Our neighbor Katie, does fantastic wood carvings and paintings, and has her latest piece of work is up for auction on Ebay with proceeds going to help with our travel costs.

 

Check it out! More importantly, bid!

One of the most beautiful parts of our adoption journey has been seeing the faces of children transformed by the love of a family. There have been several families whose children’s faces I became familiar with while looking for the faces of my own in pictures and videos from the orphanage. Some of the families have gone to get their children and brought them home and posted new pictures.

It’s amazing to see the transformation, even while they are still in the Congo. The light in the childrens’ eyes. The smiles on their faces. Their arms thrown recklessly around their new parents’ necks, as if to say, “My heart is finally free!”

Steven Curtis Chapman wrote a song about this years ago, but I never realized the significance of the words until I went to his concert and watched this video, featuring one of his own adopted daughters.

Dear Rose,

I’m pretty sure you have no idea that today is a special day, but indeed, it is your fourth birthday. Your dad and I were hoping with all our hearts to have you home by now, but alas, we still wait. You’re still in an orphanage. We’re still here in Tennessee.

I want you to know that though we’ve never met, I have studied your picture, watched glimpses of you in videos, straining to know the littlest details about you. I know your sassy scowl that you pull off in most pictures, but I’ve had a glimpse of your perfect chubby-cheeked double-dimpled smile for just a half a second, and it melts my heart. That’s how I picture you: happy, eager, lively, beautiful. I know the hypopigmented spot on the left side of your chin. I know the texture of your hair, and already have a “hair whisperer” identified to teach me what in the world my pale hands will do with it. I know that you have spunk. I know that you love your brother. And I know that you now know what we look like too.

I know that your first four years have not been the happy years that many children have. But I promise that we’ll do everything we can to gain back the years of happy childhood that you’ve lost. The presents from today will have to be unwrapped later. We’ll have to save the hugs and kisses for now. Your friends will celebrate with you in a couple of months.

So for today, the only gift I can give you is prayers that your Heavenly Father will give you the gift of a wonderful day where you have plenty of food, all the water you want to drink, clothes to wear, and friends to laugh with.  And I hope He will grant you the gift of eager anticipation for the new life that waits for you here in our home.

Love,

Mom

Today only, you can get $2 a 13 oz. bag of select coffee from our Just Love Coffee Store. $5 from every bag purchased will help with our travel expenses to go get our kids this summer! (Make sure you see our names at the top of the screen while you are shopping.)

Choose from the following blends:

• Total Eclipse Espresso Blend
• Good Night Moon
• Lunar Eclipse Decaf Espresso

 

Sometimes it’s the small things that bring me great joy.

There is a family from our group who recently returned from the Congo with their two children, one of whom is very close in age to our oldest. They have discovered that their child knows the entire movie Shrek right down to the sound effects. They must be showing it often in the orphanage! And what boy doesn’t love a movie full of potty humor? I find it amazing that thousands of miles away, our son is watching a movie that sits on our shelf. We had looked at Shrek character shirts and toys in the store, but wondered if they might be strange to a boy who has never seen a giant green ogre. Well, our son definitely has!

Hearing from the many parents who have recently adopted from our orphanage brings me such hope as they describe how the English lessons being taught in the orphanage are helping kids to overcome language barriers within weeks. I love hearing how the children there are taught to love school and that they beg to go once they get to America. I treasure hearing about how snuggly and fun-loving the kids are, ready for new adventures. Most of all, I love seeing the pictures of their faces as they are transformed with the light of a forever family in their eyes.