Adoption Travel Group or Dorm Buddies

United by a bond of open hearts and emotional jitters.

I came to China with a singular focus. . . to become the father of a little girl. This is why I hadn’t given much thought to the relationships I could build with families that are traveling and adopting alongside us. To me they were extras with limited roles. My stage only has room for one star. So the spotlight remains on Maya and she fills it well. What I didn’t expect was how a supporting cast of fellow travelers would have such a huge impression on me.

Staying in hotels with a band of adopting travelers feels like returning to the university dorms. And I mean that in a good way. While no one is playing quarters, drinking too much or strumming college chords (G, C and D) on a guitar, there is camaraderie to the crew. Like freshmen crashing the campus we are wide eyed with fears and possibilities. We are united by a bond of open hearts and emotional jitters as we tip toe our way into a 2 week crash course in anthropology, sociology, ethnography, early child development, linguistics, squatty potology, bacteriology, and the art and science of culinary adventures.

Leaning on you and with you for encouragement and advice has strengthened my first days with Maya. So, to the families that go by Cabe, Beaver, Carl, Brannen, Christopher, Cantilina, Cornelius, Fuster, Gerke, Gerckens, Kieffer-Gerckens, Musser, Caracciolo, Nieves, DeBerry, Vaccaro-DeBerry, and West, you have filled my trip with laughter, one of you fixed my blog, several of you have shared your stories and I am richer because I had an opportunity to listen. You have given me faces to names that I pray for.

If any of you travel to Seattle you can crash with the Taylors. It’s not as ritzy as the White Swan hotel, but I promise to have diet coke with ice and if you venture around you won’t have to carry your own toilet paper or crinkle your nose at a squatty potty.

I’m proud of all of you for helping 13 orphans graduate into families. I can’t wait to hear more of your stories as your children mess up, grow up and continue to fill your hearts with love.