More pictures of Charlotte!!

A most amazing gift....

What one thing (other than a travel call) can set adoptive parents hearts a flutter more than anything else? What one gift is better than Christmas and our birthdays combined?

That one amazing gift arrived in the mail today....a care package from Yeong Eun's (aka Charlotte's) foster family!! This small connection to our daughter who is a half a world a way took this from an ordinary Monday to an extraordinary Monday. It had 10 pictures of Charlotte, 2 dresses, 3 shirts, 2 pairs of pants and hair bows for Ellie. It also had a photo CD that was blank. We don't know if the foster family intended to send us some picture on the CD but didn't or if they meant for us to fill it with pictures for them. It is obvious that Charlotte's foster family is very generous and loving.

We only had two pictures of Charlotte before today. Her referral photo (taken at 5 months) and an updated photo taken at 7 months. It was just amazing to see more of her. She looks SO much like Ellie. She appears very happy and well loved. It looks like she is standing and cruising. We are missing so much. The wait continues to be painful but this wonderful surprise makes the wait just a little more bearable.

I will post some of the pictures. We only have original photos so excuse the quality of these pictures of pictures. I will get the originals scanned in soon.

Oh my gosh, isn't she beautiful? Hurry home sweet girl and be well and safe until you are in our arms.

Gabe's Imagination...

Gabe makes us laugh every day. He is very inquisitive and quite the problem solver. He certainly takes after his Dad. He is VERY much a boy and everything he does is focused on weapons, dinosaurs, Star Wars and ninjas. Every night when we put Gabe to bed he wants us to lay in bed and snuggle with him after we turn out the lights. This is a snippet of the conversation we had two nights ago while snuggling:

Gabe: "After you leave and I am in my room alone, someone comes and knocks on my door. I think it is bad guys so I never answer the door. Dad says it is probably God knocking on my door."

This may have something to do with the fact that Phil has been showing him the Star Wars movies or perhaps the fact that he and Abby are always dressing in black after school so they can play ninja! In any event I told him that no bad guys were going to get past his Momma so he was safe in his room. Oh, how we love our little boy.