Cupcakes and a picnic

We had the adoption picnic for Central Valley families this past weekend and it was a blast! The night before the picnic I decided to bake cupcakes because Calen is really into the "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake..." book and I thought he'd have fun helping me sprinkle the cupcakes. He had a ton of fun and just kept repeating "kitty cat cupcake"- too cute- I LOVE THIS AGE!

Look at my little chef in the making! He ALWAYS wants to help me in the kitchen and he was so happy when I finally allowed him to!


Sprinkling cupcakes is serious business, didn't you know?


Anyhow, on sunday morning we got up and headed to Fresno to have breakfast with Allen's cousin, Julie and her family. It was fun to get to see their house and catch up on some good conversation. Our kids ran around crazy together and it was good to watch calen play with some cousins ;-) After about an hour and a 1/2 we headed a few miles down the road to Dry Creek Park in Clovis, Ca to find a place for our picnic. This park was AWESOME! Lots of different play areas and some stuff for bigger kids to do also. We had 8 families turn out for the picnic! 3 families that adopted from China and brought their children home this summer, our new Central Valley social worker and her family (she adopted 2 of her 4 daughters from China a few years back) and then 4 families (including us) that adopted children from Korea. 4 of the families (including us) were at last year's picnic and the other 4 families were new. One of the families from last year finally had their son home after a 3 year wait and it was awesome to see this couple's changes from last year now that they had their son with them- they really seemed complete together and that was really cool! We just ate and talked and shared stories and then the new social worker asked if we were willing to have more functions throughout the year- which of course, we all were up for that!

I have to say, I love the families that we get to meet up with. It was so neat to get to see The C family and their baby Rose again (Calen and I were there to see Rose come off the plane to her family in May)- she's grown so much and has such a cute personality. We also got to see The W Family and their baby Elliana- whom I've been dying to meet since she came home in July. She is the CUTEST little peanut! We got to witness baby Elliana put her first cracker in her mouth all by herself (big thing for this baby who has had a rough transition to her new family!!!) at the picnic... I got to see Carrie's daughter Sydney again too- and boy is this little girl going to be a beauty! She was so good with all the babies at the picnic too. I guess I just really feel in my element with other adoptive families. We understand each other. We know where each other has been and will be. We get to celebrate the little things with one another that other families don't see as big deals, but to us are HUGE deals. We just... "get it" for lack of a better way of putting it. Being a parent to a child given to you by God is something that I really don't have words for. It's amazing, challenging and sometimes lonely as others just think our children go through all the same things that biological children go through- which they do but they also go through things that the "public" doesn't see and only we as parents get to see. Trust me, I wouldn't trade my life for anything, but it's great to know others who share common traits of my life as well! It's just amazing to get to share my life with these other families who "get it" too! I am blessed to have been able to meet these other families that I probably wouldn't otherwise have ever met. I am blessed to call Amanda, Carrie and Candice my friends and to get to share with them parts of my life and the life of my child. The adoption community is now a big part of my life and I hope that it always is as adoption is a passion of my heart that God gave to me...

Anyhow... the picnic was a success and here are some pictures! ;-)

We are on our way!


Look at this girl devour this cupcake! One of the cutest things I have ever watched!


Daddy and his boy :-)


isn't she just adorable?


So beautiful- this mom is gonna have to watch out for the boys in a few years!


We tried so hard to get a good group picture...


but it just didn't happen! Oh well, that's life and fun memories, right?



Love,
Mandy