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| (l to r) my sister, my grandma, me, my mom |
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| My peeps |
What a weekend! I think back over the events of the last two days with such fondness that I'm smiling as I type (although I am home from church today with a head cold). On Friday, we loaded up the mini van and drove to Charlotte to spend time with my side of the family. My parents, aunt and uncle, my sister and her three kids and my beautiful 91 year old grandmother who is bravely battling cancer. Add my own six children and husband to the mix and we had a huge, noisy crowd all together eating, talking and laughing.
The next morning, we loaded up the van once again and headed to our adoption agency's annual Philippine Ties pool party. This gathering is specifically for families who have children from The Philippines. This year's event was especially precious for several reasons. The most obvious reason is that Francis is home but aside from that, we had the honor of meeting TWO of Ezekiel's buddies from his former home, Gentle Hands. We met Rammy who was mentioned in Ezekiel's paperwork as his "best friend". Rammy is a beautiful, tiny little guy who steals your heart just by looking at you! He is with a lucky family that is madly in love with him, just as they should be! The second Gentle Hands baby we met was Moriah. He's a gorgeous little guy with visual impairment and he is just so engaging and lovely that I had to hold him, even though he wasn't thrilled with it! Like Rammy, Moriah is in a family that recognizes what a gift they've been given. He fits in perfectly!
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| (l-r) me and Zeke, Courtney, Rammy and Kim, Carrie and Moriah |
As if seeing these boys in their families was not enough, we got the special blessing of having Courtney Bell (a precious and beautiful young lady who cared for all these boys before they ever had families) come and join the party!!!!! I met Courtney of facebook while waiting for Ezekiel to come home. I saw her in several pics with him and contacted her with a sheepish "hi, I'm Ezekiel's future mom and if you happen to have a photo or any word on him, I'm all eyes/ears". Courtney graciously responded and we discovered that she attends the same university I did and that she lives only 15 minutes from my home!!!!!! Tell me that's not a "God thing". She was all the way in The Philippines and the odds of us having all these connections were infinitesimal and yet, in God's economy, this is as normal as can be!
I know I've failed to adequately capture the AWESOMENESS of this weekend but I'll add a couple more pictures in an effort to illustrate . .
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| My Family (yes, Courtney is "mine", too - ha ha) |
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| The "big kids" at the agency party |
