3 Years

Wow! It's been 3 years already. Sometimes it seems like forever and sometimes it seems like just yesterday. I remember all the excitement those first few days. So many phone calls from the new brothers and sisters. I remember going to meet J's sister 2 weeks before we met the rest of the family, because we just couldn't wait any longer. The thing I remember the most is the day we boarded the plane to Florida two weeks later to meet the family. It is all so fresh in my mind. The feelings were amazing. I was thinking the whole time how awesome this was. We had worked for this for so long and now it was happening. He was going home for the 1st time in 43 years and I get to be a part of it. When the plane touched down on the runway, that's when it hit us. We were in the same place as J's family. They were somewhere in that building and in only a few minutes, we would all come face to face for the 1st time. And then we're walking down that long corrider to the place where everybody waits for passengers, and we see them, they see us....and that's all I can say, because that's when it all caught up with me and a bad case of the nerves took over! J was fine, I was a basket case.........couldn't even put batteries in the camera I was shaking so bad. Thank God there were more cameras there! I know it kind of sounds like a Lifetime movie, but that's exactly what it felt like.

So, here we are 3 years later and I have learned so much. So many little things still amaze me. Like how much J is like some of his brothers and sisters. How can that be? They never knew each other until 3 years ago. J and one of his brothers both have the same favorite sandwich. I know this sounds like a little thing, but the thing that makes it stand out in my mind is that this is probably the weirdest sandwich on the face of the earth. It is made of stuff that really should never be put together between 2 slices of bread, and I have always laughed at J when he would have one. But when we were all together one time and his brother made one (without knowing that J likes them too) I almost fell out!

And there are many other things, too many to list. And I guess we will probably learn more and more as time goes on! Was it worth the 7 years I put in to the search? Yeah, it was! I'd do it again if I had to.....but I'm so glad I don't have to!