Jim, my husband of 34 yrs, and Aunt Darlene, my surrogate mom and myself met Jenny at 11:00am on the 28th of January 2001. A day that I will never forget! I had Jim holding a vase with 35 roses for every birthday that I had missed and my Aunt was holding the rose I had decorated for Jenny’s adoptive mom. I rang the doorbell and Jenny came to the door and immediately we started hugging. I couldn't let her go and she kept saying that I was just shaking, but I didn't care because I just kept hugging and she did too! Finally Jim gave me the vase with the roses and I gave them to Jenny and she was just overwhelmed that I remembered her every year, especially on her birthday.  Of course I did almost every day of her life unless I just wanted to put it in file 13 and forget that she even existed! Her Adoptive mom and dad immediately came to Jenny’s foyer and I finally let Jenny go and she started hugging Jim and Aunt Darlene and I could not let go of her mom and dad.  I kept telling them how much I HONORED them for adopting my little girl!  They are both 76 and they were excited that Jenny would have her biological mother in her life.  I was just overtaken by their love and acceptance! I then handed her mother a rose and you would have thought I gave her Jenny all over again. We are still in the foyer and Jenny tries to introduce me to her husband, but all I could do was put her precious 35 yr. old face in my hands because I had to look at every detail of her. Finally her husband Larry gave me the biggest hug and thanked me for giving him Jenny!  Again, I was amazed at the way he felt. We just kept hugging and I thanked him for taking care of my Jenny while Jim and Aunt Darlene were hugging Jenny and her parents. I'm sure there was some talking going on, but I sure didn't hear it.  Jenny introduces Chloe' 4 and Macey 2 to me and they both gave me a GREAT BIG HUG and called me Miss Bonnie and called Jim Mr. Jim.  We finally made our way into the living room and Jenny and I just couldn't sit down. We kept hugging and holding each other’s faces for the longest time. The first time I truly felt at peace in the last 35 years. Jenny had a beautiful lunch prepared and everyone ate and I tried to eat, but it was very hard to keep my hands off Jenny’s face! Finally her mom said "will you take your shoes and socks off so I can see your feet", sure was glad I got a pedicure before I left!  Of course, I took them off for her and she had Jenny take hers off and she said "you two have the same small little feet" and we even put our hands up together and we have the same small hands! By this time I was crying of course and then her mom said, "I don't want to make you cry anymore but when Jenny was a little baby, I WOULD ROCK HER TO SLEEP SINGING MY BONNIE LIES OVER THE OCEAN!" The tears just started flowing because her parents had no idea what my name was! Jenny even remembers her singing that song to her and after I was through with the shock of the idea that she sang that particular song to Jenny, I couldn't let her go! Talk about a flash bulb moment and yes there were 5 rolls of film taken during our trip and that many from Jenny’s camera.  We just spent the whole afternoon visiting and talking and a lot of hugging was going on and playing with Chloe' and Macey!  They are absolute DOLLS! Her parents left to watch the Super Bowl Game and then Larry’s parents came to meet me and to have dinner.  We enjoyed spending the evening with them and Larry grilled steaks out on the grill and Jenny already had everything to go with dinner made the day before.  We left their home late and went back to my Aunts home and Jenny wanted me to come back on Mon, but I told her that we both needed to soak it all in because of the emotions that we both had on Sunday.  Of course, I wanted to see her again on Mon. but I knew it was best to let her soak it all in for the day. We arrived back at my aunt’s home about midnight, which was only an hour drive from where Jenny lives!

Tuesday Jim and I drove back up to Jenny’s home and he had golf arrangements already made with Jenny’s dad for that day, so Jenny and I could spend some alone time together. I had taken all the pictures of our family and me and some history of my family and she had all the pictures she had that her mother had brought over on Sunday.  As soon as we threw a sandwich together for Jim, we scooted him out the door on his way and Jenny and the 2 girls and I left for Burger King because of the play land they had. We were there for 2 hours just talking like best friends and playing with the girls. From there she drove me to their first home where her and Larry started their family and then showed me where she use to work. By this time it was 3:00pm and we arrived back at her home and started going through the pictures and she was so amazed how much she looks identical to one of Jims and my daughters.  She also couldn't believe how Chloe' and Macey and herself looked so much like me! I was thrilled that she saw the resemblances because I didn't want to point anything out to her so she would see for herself. She did and I was happy about that! We spent the remainder of the day looking at pictures just like 2 little girls! She had made reservations for dinner and we met her mom and dad at the restaurant. We had a wonderful dinner and a lot of talking and by the end of the night there was more hugging and rejoicing. I think I was still in shock from the reunion even at this point.  We didn't want to let each other go again and she wanted me to come back on Wed, but again I told her that she and I needed the time to absorb our day and we both exchanged boxes of pictures so we had the entire day to go over them by ourselves.

I made appointments for Jenny and myself to have facials together on Thursday. Again, we were just like 2 best friends having a wonderful day together. Before we had our facials we ate lunch and talked for about 2 hours and then off we went to have our facials. This was just too funny and very relaxing. The women that were giving our facials kept trading cameras and getting pictures of everything.  We were lying down in 2 separate rooms during our facials. Everywhere we went those 3 days together, we had people taking pictures that we didn't even know, but they were happy to do it.  After Jenny and I had our facials, we were so relaxed that neither one of us could drive and we went to the lounge and sat there for about 2 hours talking and drinking sodas.  We then felt like we could drive so we arrived at my Aunt Darlene’s at 7:00pm and Jenny stayed until 9:00pm.  Jim and Aunt Darlene said their goodbyes in the house with a lot of hugging going on and then I followed Jenny out to her car and we just couldn't let go of each other and froze our buns off for another 30 minutes.  She is excited to meet her 2 half sisters, which will be in the summer of 2001. We are emailing each other now and talking on the phone and getting to know each other slowly. I know I will never replace her mother, but I can be a very good friend to her.  Her parents adopted her at 2 mos. old when they were 40 and when they were 42 they adopted a baby boy. Jenny’s parents are 76 and in good health and we hope to have a LONG relationship with them! This is the story about my REUNION with my first-born daughter and if you haven't read MY RELINQUISHMENT then I would recommend that you do before you read My Reunion!

Bonnie Geddes