Sixth stop

Wednesday morning we took our time getting up before hitting the little town of Ephrata, PA, where I was born and spent the first 15 1/2 years of my life.  The boys truly were not very thrilled to go, but I found it important for them to know more about me and my history. Especially since I spent as much time in Ephrata as Juan spent in Bogota, Colombia. 

First we drove by the last house we lived in, a house we had built when I was 5 years old, so it's pretty much the only house I have memories of. It used to be a light blue, but now it's white. They changed the front porch area and added a room on the back where we had a backyard patio. The little trees my dad planted have all grown super tall, but I couldn't believe that the swingset my dad had built out of telephone poles over 30 years ago is still standing today.  I'm sure it seems a lot smaller now, though, surrounded by such big trees. 

Ephrata is situated right in the heart of Lancaster Country, a rich farming/Amish community. We lived in a neighborhood, but we'd go for long walks or ride our bikes often down this specific country road (Zooksmille Road) to one of our favorite landmarks. 

This beautiful covered bridge sat about a mile or so from our house. 

Now you can even read about the history of the bridge when you visit.

We also drove into town to drive by my old church, Grace Fellowship Church, where most of my childhood memories are preserved. My dad pastored this church for 16 years before we moved to Indiana. 

We visited a little Colombian restaurant that a fellow adoptive parent of a child from Colombia told me about. We ordered some empanadas to take back to Jonathan and his family so they could get a little taste of Colombia. We obviously had a little fun with some picture props while there, too.

We also drove by the first house I lived in (the old church parsonage), the second house I lived in (the street where 5-year-old me got hit by a car), and a few other places I frequented as a child/young teenager). Ephrata brought back a lot of memories, especially since the landscape hasn't changed much at all in the last 25 years due to its conservative, small-town culture. 

After visiting Ephrata, we headed out closer to my brother's place, but not without stopping for lunch to make sure my niece, Shawnee, was doing a good job at work. :) She made us some really good pizzas, and she sat and ate Colombian empanadas with us while we ate our pizza. 

We also stopped at my old high school on Horseshoe Lane when we found out how close it was to our hotel. Honestly, I couldn't find anything that had changed. Driving up to it brought memories back of certain classes, where the bus dropped me off, and the cross-country course I used to run with my brother, Matt, with the Coed Cross Country team my sophomore year. 

I loved taking this trip down memory lane, and I found Lancaster County to still be just as beautiful as I remembered it, if not more (because some things in life just can't be appreciated fully until we're older).

Speaking of things you don't fully appreciate till you're older, I think spending a day with your sibling definitely falls into that category. 

Next stop: a day with my big brother and his family. 

Fifth stop

The morning after Christmas, we boarded a plane in Indianapolis, IN and flew first to Charlotte, North Carolina, and then on to Baltimore, Maryland. From there we rented a car and drove to Lancaster, Pennsylvania ( four states in one day!) to a cute little motel called the Country Inn of Lancaster. If you're visiting Lancaster, I highly recommend the place. Free coffee, juice, or infused water all day long, free popcorn during the afternoon and early evening hours, free breakfast, a pool and hot tub, a quaint lobby with a small gift shop area, and just a very homey, country feel. 

After we checked in to the motel and unpacked the car, we then drove another half hour to visit my oldest brother, Jonathan, whome I hadn't seen in eight solid years. In fact, the last time I saw my brother was right after our first adoption attempt had failed. We took off on a family trip that Christmas as a way to escape the pain and try to build new memories as a family of three. Only God knew that the next time we'd come, we'd actually bring Juan with us.  This was Juan's first chance to meet his aunt, uncle, and cousins, and it was all of our chance to meet my brother's two youngest kids. 

I cherished the chance to reconnect with my brother and his wife, and I just loved spending time with my sweet niece, Shawnee. The more I talked to her, the more we realized just how similar our personalities are and how alike we are. I love that. :)

Juan didn't take long at all to warm up to this set of cousins. He went upstairs with them, and this is what I found about an hour later. 

They bonded quickly over video games that first night, and I was so surprised at how quickly they continued to bond over the next two days. David enjoyed sitting around the table playing cards, eating venison, drinking coffee, and just talking with his aunt and uncle. While David hung out with the adults (and Shawnee), Juan had no problem playing and entertaining all the younger cousins. His aunt, Jill, commented that he sure is going to make a great dad someday. I am so glad he's finally gotten the chance to get to know this set of cousins. I looked forward to the opportunity to show him around where I grew up on our next stop, Ephrata, Pennsylvania. Almost 25 years to the day since I'd moved away. 

Fourth stop

Our 4th stop led us right back to Columbus, IN just in time for Christmas dinner in the early evening on Christmas. We'd gotten up a little earlier that morning, ate breakfast, packed the car, visited more family, and then headed out on another 3 hour drive to Matt and Chrissy's. We had to grab lunch at a gas station along the way (nothing else is open on Christmas!), so we appreciated the nice warm meal they had ready when we got there.

The boys enjoyed one more night in the Man Cave, and Chrissy and I stayed up pretty late just talking over our "midnight snack" of lettuce wraps. :) Did I say how much it stinks that we have to live so far apart? I just love this family to pieces and so appreciate the special bond and connection that I have with my sister-in-law. 

We all said goodbye that night because only Matt got up before dawn with us to take us to the airport in Indianapolis for an early flight out. 

Next stop: the East coast. 

Third stop

Our third stop was a real treat as we got to have all of Mike's family together to celebrate Christmas at his brother, Mark's house. The place was filled with cousins all over the place ranging from four months old to twenty years old. Somehow I missed getting a picture of Matt and Mark's wives, but they were there, too. 

We absolutely adored their new labradoodle puppy. He was like a mix between a puppy and a teddy bear--and they don't shed!

The last time we saw little Reese was on her 3rd birthday. At first she didn't remember us, but she latched onto David pretty quickly and had quite a hard time saying goodbye.

After all the Christmas festivities, we left with full bellies and headed to the mall where Mike and I used to frequent as teenagers and then as newly-weds and young parents. It was fun showing David and Juan where we used to shop, what stores we liked to go in when we were their age, and also to show David places we took him as a young infant.

On the hour drive back to his parents' house that night, we reminisced over all the times Mike used to make that drive to come see me in Fort Wayne during my freshman year of college at Taylor University Fort Wayne. 

One more day in Warsaw, and then we headed straight back to Columbus, IN, for our next stop.

Second stop

After two nights in Columbus, IN, we hit the road and drove up to Warsaw, IN to Mike's parents' house. They still live in the same location where Mike holds many childhood memories, though the actual house has changed and grown quite a bit over the years. 

David and Juan like to skip rocks whenever we find a lake or any body of water, so they had fun skipping rocks on their grandpa's pond, especially since it was frozen! They eventually got bored with the rock skipping and decided to find the biggest and heaviest rocks around to see which  ones would break through the ice.

We visited with a lot of different family members during our few days in Warsaw, so we didn't have the opportunity to visit with friends as we would have liked (and then it snowed all day on our last day, so that took away our chances to squeeze in any last-minute visits, anyway). But thankfully my mother-in-law and I share a mutual friend, so we both went out to lunch with her on our second day in town while the boys and Mike went out to lunch with Mike's dad. We got to see my friend's daughter, too, because we went to her restaurant and she waited on us. :) She's an excellent waitress and super sweet. :)

Juan got his chance to start bonding with a few of his cousins. These two absolutely adored him, and he seemed to have a blast just hanging out with them. 

 My mother-in-law and I had a HUGE wrapping party. I loved seeing her get so excited about all the gifts she'd gotten her grandchildren.  She picked things out to fit each of their personalities and interests, and she couldn't wait to watch their eyes light up when they opened their gifts. I will have to say, it was one of the most bonding trips I've ever had with her, especially since we're both rather quiet people and have never been known to talk a lot. 

Our time in Warsaw gave us a chance to reconnect with my in-laws, visit with a friend, randomly run into two other friends in town, visit with Mike's brothers and their kids, and visit with Mike's grandma and aunt on his mom's side and then his aunt and uncle on his dad's side. We got to go to a Christmas Eve service at Mike's parents' church after it had snowed ALL DAY LONG and continued to snow while we were there. 

Mike and I both agreed, it was a restful, relaxing time at his parents' house and likely one of our best trips back to Warsaw. Definitely one to cherish. 

Next stop: Fort Wayne, IN

Our 2017 Family Vacation--First stop

I spent my 40th birthday in tears. 

It was the day we realized just what a horrible mistake I'd made by getting Julian a nonrefundable ticket to reunite with both his brother and his sister (and me) in Spain. I felt absolutely humiliated, and I was devastated that Julian could not go with us because of my own stupid mistake. I hoped to give him the gift of a lifetime, and instead I felt like I'd waved a million dollars in front of his face and then threw it in the fire. Not only did the opportunity vanish, but so did all the money. (If you don't know the story, it's long and complicated, and just trust me, it was ugly and heartbreaking on so many levels.)

Thankfully, after going back and forth for two months straight with the airline over the ticket's "non-transferability", they finally settled with me by giving me a voucher in Julian's name for the amount of the ticket, one that I could use to purchase tickets for anyone. We just had to use it within a year. 

A ticket from Argentina to Spain was anything but cheap (thus why I felt so horrible when I thought I'd lost all that money). In fact, there was enough money on that voucher to either go somewhere pretty far or even for all four of us to fly somewhere together. 

We looked into Hawaii and other exotic places, but the voucher didn't quite cover it, so then we asked ourselves where we might all like to go together. Mike wanted to go to Indiana to spend time with his family, and I wanted to go to Pennsylvania to take Juan to meet my brother and his family and to show him where I grew up. The voucher didn't have enough to cover two different trips, but when we looked into combining them into one trip with multiple stops, we had more than enough to cover the cost. 

So, after coordinating our schedules and both of our families' schedules, we booked our tickets and started planning out this rather unexpected trip.  We purchased the tickets at the end of October, and about 7 weeks later, we boarded our first plane with one backpack and one carry-on each to spend the next two weeks together. 

Here are a few pics to show you our first stop, or leg, of the journey. 

Boarding our first of five airplanes, on our way to Columbus, IN to spend our first two nights with Mike's brother, Matt, and his wife and kids.

The boys' sleeping arrangement, The Man Cave, one of their favorite places in all of Indiana (really just a transformed loft above Matt's garage).

Playing darts, doing "guy stuff"

Meeting our littlest nephew for the first time

Hanging out with Chrissy, one of my favorite people to hang out with. Marrying brothers who are alike in so many ways gives us a bond like no other. I love her dearly and wish Indiana and Texas weren't so stinkin' far apart. 

David's little cousins just adored him. They're country, boot-loving little boys, just like David and Mike, so they couldn't get enough of David. (Juan is more the city boy, so they weren't quite sure what to make of him. But don't worry, more cousins will surface on our trip.)

We thoroughly enjoyed and embraced every minute of our first two days in Columbus, reconnecting with people who really get us. We also really appreciated them loaning us a car to visit with the rest of the Alspaugh family about three hours away. I'll fill you in on those visits on the next few posts. Stay tuned. :)