Friends in "Real Life!"

There are people in my life that I would call "friends."  The funny thing is, I have never met some of these people "face-to-face" or "in real life" as I like to call it.  We have met through my blog, have a shared  passion for Swaziland, have a shared passion for adoption, we have similarities in our stories, or they are a "friend of a friend."  I think that is a pretty cool part about the whole blog, Facebook, internet world.  We can literally be friends and develop relationships with people that we have never met who live all over the world.  I have had a couple of opportunities to meet a few of the people from those realms and so far so good.  We have clicked just as I expected.  I guess we wouldn't be drawn to each other in the blog world if there wasn't a strong possibility that we would connect in the real world.   

This week, I had one of those opportunities again.  This family has a special place in my heart because we have adopted from the same country.  Even though we have never met, we just jumped right into friendship.  It was amazing, actually.  I am so thankful for this opportunity for myself and my kids.  

This is Kelly.  She lives in Germany right now. She is my friend. 

She knew all my kids names already!

 Here is Max with some of my kiddos

 These two hit it off right away.  Sam immediately connected with Max, took him under his wing and was a good friend and leader to him throughout our time.   We started on Monday night with some late night swimming at their hotel.  Taking pictures was impossible.  We were busy monitoring 6 crazy children in a pool.  

Here they are playing Pirates

 Sam is teaching him how to throw the disk

 Sam even took the time to teach him how to ride a scooter

 Meanwhile, Isaiah made some friends of his own and learned a new skill

 Sam brought this to me, so appropriate!

 I just loved watching them play together.  It meant a lot to Isaiah to have a fellow Swazi to hang out with.

 The time was way too short.  There was so much we didn't get to talk about.  I am thankful for the opportunity to connect.  Now, when we email or comment on each others' blogs, I really know her.  I have that "real life" relationship.  There is just something special about having children from the same country.  She and her husband actually lived in Colorado Springs at one time.  They were married here.  We hope they come back some day.

Nothing like dinner together at the dining room table!!

Here's to the Racelas!  Our friends in "Real Life"!