Video chat

Who says I'm not computer literate (oh wait, I do). I (with a little help from my husband) managed to hook up a video camera to the laptop and completed our first ever video chat to China and to Avery's birth family. It was a little awkward and emotional all at the same time, and Avery wasn't very into it (not surprising, she is only 5).

However, it was worth it just so they could see Avery's face even if it was only for a moment or two. Brennyn, on the other hand, had no problems jumping into the camera view (again, not surprising). I still don't think Avery can process all this information yet, but I'm trying to keep the lines of communication open (as much as you can with a 5 year old). Once again, I just hope I'm doing all this correctly. I hope this will be what Avery wants when she is older, but I just have no way of knowing that.

EDIT: I've been thinking it over, taking it all in. It makes me realize how much a part of their lives Avery is. You don't forget a child, just because you aren't raising him/her. I have no doubt they (not just her birth mother) have thought about Avery every day and wondered what happened to her. The one comment they made to me today was that Avery looks so happy and healthy. I hope Avery is happy, I am pretty sure she is. I mean, this is all she knows, this life. She doesn't know what it would be like to be living in rural China right now (I don't even really know what that would be like). I don't even know what I'm trying to say here. I just think it's so important that as adoptive parents, we don't turn a blind eye to the birth parents. They are out there and they can even be found sometimes.
Perhaps I am the biggest hypocrite around, because I was initially hestitant about birth parent searches (before we adopted), and I haven't really tried to find my own birth family (my brother found his and I think it scared me off, not a happy ending there). I don't know how all this is going to play out in the future, anything can happen because we are, afterall just human. Mistakes will be made, but we're kind of entering uncharted waters here.