New connections

I finally signed up for a yahoo group for families of Thai adoption. There are a lot of people who have completed their adoptions, a handful of us waiting it out, and what from I understand even some adoptees (although none of them have posted since I signed up). It's been really great. There are people from all over the world there and the discussion is about adoption, publicity, Thailand, the process - everything. The best part is that it's run by someone in the Chicagoland area!!! And someone contacted me directly who lives just a few burbs over. We are meeting for lunch on Thursday - she's bringing her daughter from Thailand who is 5. This is making everything so much more real and I'm so excited to learn about local resources and start connections with people that can be in our lives.

Last weekend during Chinese New Year, we had lunch at a Chinese restaurant. We saw a group of families with daughters from China all celebrating together. It was a wonderful picture, but at the same time made me very sad - thinking we could never have that community with out child. But now, we will at least have a few people we can contact and meet with that will help our child see they are not alone. It won't be the same as being in a large Chinese community with a large number of adoptees and cultural options, but at least he/she will not be the only one.

I also have plans to pick the brains of these women about what Chicago has to offer. I hope to learn a lot.