We were gone and you didn't even know it

This last week Joe and I took all of our 4 children and flew back East. The main purpose of our trip was to go to New Jersey and meet Solomon and Ammon's birth grandma, Aunt, and cousin. It was an incredible, memorable, and touching experience. We got a lot of family history from them and got them on camera talking about their family and talking about the boys' birth mother. We also got tons of old pictures and new pictures and had a wonderful time getting to know them. We loved seeing the things they have in common with the boys. They were so glad we came and we all shed many a tear over the whole stiuation and how we all are SO thankful for this adoption and of course for the boys.

It's funny but even though we were there and learning so much about their birth mom and their birth family, it actually made me feel even more like their mom. There's a lot more to that, but I'll leave it at that.

The trip was also made extra fun because we drove to Pennsylvania to visit Joe's brother Matt and Becky and their three awesome boys. They were fantastic hosts and all the children played like crazy in their dream yard. It was a hard trip with such small kids but totally worth it and I really feel like in the future the information we got will be precious for the boys.

We took a ton of pictures but for the sake of everyone's privacy I haven't posted any of the birth family here. Just some fun pics from Matt and Becky's cool yard.

Miss Ruby in the leaf pile

Ray on the rope swing

They took snow sleds and trucks and went "sledding" down the dirt hill...for hours and hours!

We went through New York on our way home and saw the Statue of Liberty. Ray kept reminding Ruby that she was from another country so the statue was for her. She was happy about that!

What can you see Ray?

Overall a wonderful trip. I am so thankful for my children and for the life we have here. We are so blessed and I feel like the luckiest mother in the world.