Gabriel has a family!!!

I always love sending out these letters. I love knowing that the babies have gotten matched and that they have families waiting to love them and take care of them. So here is a letter from Gabriel's dad. You can see what he is looking forward to.

We are thrilled that Gabriel will soon become part of our family. My wife Karen and I have three kids - twelve year old twins and a three year old daughter who was adopted two years ago from Fuling, China. We're deep in the middle of the "hurry up and wait" phase and are so eager to meet Gabriel and welcome him home. We'll all be traveling together as we did with our first adoption and are excited by the opportunity to return to China and our three year old reminds us that she will soon be a BIG sister.

Like many adoptive parents we've spoken with we're always looking for little signs along the adoption journey. When we traveled to China two years ago we started in Beijing for some quick sightseeing. While mapping out that trip we had hoped to travel south via Xian and spend a day or two in Xian. I had been there many years previous, traveling with friends and wanted to have an opportunity for my family to see it. While discussing travel plans with our agency we were given the very sound advice that perhaps we were being a bit too eager and that Xian would have to wait for another time. So when we got our referral for Gabriel and learned that he was in Xian we thought to ourselves, "Of course he is!" Might seem silly to some but we saw it as another one of this little sign posts that sometimes guide us along our way.

We live in the countryside of north central Ohio, with ponies, chickens, a goat – the whole menagerie of an amateur farm with room to run and play and explore. I'm part of a third generation family business and have the increasingly rare fortune of living in my home town with family, friends and familiar places all around. My wife is a stay at home mom with her hands very full, about to get fuller!

We feel doubly fortunate to have crossed paths with Amanda and look forward to meeting her and the wonderful folks at Starfish. Kids dealt a tough beginning are fortunate to find themselves surrounded by such hard working, loving folks.

Kind Regards,
Steve

Life, Love and Laughter,

Amanda

Starfish Foster Home

http://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com/

http://www.chinesestarfish.org/