom had told me that Yolanda wasn't bringing her computer, and I was sure that we wouldn't be able to call, to I thought I'd excruciatingly had to wait the ENTIRE weekend, plus Monday, before we'd learn how everything went. I took my cell phone just in case. Ironically this is reminiscent of last year at this time, when my family and I, and the same group of friends were at the same campground, and I was waiting with my cell phone to see if the in-vitro procedure had taken. Sadly, that weekend was not so happy. This particular weekend, I knew, would be much better! A great memory will replace the sad one.

Camping at a campground at elevation of 10,000 + ft above sea level. I kept my cell phone plugged into the outlet on the camper thinking maybe the attached wiring would give sort of extra antenna...(apparently not, but I wanted to try anything!) Just so that if Mom heard anything at all, she could get a hold of me. Well, Friday night my phone gave that goofy sound that means I have a message on the voice mail. Geez, I tried to call that voicemail probably 10 times. Couldn't get in. Tried to call technical support. Nothing. It never occurred to me to call Mom (duh!) until way too late at night. So, had to wait 'till morning!

Saturday morning, I walked around our camper a few times to see where I could actually get a signal. Barely! Mom answered - and the tone of her voice told everything!!! "Oh yes! They are absolutely beautiful! Yolanda said it couldn't have gone any better!" (Tears streaming down my face!!! - again now, as I write, at the memory of it..) "We could hear them giggling in the background! And we said "olah" and "adios" to them!"

And the cup runneth over with joy. Big bountiful cup runnething over like there was no tomorrow. (Excuse the English.) I could not contain myself!

Not that I didn't KNOW it would be fabulous. My sister has a way with kids. My sons think that she is just an angel that has dropped out of the sky above. Perfect in every way. She sings them songs, tells them stories, has patience beyond comprehension, plays with them, loves them with abandon. Better than Mary Poppins! Yes, she will be a great mom.