Our Yearly Reunion - Texas Roadhouse Style!

We were blessed to spend time with our family that lives in Ohio and Iowa last week.  We love visiting with them...seeing Mya play with her cousins, watching her play and giggle with her grandparents, encouraging her to make new friends at the local pool.  It makes the long drive to the Midwest SO worth it.  It's a gift for us to see her discovering new things, in a different part of the country.

And as we traveled home this past weekend, we also had the privilege of meeting up with Mya's birth-family.  Her birthmom.  Her half-brother.  Her biological grandma, too.  This is our third year visiting with them.  And each year so far, we've met them on our travels to-or-from Iowa, as we've passed through the State College area of Pennsylvania.

And each year, we invite them to choose where we'll meet.  This year: TEXAS ROADHOUSE.

It was awesome!

First off, we love eating there.  But rarely go.  Secondly, their Texas Roadhouse still did all kinds of fun line-dances throughout our meal (...now, maybe I don't go to our Texas Roadhouse often enough, but the recent times I've been there, I've witnessed no line-dancing.)  So, this provided some cool entertainment for the kids.  We witnessed at least two birthday celebrations (which, might I mention, involve the birthday person climbing onto a "saddled horse" as the community of diners wished them well with a friendly (and loud) "Yee-haw!")  We sang along to country songs.  We watched the kids interact.  We searched for conversation to have with each other.  We enjoyed a meal together.

Sometimes it was a little quiet in our booth.  A little awkward.  Sometimes Mya didn't want to sit or talk to the family that she barely knows.  Other times, conversations flowed freely.  Laughter filled our booth.  But it all felt so right.  The awkwardness and the joy blended together in such a way that made for another great visit with some of Mya's maternal biological family.  And eventually, Mya even made her way over to the other side of the booth where her biological family dined, and she joined them.  She ate their food.  She talked with them.  She gave hugs and shared a lollipop with her half-brother.

It's an experience that's hard to describe.  Like nothing I've ever experienced before in life.  And yet, so right.  So fulfilling.  So amazing.

And to add to this recent experience, we had a FIRST.  This was the FIRST time we met Mya's birthdad.  At Texas Roadhouse.  Invited but unexpected.  And so in my next post, I will share what it was like to meet him for the first time.