We never thought this would happen.....

We have some very exciting non-adoption news. I have hinted about this in past posts, but it is now official. We will be visiting Nepal at the end of September!!!
Two years ago when we were in the process of adopting from Nepal we went to the Curry House in Chicago. Our waitress was from Nepal. We exchanged e-mail addresses and have visited each other often during the last two years. After several monthes of knowing us, she started calling us her American Mom and Dad. Here is a blog post about her and her husband when we visited Chicago back in May. They are going back to Nepal to be married and we have been invited to stay with her family and attend the wedding. Since we are not matched with our daughter from China yet and we will not be traveling to bring her home this year we felt that we just couldn't say no. A year ago I didn't think that I could visist Nepal knowing we would not be bringing our daughter home with us. We fell in love with Nepal and want to go and meet the people that we became connected to in this country. We hope to be able to visit an orphange that we got connected to while we waited. They were not apart of the children that were being adopted internationally. We also have connections with an organization that rescues girls at the border of Nepal and India from being sold into sex slavery. Most importantly we get to meet the parents and family of a wonderful girl that calls us Mom and Dad. We will be able to learn so much about her culture and be a part of her wedding. She is honoring us with such a priceless gift. We are so blessed to have met her and her husband. It was so painful when our adoption failed last year, but had we not been down this path, we would have never met her. She is our daughter and someday we may have Nepali grandchildren.
I know there will be times it will be difficult on this trip. It will be heart breaking to see the injustice of the situations in Nepal, but again as I have said before, I don't want to have any regrets. I don't want to avoid it because it will cause me pain. This journey has taken on a life of its own. I feel like we have to see it through to the end and see where it leads. It amazes me the people I have met and the things I have learned. I would have not chosen this path for myself, but I would not trade it either.