Dinner with Steffie B.

This past Friday, Stefanie and I took the big step and met for dinner at Yen Ching which has been each of our favorite Chinese Restaurant for many years. We were both a little hesitant meeting someone we had met over the internet. But, it worked out to be a fantastic evening.

Over the past 4 months Stefanie has really been kind of a mentor for me since she has adopted before from China. She is able to answer my questions and calm my fears about our adoption. She has come to be such a great internet friend. I guess that my greatest fear was that when we were finally face to face, that we would be so completely different that we wouldn't really like each other and I would lose the person I really look forward to talking to every day. That fear was completely ridiculous because as I sat across from her, a comfort just came over me.

We talked for hours about our families and adoption. She is a very real person. It was like having dinner with someone I had known for a long time. The hours flew by.
It was also a lot of fun because we both know different members of the family who owns the restaurant and they were very surprised when we shared with them how we had met and why we were there.
Stefanie's blog is 'Never Too Many'. She has more pictures than I do, hopefully she's posting the one where the owner and waiter are posing with us.

Above are the two fortunes I got. The first one I relate to our adoption. The second I attribute to the Chinese New Year Dinner at the restaurant that both of our families are attending next year.

She also gave me this wonderful gift. The CD is one that she listened to while waiting for her first daughter from China named Sophia. Funny that I also am naming my daughter Sophia.
I love the bag, so I had to get it in the picture. The CD is wonderful. We have been listening to it all weekend.

I am looking forward to many more wonderful conversations and days spent keeping each other on our toes, watching our children play and following our diet!