Sweet friends are visiting from Denver and they are the kind where you can pick up right where you left off. We met them while in Uganda adopting Jericho. They were adopting a little one as well. We were both young, adopting before biological kids, and found solace in each other on the most tumultuous journey. After 100 days in Uganda we were going a little stir crazy and asked the Lord to lend us some friends who understood what we were going through. It was just three days later we met Stephen and Jessica. As they say, the rest is history. They held their Ugandan son as we held ours and together we hoped and prayed we would leave Uganda WITH our sons. In international adoption there are multiple opportunities for things to go wrong and walk away barren.
Photo by Pix-Elated Photography
After a few days of getting to know each other, which happens extremely fast when you both speak English and adopting in a foreign country, we would make plans each day to grab coffee or dinner, passing the time until we could take the next steps to bring our babies home.
By God’s infinite grace we were both able to bring our sons home and six months later made plans to meet stateside in snowy Denver. We arrived New Year’s Day of 2014 and had a breezy time without fear of international courts changing their minds or a diagnosis of malaria. We picked up right where we left off over sauerkraut, juicy pork, and creamy mashed potatoes. It was bliss. Our sons were delighted to be together running through the house holding hands and giggling until they could giggle no more. Their little hearts were full, together again.
Photo by Pix-Elated Photography
They surprised us this past Christmas announcing they were coming to visit the second week of January. We were elated to see each other and this time with new babies in tow. Jessica and I had gotten pregnant within a week of each other. It was too good to be true to finally see them in the flesh after two years of emails, Facebook comments, long texts, and Voxer messages.
Photos by Pix-Elated Photography
We’ve spent the past few days strolling through Pike Place Market, chatting over coffee through nap time, watching our kids skip around the children’s museum, a walk in the rain, and gathering around my favorite place, the table, to share caribbean pork over rice, Cuban sandwiches, and Derek’s infamous chocolate chip cookies. Beloved friends make the food taste even better than I remember, I am convinced.
Photos by Pix-Elated Photography
Adoption introduced us, but love and encouragement has sustained us. Since we’ve met last time we’ve added two babies, all four of us have changed jobs, and both families have moved. Regardless of where we are and what we do good friends walk through it all, sometimes up close and sometimes at a distance.
I’ll take it all, up close and at a distance.
Thank you for being you, Stephen and Jessica, absence has made the heart grow fonder.