Sending Pictures

This morning I wrote our annual post-placement report, which we will send to the government of Ethiopia along with five photos. And I also wrote a letter to my baby's birthmother, which we will send with the following 12 photos that I think sum up my baby's year. We are also including a picture he drew of himself and his birthmother. In it they are blue crayon stick people holding hands.

This activity always stops my heart. I imagine her looking through the photos; I can imagine this because the one time I met her I gave her the few photos that we already had of Mister in a mostly empty photo album that I promised to fill for her over the years. She looked through them, making small gasping noises that tore through my soul. And so this morning, as I put these twelve in the mail, my heart is squeezed by an impossible love. I hope she will somehow feel blessed by the sending and know that the beautiful heart of his amazing boy was her forever gift to him.