Reality

I was just reading a blog of someone marking the anniversary of their referral call and I started thinking that we don't have that anniversary. We found Sam. I saw this picture on a web listing and while it might not have been love at first sight, I kept coming back to it, over and over again. He looked just like the sweet boys in my Sunday school class, just sad. Finally I convinced Tim and the rest is history.

But I was sitting here and it finally hit me that that little boy is here. I hold him and kiss him and watch him play all the time now. He was just this picture for so long that the reality of the huge blessing God has given us is only just now sinking in. And he's not that sad little boy anymore either. He was Aleksey, an orphan living in Sosnovo, Russia, and now he's Sam, a very smart, very loved son.

We love him so much and he doesn't have to do anything for that to happen. And he couldn't do anything to change that.

And that is why adoption is a picture of God. God takes our sad, fatherless selves and loves us for no reason, unconditionally. This weekend the sermon was on love and the pastor said that love is ethical, not emotional. That really hit home for me. Yes, my love for Sam is a feeling, but even when it's hard to feel that love, I still love him. How powerful it has been for me to realize that God loves me even more than I could ever love Sam.

Sam himself is doing amazing. We had two friends over today, Haddon and Hayes, and he had a ball. Some people have questioned us about bonding and attachment but Sam is doing so well and he is so much a four year old boy. The only person who really understands a four year old is another four year old. They wrestled and had strange conversations and played cars and had a ball. We are lucky to know such wonderful sweet boys who are so patient with Sam.

He's also learning some English and even occasionally correcting Mama when he says something to him in Russian that he knows in English, like Thank You. Today we learned the word "cookie" and for about an hour everything was a cookie. He can count to nine and say the ABC's and even identify a few letters.

Right now Sam and Papa are out running around the neighborhood in the jogging stroller which is why I had this quiet minute to post. Until next time!