The Mystery Travelers

There are a total of 16 agencies that travel with our "travel group". We are small groups, from agencies with small China programs. There are not families from each agency in each group.
Our "travel group" name is TWLP or Traveling With Li Ping. Li Ping is our international coordinator in China.

For example, when we got our LID, we were assigned a travel group number, ours is 124A. We were originally told that there were a total of 5 families in our travel group, no one else from our agency, LMI, though. I do not know if that number is still the same or has changed due to attrition, families adopting SN or switching countries due to the long wait.

Tom and I have had contact with one of the families in our travel group, Susan & David, who live in WI. There is a TWLP Yahoo group and we "hooked up" with them there. But there are no other families registered on the group from our travel group. It just makes me curious where these people are. I mean I know I tend to be an internet junkie...but I can't imagine someone being in this process now who doesn't follow it somewhere on the net. The program has just become too crazy with the wait. And information seems to be few and far between, unless you look for it! Wow...maybe they are with some outstanding agency who keeps them informed and up to date, who tries to console them during their unexpected long wait...so they don't need to go anywhere else. Crap, now I'm jealous of these people!

Seriously though, even if they are private people, if they were "lurking", they would know who we were and they could privately email us. I find it to be a fine line, deciding what you are and are not going to post. I tend to be rather private I think most of the time. But I almost find this blog to be somewhat cathartic during the long wait. I mean, what else would I be doing at 3 am? Look at some of the times on my posts!

Back to the "mystery travelers"...presumably there are 3 more families out there somewhere in the US that we will be meeting up with in China...probably sometime in 2008. These families, these complete strangers, are going to be witness to the most incredible event of my life...the first time I see my daughter. Doesn't that seem kind of weird? Going through such an emotional roller coaster with a group of strangers, day in and day out for 2 weeks?! Yup...this adoption journey is one strange trip.

Obviously to be perfectly honest, I don't care who is there...as long as Tom is with me and Willow is there! But it would be kind of nice to know, I guess just out of curiosity.

I have heard many stories of people in travel groups maintaining long time friendships, even though they are scattered around the country. Many have annual reunions with their children. I think this is awesome! The only physical link that their children still have to their early lives in China are each other. The rest of the children in the travel group come from the same orphanage, some of these children would have spent the early months of their lives in the same cribs! So, I applaud those families for keeping in contact, if for no other reason, for their children.

But who are "my people"???? Who are the strangers that I may have a lifetime relationship with after we travel to China? Who out there will possibly be the one whose daughter may be sharing a crib with our Willow right now?? Are you out there?? Does anyone know someone who is in TWLP and is in group 124A? I would love to chat with them and I know our other travel mate Susan would as well!