We shipped out Sam’s birthday gift!  It’s in a 12 x 12 x 12 box, so it won’t be delivered the way the standard small care packages are sent.  Thus, I have no idea when it will arrive in Seoul.  I’m hopeful  it gets there by his birthday checkup, but he may not receive it until August.

I completely forgot to take a picture, but here are some items inside:

• Under the Same Moon – a recordable Hallmark book.  Josh and I alternated reading pages, and Jackson and Elliott did the intro page with us.
• A toddler-friendly photo album filled with family pictures
• Photo stacking blocks also filled with family pictures
• A blanket similar to the ones Jackson and Elliott use
• A tiger lovey
• A toy fire truck that Jackson and Elliott picked out
• Baby food pouches
• A journal for his foster mom to write down special moments or milestones
• A Carter’s outfit
• Chocolate bars for his foster family

I can’t believe baby boy is almost one!  I am praying his foster mom takes pictures of him in his little hanbok!

As I was listing the items for custom, it occurred to me that these things are so special because they are HIS.  When we were preparing for Jackson and Elliott’s arrivals, they had so much stuff prepared for them before they were even born.  For Sam, the toys and clothes and blankets he uses right now will stay in South Korea for the next foster child.  He’s welcome to use them, but they aren’t truly his.

But the things we send, they belong entirely to him.  They were purchased with him in mind and as an overflow of the forever-love in our hearts.  I don’t think we are Sam’s “rescue” story; he is a gift for our family, not a project.  But I do think of the many, many children who don’t find forever families and age out of the inter-country process.  I wonder where they will celebrate Christmas, who will tell them stories of their childhood, who will laugh and say, “oh you’ve been like that since you were just a baby!”  It makes me want to adopt all the babies, you know?

But for now, Sam is filling our hearts and we are so joyous to get to love him as our son forever, to see his face Christmas after Christmas, to tell him about some funny thing he did as a preschooler, to be his soft place to land when life gets hard and his loudest cheering section as I proudly tell the world he is my boy.  ❤