Friday, October 15, 2010

smiling from ear to ear!

we've had several families from our wonderful agency, arise for children, in ethiopia the last week or so visiting their kiddos. one family in particular, lesley and thom, are there now visiting their second son who happens to be in the same orphanage as our little guy. before they left, lesley said that she would try to get some pictures of our sweet nathanel while she was there but couldn't make any promises. either way though, she promised to love on our sweet guy and tell him that his mom and dad were coming to meet him SOON.


today, i checked my email and i received this note from lesley:

Hey Lesli & Ryan!!
Just wanted to drop you a QUICK note to let you know that I got to snuggle with your sweet boy today!! When Thom was holding Y, Woudneh took me to go find Nathanel.....he was standing in his crib!! I asked the nannies if I could pick him up...they said "sure, but he has no diaper"....I DID NOT CARE!!! I picked up that sweet boy and got in a good long snuggle with him and told him his mom and dad were going to come get him soon!!! Because he is matched - they let us take a couple of pics....i'm going to try to get some more for you tomorrow too! I'll be sure to email you those pics as soon as we get back home.
He is petite but he looks great!! He smiled a lot and just kept staring at all of us. I showed him off and got some great time with him. The nannies are taking GREAT care of him!! Just wanted to let you know that I saw him and got pics!!!!!
Hope that news makes you smile a bit:)
Blessings,
Lesley

oh my word. her email did more than make me smile!! it made me laugh, cry, and smile all at once! i am just imagining our sweet little man now hanging out and standing around in his crib with NO diaper on! ha. i guess he just needed a little airing out :) he looked small from his photos we got at the time of his referral but we weren't sure how recent they were taken, so i can't wait to get my eyes on some recent pictures of him!! i can see many trips to the photo kiosk at t@rget in my future!

thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, lesley for sending us an update and loving on our hope-to-be-soon SON! her email is just one of the many reasons that i love working with our agency. if you're considering adopting from ethiopia, china special-needs, or even costa rica, you should give the wonderful ladies at arise for children a call!! they have been a joy to work with, faithful prayer warriors for the families and children they serve, and are great at helping kids come home to families :)

3 comments:

Meliski said...

What a wonderful post! I can imagine how out-of-this-world fantastic it felt to get that email! Isn't it unreal how quickly you surrender your entire heart to a little person 8,000 miles away after seeing a few pictures and hearing their name?

I compare it to the first time I saw Corban via ultrasound at 12 weeks. I had no idea what/who he would be, all I knew was he was there, on the screen and I wanted him with my entire heart and soul!

Ugh, being so far from these precious ones is so hard! It is so a wonderful relief to receive confirmation that they are being well taken care of, but it is also a reminder that they are being cared for by someone other than US! But, it's only for a short while.

Hang in there mama!

my life: said...

Crying with you! Oh my goodness!!!!!
I remember hearing of a friend who had a baby in the NICU at the same time my Gracie was there...*before I knew about her*...and this momma told me that she had held Grace because she had no mommy.
That still brings me happiness to think about that! :0)
I'm so happy for you guys!!!!

Danielle said...

So exciting that you will get some pics! Our agency partnered with West Sands as well! We have met Woudeneh! Small world!