Bloggy summit '06

Josh and I were invited to a bloggy get together this afternoon by Doris and Dan at Boston Pizza in Whitby. We also met up with Catherine, Kathy and Joel, and Michelle and Mark. It was nice to finally put a face to the name(s) that I've read (and read about) for so long!

Unfortunately Dolores and Shawn couldn't make it, hopefully they will next time.

The nine of us sat around talking for a good hour before we ordered and we must have driven the poor waitress nuts. She kept coming to the table trying to take our orders, but we were so engrossed in conversation that we hadn't even opened our menus.

It was pretty amusing, all the women were talking about Blogger and Bloglines and the problems we've been having lately, while the men sat back and looked at us like the RCA dog...







Once we placed our orders it was time for presents!

Catherine gave us a ladybug mug which was really cute. :)

Doris and Dan gave us two books "Oink! I'm a pig" and "Moo! I'm a cow" that has a little squeaky toy to press, and a sweet little photo album!

Michelle and Mark gave us little red mittens, a wine bottle cover (which showed up in the picture as black, but is actually a really nice navy blue), a ladybug bookmark and a memo holder!

These were the first presents that we've received for "Little Maple"! It's not that I don't want to rush out to the store and buy everything on the racks, it's just that I'm a bit superstitious about getting anything for the baby...yet. As I mentioned to Kathy in an email this week we've been burned too many times in the past to count our proverbial chickens before they hatch. ;) We're going to wait until we get our referral before we do any shopping at all, to each their own I guess...

After everyone oohed and aahed over the presents, it was time to eat!

Kathy and Joel, and Michelle and Mark are using the same agency as us, so it was nice to sit down, compare notes and talk about the wait and the process that we're going through.

There's a *small* chance that our group might be combined with Kathy and Joel's when we travel; that would be great! We're going to try to get together with them for a sushi night.

Kathy, have your people call my people... ;)

We ended up sitting around and talking for a good three hours before everyone had to head out. The time went by far too quickly! Hopefully we can all arrange to meet up again, soon. This is the unexpected part of this whole adoption journey, the closeness of the community.

I've mentioned this before on here, I'm a *very* shy person (yes, I know it's hard to believe from what you read on the blog or how I 'come across' on it), and I'm certainly not one to just meet 'strangers' on the 'net. But for some reason the online adoption community has really pulled me out of my proverbial shell and for that I'm very thankful. When I meet people like Kathy, Michelle, Catherine, Doris and, of course, Nicole, they feel more like an extended part of my family than just 'people on the 'net'.

I know this sounds hokey, but that's how I really feel.