W's First Care Package

This is one of several very sweet photos we received of W with his care package

In early December, a group of adoptive parents traveled to the Chances for Children (C4C) creche in Haiti to visit their children.  As my hubby and I were unable to go, we asked another C4C adoptive mama who was going on the trip to take down our first care package and some creche donations with her on the trip.  She actually lives in the same city as us, so it worked out great!  We were so excited and greatly anticipated the news of his response.  This would be the first time he would see our faces and learn about his future family!

We included several small gifts, including a local t-shirt and a very special Christmas book.  It's one of those Hallmark books that records your voice reading the story.  Eric and I and our girls all got involved in reading the story.  We also introduced ourselves in the beginning and sang "Jesus Loves Me" at the end.  We have received two videos of him singing "Jesus Loves Me", so we thought this would be the perfect song for him to have in his book.

We were later thrilled to hear about his response to our package and the big news of a forever family. Our local friend who delivered the care package and another adoptive friend (who lives in the same state, only a couple hours away) took W aside to a quiet place to present him with the package.  One sat with him and explained each item and the photos.  The other took photos of his response.  He was quite shy at first--I can only imagine!  What huge news for a child who has always been an orphan to suddenly see the faces of the people who will become his FAMILY!  He did seem to love the gifts and was so proud to have photos of us and his two sisters, his future kitty cats and his house.  He hurried off to show all his friends, and he showed anyone who would look, the pictures of his new family!  We are told that he made sure, however, to keep a careful hold on them when people looked. :)  The book also turned out to be a huge hit...with all the kiddos at the creche.  Apparently it got passed around all day!

Another fun part of the story is this.  The C4C creche has a large map of the world in one of the hallways.  Each child has a sticker where his adoptive family lives.  W several times proudly showed our local friend where his sticker was--on the state of Tennessee--nearly on top of his buddy D's sticker!  And close by to A's sticker (our other friend's son--who is now home!).  What an awesome connection these boys have!  They are all born in Haiti, get placed in the same creche, and out of any place in the world they could end up, their families are all close together in Tennessee!

Thank you Lord Jesus, for your wonderful blessings, your wonderful plans. :-)