Picnic With Other JOH Families

We had a really fun afternoon at a picnic for Journeys of the Heart families (our adoption agency). It was at Blackberry Farm in Aurora. We had never heard of it or been there before--a fun little family outing! They had a miniature colonial type town with a blacksmith and weaver's shop, train ride, tractor ride, carousel, pony rides, a few animals in a barn, etc. They said the picnic was the largest turnout they have ever had (over 200 people there!) so that was exciting to be a part of a large group of adoptive families. We saw several families who had also adopted from China and got to meet in person a family who Jill had been in touch with via email and phone. They have a daughter who they brought home from China just 2 years ago (she is the same age as Rachel) and they will be travelling again to China early September to bring back their second daughter who is just 3 months younger than ours and also has a cleft lip and palate! Rachel and Isaac hit it off well with their 6 year old daughter so we hung out with them for a majority of the time after eating the picnic lunch. They are a neat family--sure wish they lived a bit closer to us! We also met a few other JOH families who are in process of adopting from China and are experiencing the slowness of getting paperwork back from CCAA like we are. So it felt good to be in company of others who are anxiously awaiting to travel and meet their daughter/son. It was just an overall fun afternoon (but very hot and humid!). One last funny story is that our social worker, Ann, who was pregnant with a baby girl at the time she was working with us on our homestudy was there...but she had her 3 month old baby boy with her! Yep--ultrasounds even nowadays can sometimes be wrong. :)