And We Meet Again

My half sister, Amy, attended a retreat in Asheville, NC, this past weekend, and her mom (my birth mother), Sue flew out with her and was doing some sightseeing while Amy was in her classes. Because they were going to be so close, relatively speaking, they asked if I might want to meet them halfway between here and Asheville. After figuring out whether it was feasible with our crazy schedules this month, I decided I should definitely jump at the opportunity to see them both, especially since we are usually on complete opposite sides of the country. We determined that Anderson, SC, was about halfway, and met in the parking lot of an Outback before deciding Sue must try her first meal at a Cracker Barrel.

Jarrett left early this morning on business again, which actually made it a good day for me to get away, but meant that once again he missed out on meeting my birth mother, as he was not with me when I initially met her last April out in Oregon. He was able to meet Amy, though, when we first met last June. I had Elsa with me, of course, and I was happy that Amy and Sue were able to witness her chatting away and running around in person. They had fun helping herd her out in front of the restaurant and watch her smell the flowers (and proceed to get amazingly dirty -- I wish I could have gotten some pictures of that adorable dirt-smudged face).






I was not at all nervous meeting them both this time around, and we just had a really nice time chatting and catching up on things. Because we have stayed in pretty good touch over e-mail, it almost just felt like we were picking up conversation as normal. Obviously it is much different actually being in the presence of someone rather than reading text on a computer screen, though, and it was really good to be able to do that and be reminded of what genuinely sweet, generous, and kind people they are.






The visit was not long, but we made it as leisurely as we possibly could in the time that we had. Amy and Sue needed to drive back up to Amy's friends' house for the night before flying out tomorrow evening to head back home, and I needed to attempt to get Elsa back home and into bed at a reasonable hour (and I succeeded in getting her to bed just about an hour past her usual bedtime, which is not too terrible).

Oh -- and because our relationships seem to be centered around strange travel coincidences, I thought I should mention that my mom and dad are actually out in Oregon visiting family right now. Very ironic. Safe travels all around!