Why we continue to have an open adoption

We went to my Mom's for Thanksgiving Thursday and had a wonderful family visit and yummy dinner.

Friday we drove over to Sonora to see Ariel's biological/birth Grandma and her parents and Grandma Debie's brother Andy and his wife and son Matthew came over for an early dinner as well.

Since we have had regular face to face meetings with Debie, Don and Sue - all we felt was pure excitement to see them again. Having this sacred feeling connection with the beautiful woman who blessed us with Ariel through her extended family made me feel such a myriad of emotions. Love, gratitude, excitement and under it all is always thoughts of Tracy and her selfless gift she made when she chose us to parent the baby she was carrying.

Watching Ariel play with her Great Grandma in one of the bedrooms from the door way and hearing the giggles made my heart swell. Seeing her give her Great Grandpa a big hug made me proud of what a loving daughter I had. Seeing Grandma Debie and Ariel looking into each other eyes with such love made me so very very glad we have all chosen to keep the family connection strong and let it evolve naturally over the past five years.

Seeing Ariel play with the little baby Matthew was so cute - Ariel loves babies and we are blessed she has several in her life she sees regularly.

I got a chance to ask questions of all of the family - always so curious about the whole nature/nurture connection and observing Ariel as she blossoms and seeing where some of her traits and gifts seem to come from. I took individual photos of all the family to add to Ariel's family tree in her Adoption Life Book.

We are planning to head that way again between Winter and Spring on the way to Yosemite and all are already looking forward to seeing one another again.