Tariku

Wow, it is amazing how you can love someone you don't know yet. Someone that has only been a dream and only has been a face for 36 hours. Really, truly, I love this little baby boy. I think about him so much, and what he is doing right now, what his temprement will be like.
Having a picture and just a little information on him has made this long wait end with such joy. He is going to be one of my children. I still cannot believe it. I just feel so blessed.

I pray for Tariku's family and the decisions they had to make, and the difficult life they have had to live. More difficult than many of us can even fathom.
I pray for Tariku and his health and happiness and growth until we can get there to pick him up.
I pray for our family to work through the challenges of bringing home another child.


So, the kids are excited. Annalise insists on calling him Benamin, (Benjamin) as she does all babies. And she really seems to be OK with bringing him home, as long as I call him Benamin. She can say Tarik very well too, but still wants to call him Benamin. Katie is eager to get to know him and Jack is excited to have a brother. He is 25 months younger than Annalise. Katie and Jack are 22 months apart and they really have fun together. So, I bet Anna and Tarik will be buddies. Katie is 5 1/2 years older than Anna and they have lots of fun together. Jack will be 5 1/2+ years older than Tarik, so I hope they also are able to have fun together. I guess I am just trying to put it all into perspective.

Also, I think Tariku will have so much fun with his cousins. And can you believe that there are 4 cousins within 7 weeks of age?! That is amazing. They are going to be such pals.

8-12 weeks to travel - I think that puts us between August 10 and Sept 7. I really think August will be here fast. It is summer and we have several things going on, so I imagine it will go quickly. (that is my attempt at a positive attitude). The kids go back to school on August 20, I think. So, I just have a bad feeling we will miss the first day of school.

OK, that is it for tonight, I just wanted to share some of my thoughts since Gary has posted the last couple times.