Kate & Josie

Wow! We had such a wonderful day today! The weather was lousy - foggy & rainy - but our spirits were brightened by our first visit with Ms. Kate Emerson Ru! 'Worth the wait' is all I have to say.

Kate's Mom, Kim, is the author of the 3 Peanuts blog. We were introduced through our social worker, the wonderful and fabulous Janice, in the summer of 2005. At that time, we had just submitted our dossier to China for Josie's adoption. Kim and her husband, Dave, were finishing up the paper chase after nearly 2 years of delays. We met in person at our agency's summer picnic in June of 2006 - just a few months after Josie had come home. I was instantly taken by Will & Harry - Kim & Dave's sons. They were SO handsome, SO polite and SO sweet to Josie. They were still waiting to meet their little sister then.

Kate Emerson came home in May of 2007. Today, I finally got to kiss her beautiful, round cheeks and listen to her speak in her tiny little voice. What a beauty! Kim was also just as kind and wonderful as I remembered. I cannot tell you just how wonderful (and chaotic!) it was to sit down - nearly 3 years after meeting - with our long dreamed of daughters.

Conversation was disjointed given we dined with two toddlers who are both used to their mother's undivided attention. So, the long and short recap of our lunch is this:

1. The girls got along famously
2. Kim and I are both married to great guys who are great Dads and really lighten the load for us.
3. Wow, this (raising a little one) was a lot harder than we both remembered!
4. Finding friends with toddlers that are in the same age group as we are is nearly impossible.
5. Both Kim and I are thankful for each other - even more so now that we got to renew our friendship.
6. Josie and Kate are just loved to bits by their siblings.
7. We won't wait another year and a half to get together again!

I only got the opportunity to take 4 photos of the girls during lunch and they didn't turn out that good. I'm hoping Kim got some better ones. I'm sharing the two best ones here, hoping we'll have more photos of Kate and Josie together again soon.