We look the same!

Don't we look the same!

The house was cleaned into a shining beacon of welcome, the food prepared, the children dressed in their new clothes and the nerves stretched to almost breaking point when finally they pulled up the driveway. Daniel and Mandy had arrived and I promptly burst into tears and pushed my sister out the door first so I could compose myself LOL.

And sorry, Gail it looks like you missed out on the height genes on both sides of the family! Even I felt small beside Daniel and Mandy.

So once the intial nerves were calmed and the few tears were wiped away we got on with getting to know each other. Lots of questions were asked (sorry Daniel) as I tried to find the missing parts of myself that I actually hadn't noticed until this day. Daniel and Mandy helped me build a picture of my father and their life with him as we revisited this topic throughout the day while celebrating Daniel's 30th birthday and exchanging gifts, photos and letters from their children Alex and Sam. All too soon Gail had to leave to drive home. The rest of the day flew by on wings of laughter and connections being made. Comparisons were made of our funny little Virgo habits (we are so anal sometimes!) and promises made to meet up again soon before they had to finally leave late in the night to drive back to Wellington.

So now the accomodation is booked at Waikuku Beach for Christmas 2013 and we are going to have our first away family holiday in Christchurch. We will be catching up with my extended Caldwell family, visiting a few tourist spots but most of all spending real time with the Palmer crew and further building on this amazing connection!