To Duluth & Back!

Norelle made her first return trip to her birthplace (or homeland as I like to called it) this weekend when we visited with her birth families. As you can imagine, there is some stress as the build up to the visit the approaches but our fears were unfounded... we had a very nice weekend. We saw Paul's apartment, had breakfast at Perkins and walked around The Point Beach looking for agates. Paul is a big nature buff and he talks A LOT so he told us all about the lakes up North, trees, rocks, etc. He seems to be doing okay although he lives a very solitary life working from home so pray for him to find a friend/partner to keep him company and add some companionship to his days. After a brief nap at our hotel, we met Tasha & her 3-year-old daughter Alice and had dinner at mom Cindy's house before taking a dip in Pike Lake. Sunday morning Tash cooked us breakfast and we took the little the girls to park. Everyone was happy to see each other! Tasha is doing great and Alice is really warming up to us. It feels good to see them doing so well! The one thing that really struck me was how poor they both are. Obviously I knew they chose adoption partly because of this fact but after seeing their homes, it really hit me how much they struggle to make ends meet and how very different Nori's life could have been. We are extremely grateful they chose us to be Nori's mom & dad! Nori is also thrilled, I can tell.