A Play Date Scheduled Two Years in Advance

When I was growing up, a mother might see her neighbor in the grocery store. She would say, "Gee Betty, why don't you stop by tomorrow and we can let the Mary and Susan play together."
Now a mother sees her neighbor in the car ahead of her at the Starbucks Drive-Thru. She whips out her cell phone and and texts, "G Bty, Y don't we get Alexis and Jaiden 2gether 4 a play date."

My how times have changed.

I have no idea when or how this happened, but kids today have social calendars that are fuller than many adults. You need a daytimer just to schedule a time for your kid to play. Heaven help us!

I have to admit I am slightly guilty of this myself. I scheduled a play date for Molly over two years ago. But I had a good reason. Really.

For any of you that followed along with our journey, you know that this relatively simple process of Chinese adoption turned incredibly complex in a big hurry. A six month wait turned into a sixteen month wait. Add the paper chase and wait for travel, and we ended up waiting two years. Needless to say, this took an emotional toll on me. Luckily I had a couple of very good friends that were there to lend their support.

My friend Jami was also adopting from China. She was going through the same experience, and knew how to cheer me up. One of the things that we would do was talk about the future, when our daughters would be home. We agreed that as soon as they both were home, we would get them together to play. Hence, the first play date was scheduled, two years before the girls set foot on American soil.

Well, that day finally arrived. Molly and Annie met today. They had their very first play date. Granted, one-year-olds don't really play with each other, they kind of play next to each other. That's okay, they traveled half way around the world and they were finally together. And there were two proud moms with cameras in hand and grins on their faces documenting every moment. It was a long time to wait, but worth every minute!

Oh, you'll be happy to know that I did not text Jami to arrange this play date. I did it the old fashioned way...I used email.