Welcome home, Abe!

Our dear friends, Jennifer and Jody, returned home this week with their beautiful son, Abe!  Chris and I were able to meet Abe when we were in Ethiopia and deliver a care package from his mom and dad.  We visited with him, took lots of pictures, and told him how much his mom and dad loved him and couldn’t wait to get him.  I was surprised at how emotional I was during our meeting.  When I showed him a picture of Jen and Jody, I started crying.  I tried to explain to the caregiver that they were my friends and that’s why I was crying.  She nodded and smiled, as if to say she knew and understood.  Jen and I have become great friends, supporting each other through the ups and downs of the last few months, and seeing her son before her really affected me.  I felt honored and privileged to be the one delivering his first care package.  While I held him, I felt all of Jen’s pain during the wait and the crazy problems they had (their file was lost!) that thankfully didn’t delay the finalization of their adoption (although I didn’t know this at the time I held Abe).  I also felt all the joy I knew she would soon feel holding him in her arms for the first time.

The blog world is more amazing than I ever imagined.  Lori wrote about it here more eloquently than I could even begin to.  I know some people think making friends through the internet is weird but honestly, it’s not.  At least not the adoption community.  When I tell people about Jen and Jody, sometimes they look at me strangely and I find myself saying “No, it’s not weird.  We’ve met them in person.  We’ve even spent a weekend at their house.”  As if I need to defend my blog friendships.  But the truth is that I have wonderful blog friends that I’ve never met and probably never will meet.

Anyway, I suppose I’m just rambling now.  Mostly I wanted to welcome Abe home and say congratulations to his mom and dad.  I can’t wait to see Abe again!

I know I’m a bit tardy in updating my blog and I promise (well, I hope) to post something about our trip soon.  We’re all doing well over here.  Settling into a routine.  Sleeping is, thankfully, on track.  Dagim has been very busy meeting a lot of our friends and family over the last few weeks (including Chris G. who has been complaining that he isn’t mentioned enough on my blog – or at all).  Our schedule is surprisingly busy with swim lessons, Kindermusik, and get-togethers.  We have good days and bad days, as I suppose all new families do.  Everyday we’re amazed at this beautiful gift we’ve been given.  Our son is bright, healthy, happy, affectionate, silly, smart, sweet.  He’s everything we ever dreamed of and more.