Memories, Oh Sweet Memories

Have I ever mentioned how much I love surprises? And friendships? And sweet memories? All three of those came together yesterday in an email that popped up in my inbox. A very sweet friend who I met online, yes I know - it seems I meet a lot of friends online - through the adoption process of waiting for Rebecca sent me this sweet picture.

It absolutely made my day and sent my mind flying back a year ago to our trip to China. Brian and I climbed quite a bit of the area of the Great Wall we visited on our first trip to China but on the second trip it was so cold and poor little Emma, her little short legs just didn't work well on those steps because they are so uneven so we stayed pretty close to where we were all to meet back up. Ryan was 7 on our first trip and he did climb higher than us but he went higher with another couple that was in our group. This time though, he was just about to turn 11 and well, an 11 year old just doesn't think he needs to be with his parents as much as a 7 year old does. He took off with some of the other kids from our group. It seemed like they were gone absolutely forever but I'm sure that's because I just wasn't sure about him being so far away from us - especially since we were so far from home! But he was in good hands, Kathie's son (the one on the left) was with them. The other young man in the picture (in the middle) lives very close to us, probably less than 10 miles yet we met in Beijing, China.

Thank you Kathie for pictures you sent me - they made my day! All of the pictures I have of them climbing are taken from far away!