Play Date with Care Center Friends!

Last June, the day after the Ethiopian courts declared Samson our son, our agency sent us a social report an update on his health and numerous photos for us to enjoy. Soon after, another family not far from where we live passed court with two precious sibling boys. Through our on-line forum, the new adoptive mom of these boys and myself connected and discovered that not only were our boys very close friends with each other at the Care Center but each of our social reports contained numerous photos with all three boys playing together. We were up until midnight one night emailing each other pictures back and forth.

Their family traveled the week after we did, so we got to meet their boys in Ethiopia. What I remember most about our 3 boys is the glossed over look in their eyes, especially Samson and their youngest, T. It was so sad to see the pain and fear in their eyes. Today, they all have a different look about them, much more happy, comfortable and content. It's so good to see in their eyes how well they are each doing.

At the Care Center, what we remember most about seeing this family's youngest boy, T is when he was sitting on the potty chair near Samson with bib overalls with a very blank look on his face and eating meals together from the metal bowls.

One day when we visited the Care Center, we found their oldest boy, M sitting on the floor with Samson sitting between his legs. M had his arms around Samson's waist, like a protective brother. It was so sweet.

But the sweetest thing of all is that the boys, after 10 months home, still remember each other. It was especially cute to hear M and T refer to Samson as "Yunnie", his Care Center name.

 The three boys were inseparable for 2 hours of hard play time. It was as if no time had passed since we last saw them in September.

As you can see, it was very difficult to get all three to look at the same time. Most of my pictures look like this:

It was not easy to say good-bye at the end of our time together but fortunately, we will see each in another 2 weeks at our annual agency's Ethiopian picnic.