{Adoption} Making friends

Growing up I sometimes I saw my cousins from Atlanta for whichever holiday my dad's extended family made plans to get together, usually in Louisville, where two of the three adult siblings lived. But, really, I didn't know these two girl cousins very well.

I certainly had no idea that trusting God to grow our family through adoption would help me become friends with my cousin Mary, who had settled with her husband near her suburban Atlanta hometown. We went to her wedding when Cate, our first adoption story in the flesh, was just five months old. But, really, it wasn't until Facebook helped us stay connected and swap adoption stories and questions and emotions that we bonded.

Since then, my family has traveled through Atlanta on our way to or from Hilton Head or Charleston, S.C., a few times. The northern Atlanta suburb where Mary and her family live is about halfway to that coast for us, so it's a natural pit stop. Plus, we can stop there and catch up with Mary in person. Sometimes her parents {my aunt and uncle} or her sister {my other Atlanta cousin Ginny} join her, depending on whose schedule works with ours. The last couple times we've met at Chick-fil-A so my kids can burn off some energy before I strap them back into the mini van.

The location isn't important. What matters is this friendship for which I'm thankful. We've been cousins our whole life, but it's been as adults we've become friends. Mary and her husband, Kyle, had some heart breaks along their adoption journey. I'm thankful she trusted me with her story, even when I know it was hard to tell. And now they're the parents to a beautiful 9-month-old named Penny. That's Penny between my kids in the picture at the top. They're all three precious kids, and they're each testimonies to how God works good in all things when we trust him to do so.
________
This is the seventh in a series of posts this month in honor of November being National Adoption Awareness Month. You can read my past adoption-related posts here. Want more? Subscribe to get "Insights" in your inbox. Or follow me on Twitter or Instagram.