Sunday, October 2, 2011

Taiwan friends

Yesterday we had the pleasure of spending the day in Chattanooga with some other families that have adopted from Taiwan and live in the general area!  There were 13 or so Taiwan dumplings and plenty of siblings to add to the fun.

Now you all know we have our local FCC group that is mainly made up of Chinese adoptees.   I love the Asian culture that we bring the kids through the group and the ties that they have to other Chinese and Asian adoptees. And its amazing to hang out with fellow adoptive families that have been down the same road and crossed the same great ocean to create their families.

So to meet some others that have been not only across those waters but to Taipei, Taiwan was really cool!  Ya see, we adoptive folk like to compare our stories.  You know...how the flights were and how long they took, what hotels we stayed in, where we shopped and sites we visited, what the oddest/yummiest/most authentic meals we ate were.  So it was super cool to, for the first time, share and compare our Taiwan journey.  But truly, most importantly is that Sammy now has a connection with children from his birth country, just like Simone!

And boy were they all just darling!
Both Sammy and Simone quickly made friends and all of the kids just had the greatest time playing with each other and running all around.







  The park this was held at was amazing - Coolidge Park in Chattanooga.  It was just lovely and had a lot of great spaces for play.  So once lunch and indoor play was over we headed to the carousel - which all of the kids just loved.
And then outside for some more running and playing!  You'd have thought these kids had been playing together all their lives they all just had so much fun together!  And yep, the adults all had a really great time getting to know each other too!

This one ^ cracks me up...look at Sammy Wie's tongue. He's such a goof!





After the gathering we took the kids to the Chattanooga Choo Choo.  Since Sammy is soooo into trains right now we knew he'd love a quick visit there.
Which he did!  "Big big trains" he kept saying with glee!  
One of our new friends had the same idea and the three kids had such fun running around together, checking out the trains.

We took the slowest an interesting trolley ride around the grounds.

And the kids on board got to ring the trolley bell!  What fun....
And one last stop for a ride on a very little train.


One of  the Mom's from the group took this great photo below.  Too bad Simone wasn't in it, it came out so nice...could've been my new profile photo for the blog!  But I had to post it because I actually almost look good it's such a nice one of my guys!


So we had a fun filled day with some great new pals we hope to get to see more often!  I'm so glad to have such connections for Sammy and look forward to keeping in touch!
J

4 comments:

Dianne said...

It was so great to meet you and your beautiful children! We can't wait to see you all again!

michelle said...

I loved seeing a lot of familiar faces!! It's an amazing feeling to see all of these beautiful children playing and having fun together. I get goosebumps everytime I think about Dallas. It's wonderful that there are so many families in your area that you can get together like this.

Lisa said...

Ummm...almost look good? What are you sayin' missy...you ALWAYS look darn good! :)

I have been so loving seeing all the cute pictures that have been shared since your day together! And I have had the pleasure of meeting at least one of those cuties in person too! AND so hoping to meet more this summer! (Not to mention YOU and your gorgeous crew!!)

Thanks for sharing this joyous day and I couldn't agree more about the importance of having a connection to others from their birth country!!!!

Hugs!

Terry said...

What a fun filled day! That was a big group in your area! That is sooo great to have that many families all together celebrating their Taiwan cuties! Gives me the great idea to gather families in this area too, but I may need to broaden to several states. :)

And I love that pictures of you with your guys! You look great!!! What a beautiful smile!! It's my favorite picture of your special day!!