What to say?

We didn't want them to know about us too soon as it is difficult for a child to know why it takes so long to come get them. At the same time they are at an orphanage where other parents are coming and going so it is natural that they would ask questions. We discussed this with our coordinator and fully trusted our agency and the caregivers to time this as well as possible.

This last week we were informed that our children now know about us. With that news came an invitation to write them a letter. I found writing to my kids for the first time to be overwhelmingly intimidating. You would think I would have written it that day and sent it off just as quick as possible. Instead it took days.

I felt like I needed to say everything at once. I felt like it needed to be some kind of poetic work of art. I felt like it had to be perfect.

Finally I realized that this would not be the only letter that they would recieve from us. So I decided to take it one step at a time. I focused on our excitement, how many friends and family are waiting to meet them, and how much we already love them. With the next letter I will focus on how they will go to school when they get home and how we already have their backpacks and school supplies all ready to go.

I plan to keep all of these letters to go in a scrapbook. (Are they still called scrapbooks when you do it digitally and then have a pretty, bound, professional looking book done?) I hope these letters will be a treasured piece of both our history and theirs.