Meeting in the Ladies Room

I have to tell you about our little meetings each night - it started with me and Christina staying up until all hours of the night the first couple nights, and now it is the three of us since Angela has gotten somewhat caught up with sleep - the frappes help you stay up too! Saturday night was hilarious after the party we all started talking until about 1:30 AM, then said let's get ready for bed so we are all in the bathroom brushing our teeth, washing our faces, etc. and we start talking again IN THE BATHROOM for an hour and a half (Christina on the sink, Angela on the side of the tub and me sitting on the toilet) the next thing you know it is 3:00 AM. We had to break it up since one of us actually had to use the bathroom, so we decided to go back outside around the table, by the time we came inside it was 5:00 AM. Now we have a joke, "meet me on the veranda". Last night we were out there until about 3:15 AM. We get up at around 10-11 AM and then have our day in the sun and do it all over again. These nightly talks have been very good for all of us though. It is incredible the things you can learn from other women about life, marriage, sex, children, etc. These are not light coversations and I am cherishing every moment of them though because it is not something that you can do with every person in your life. There is something about being on vacation that makes you sort of shed your daily life skin and it allows you to reveal the real you with no distractions from the outside world - it makes for wonderful talks and many lessons being learned. Life does not give you an instruction manual, but if it did, I think for women it would say...once in a while you need to go to a foreign country where you cannot be reached unless you want to be reached, and just put it all out on the table with people you know and love. It has been very eye opening and good for all of us. When morning rolls around, we don't continue the conversation from the night before, one just always starts around midnight every night, could be a continuation of one of the nights before or it could be something entirely new. There are never any apologies for being the devil's advocate or not agreeing with someone either, which I super love. I have people in my life where there is constant judgement, competition or they try to challenge me or question my motives...that is not good for me, where is the love and support? What we are having here now is all 100% REAL - no judgement, no bullshit. I am full of such gratitude and feel so blessed to be here.

I have to give a shout out to Angela because last year in May, I had just found out that Vietnam was closing to US adoption and our adoption may be in the toilet and we went on a roadtrip to move her to Colorado - she took me out of my life then when I needed to get away and the same thing has happened this May as well. I was feeling very sad at home, depressed, overwhelmed from SO many things and the timing of this trip was perfect. I hope that one day I will be able to reciprocate in some way because these two escapes from life have been very healing and beneficial to me in so many ways. I don't know how to explain it, but that is the best I can do. I hope you catch my drift - timing is everything and I don't know how Angela does it, but the safty net she has put under me two May's in a row has been a life saver.

PS - trying to download photos here is a little slow, I may try more later tonight.