It won't come as any surprise that when the girls returned from their weeklong field trip we were all excited as heck to see each other. Even their brother admitted to being glad that they were coming home. It just wasn't the same without them.

I went to school early on the day that they returned, so that they wouldn't have to get on the school bus lugging their roll-on suitcases with them. Of course, I, also, couldn't wait another minute to see their (hopefully) smiling little faces. I was not dissapointed. They defined the very expression "happy campers." It had only been a week, but they looked like they had each grown an inch. And, oh boy, I'm telling you the reception that I received when they came around that corner and saw me, well, the AmEx commercials don't do their tagline justice...priceless. There were hugs and kisses and I love yous and I missed yous all over the place.

It just so happened that each of the women who chapperoned in their separate cottages were in the front office when I arrived to pick them up. Both women went on and on about what wonderful, funny, smart, independent, girls they were. Of course, I beamed. The girls beamed. It was one of those hallmark moments.

Their reunion with their father was a little more subdued, okay a lot more. He literally works out of town and even though he left work early on that day, he still couldn't make it home until around 4:30. By then, we had all been home, gone out to eat, and heard every detail about the trip. I probably should have waited until he could join us. But, well, I didn't. I think it turned out okay, though. The girls were more than willing to go back through each and every detail all over again and he listened patiently and oohed and ahhed and expressed amazement in all the right spots.

A sleepaway. It was a simple experience that takes place only about a bazillion times a year for kids and their parents. The reunion. A bazillion sleepaways means a bazillion reunions. Still, there was something about my daughters' coming home that spoke to the much larger and more emotionally intense reunion of adoption. A coming home of another sort on a whole different level.

As the girls get older, there will be many more sleepaways and many more reunions. I know that eventually...probably the next time,even...a sleepaway will just be a sleepaway and it will not carry any additional layers of meaning.

Still, it is nice to have viewed this first experience through the lens of adoption. I want to do my very best to remember what this felt like, when the girls have the reunion experience with their first mom. That will be...priceless.