Sara waiting to find out who the "friends" are we were meeting... I didn't tell the kids - JUST IN CASE something happened and things didn't work out...
Going through the process of bringing Sara home... we met so many special children at the hogar where she lived. These children were her "family" while she waited to be able to come home and join ours. She loved these children as if they were her own brothers and sisters... and I can't imagine how difficult it was each time one of the children left to go home to their forever family, leaving others behind. I know that for Sara, just leaving her friends behind was difficult... and she cried for them several times.
As the parent - we want to feel connected to our child even while they are still at the hogar. What better way for us to be connected, than to build a network of friends who also have children waiting to come home?? During the (almost) two years of waiting to bring Sara home, we have had the honor of making so many wonderful friends. Most of those we have only known via email, phone calls and blogging... but each family we met along the way provided a connection to Sara. Each time someone in our network of friends would travel... we were blessed with an update of how Sara was... sometimes a funny or sweet story...often times they would take with them a package from home for Sara... and more times that I can count - we received photos, video clips... and even phone calls from Guatemala so we could speak to Sara. These friends helped keep us going on the long WAIT.
So when I received an email from Linda that her family would be coming to Kentucky the second weekend of August... we made plans to meet up with them and 3 others families of children that all lived together in Guatemala. I was so excited!!!
We spent a Saturday afternoon in Richmond... Sara got to visit again with Parker, Brayden, David, Mia (Ruth) and Emmalisa... and I got to meet all the people that I have only "written" to over the past 2 years! It was a really wonderful day.
It was amazing to see how well all these children are doing! They have all grown so much! They are happy... they are all adjusting so well... and I think that it was a very special day for them to all get together again. They were able to be with their forever families... and also get to see their friends that they had known as their family in Guatemala. It was also very special for me to get to see these children that I have gotten to know and love over the past 2 years... you can't help but fall in love with each and every one of them!
I know that it was a long drive... and it took a huge amount of time and commitment for all of these other families to make this happen, but we are so very thankful and honored that we were included in the day and got to meet and visit with everyone. I hope that we can get together again soon!
1 comment:
Great pix! We had a great time that day, too!
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