For the past couple of days, I've been writing about a lot of reasons to leave your kids at home when traveling for a new addition to the family.

Terribly stressful, that trip to bring a child home ... all the meeting and bonding and leaving the orphanage behind stuff. Then there's the strain of travel with jet lag and different foods and being surrounded with abject poverty and beggars, and all that comes with spending time in a developing country that's almost nothing like the comfortable world of Wal-Marts and free education where doctors are in every town and water is safe to drink.

Traveling across the globe to meet your child in a country where millions struggle for survival every day can be daunting, exhausting, anxiety-ridden, nerve-wracking ... and the most wonderful time a person can ever have!

Every adoption trip is the adventure of a lifetime for all involved, and including your children in each step toward their sibling can provide life-long memories and the basis for bonds that will tie them forever.

We never debated whether or not to take Sam along on our journey to Cj ... it was a simple fact that he'd be with us. It's not always the case that kids come from the same birth country, much less the same orphanage, as mine did, it's true, but the experience of first contact in THE place will make as much of an impression no matter.

The emotion that runs like the deluge over Niagara Falls is a wonder to be shared, even with those too young to fully comprehend all the ins and outs of so many feeling swept away by happiness and relief. The little ones will certainly pick up the mood of joyous celebration and incorporate it into the forming image of the new brother or sister. First contact is a happy, happy moment ... one the whole family can embrace and enjoy recalling for many years.

Sam was two and a half when we traveled for Cj a year ago this month, and often talks about the trip. When we go through the life books, read the stories and talk about our family, his direct memories of his first moments with his sister ... the first moments for all of us ... not only ground his relationship with her, but also give him a frame for his own beginnings.