I did my first searching meetup last Sunday night. I will call it a success because I did not have a panic attack or throw up. I think we ended up with maybe 8 families represented with varying levels of interest in searching. Some were just curious about our experience, some were actively searching. The meetup lasted about 2.5 hours, but I barely had a chance to touch on the 12 page outline I brought as a handout.
If there is enough interest, I am going to do another introductory meetup this Saturday morning. If you are in Central Ohio and you want to come, comment and I will hook you up with the details.
One of the things that came up as I was talking is how much help I had along the way. There are two other adoptive moms (C on the East Coast and W from my state, Thank you if you are reading!) who were previously total strangers, but who ended up being absolutely invaluable in helping me connect with the resources I needed. It was also extremely helpful to have someone to bounce around ideas with. I wish everyone searching was so lucky. Without these women, we would not know L’s family now. They haven’t had the same level of searching success we had (yet!), but they are the most committed searchers I know.
I am hoping our local meetup will evolve into a semi-regular get-together to talk about the nuts and bolts of searching. There is no set of rules to follow because every area and everyone’s starting information is so different. But the more heads you put together, the more ideas you have to work from.
When we started collecting information four years ago, there was not a peep about searching in China anywhere.
It is a whole new world out there.
