Happy Baby, Happy Forever

We received a letter from Matteo's foster mother today, which is coincidentally International Children's Day. The letter didn't come directly from her, but via the courier I had used in the fall to send care packages to Kiera and Matteo.  I'm not sure how she came in contact with the courier, who e-mailed me the short letter, which had been roughly translated into English.  Perhaps the approach of International Children's Day, which is celebrated in China, prompted her to reach out.  I was surprised, but incredibly thankful to hear from her.  However, my heart broke because it appeared that she has heard nothing about Matteo since we left her weeping outside her home as we drove away from Fuyang.  Although I had asked our adoption agency to see if Matteo's foster family could get copies of the pictures and post-adoption report that would have shown her that he's happy and well, she never did. Everything has to go through the orphanage and I don't know if passing along an update just got lost in the shuffle or purposefully withheld. How incredibly sad and unfair that she is left to worry about how he's doing. 

She finished her letter to our Matteo by wishing him "happy baby, happy forever."  As awkward as the English translation was, her sentiment was not lost in translation.  

Matteo: An Adoption Story

Matteo has been featured twice on the Love Without Boundaries blog.  The first post was written about "Smiling Matt" and the second post, Matteo: An Adoption Story, was written by his mom - me. I was so honored when a staff member at Love Without Boundaries asked me to write a blog post about Matteo for their series on foster families.  I wrote from my heart not just about my love for an incredible little boy I get to call my son, but also for his foster parents.  The foster care director read my post and asked if she could share it with Matteo's foster parents so they know how valued their work is.  Without question, yes.