Finally Continued!

My continued took a bit longer than I hoped. I finally got JD's help tonight in moving Erica's picture folders to my computer and then grabbing some of hers and mine for the next few shots.

This is a really cute picture of Julia, Erica and Tori in my opinion.

I got Julia and Erica lockets that we put pictures of them in.

Because I am such an over-achiever (or ridiculous and crazy), we had Tori's late 13th birthday party while Erica was here; it was an efficient way for her to be able to meet the group of friends. 

They had fun playing outside after our planned inside games. Moriah (on the far right) played like she was 13 also; I haven't seen her have that much fun in a while.
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This cake was pretty consumed that night!

We are hoping to see Erica and her mom sooner than later, as I have a dream to make it across the country this year to Montana and she isn't too many hours across the border! We shall see...

Jenny

The Week with Erica

Adoption holds a lot of unknowns, but Julia has always known that she has a sister, named Erica, that lives in Canada. I have pictures of Erica that I took in Liberia when she was just three. Although Erica was matched to her family at the same time we were matched to Julia (and neither of us were told there was a sister), it took a full year longer for her to make it home to Canada due to the laws. 

It has been very important to both of them to know each other, and they have written letters back and forth for years. This visit gave them the foundation to have a true sister relationship; it was a really great week for both of them. 

This is Julia at the airport last week. The plane was slightly delayed and we both were nervously waiting.

Wednesday was a stay at home day and Thursday we hit DC; just Joanne and Erica with Julia, Tori and I. We did the monuments and three Smithsonians sandwiched into the fine DC rush hour traffic.

The mall between the Washington monument and the Lincoln Memorial

The Batmobile!

I like this picture. I was getting ready to take it when a nice young man offered to have me join it.

 

Here is a piece of the Berlin Wall - 

Some similarities to each other but not carbon copies or anything.

We did some fun at home activities this week also. This is everyone making tie-dye shirts. I am pretty unimpressed that I didn't get a group picture yesterday of everyone wearing them; they were really cute!

to be continued ...