a different kind of open adoption

I believe that open adoption can be very beneficial to children.  Unfortunately for Kembe, his birthparents are both deceased, so we have no connection to his birth family.  But we are so blessed to be in contact with all of the families that adopted the boys from his orphanage.  Kembe was there his whole life until he came to us . . . and these boys were his family.   We came to know all of them over the three years as we visited.  They were a little “band of brothers”.  And in the last year since he came home, he has expressed more grief over missing his friends than anything else. I feel really fortunate for the amazing families we have met in this process, and while we were traveling Kembe got to reunite with three of his “brothers” from Haiti.  He was so excited!  And we were so excited for him. In Atlanta Kembe got to visit with Frankie.  He talks about Frankie all the time.  Anytime something exciting happens, he tells me that he’s going to tell Frankie about it. This was Frankie loving on Karis in Haiti: And here they are, almost two years later! Kembe did not, in fact, tell Frankie about all the things he’d been saving up to say.  They were both a little awe-struck, I think.  But for the next few weeks, he repeated “Remember when I saw Frankie?” more times than I can count. In Florida, we got to meet up with Gino and Sammy.  (Here they are with Karis in Haiti, Sammy in Orange, Gino in stripes.  She was quite the popular girl when we visited): And here are the boys seeing each other for the first time in a year:             I love that Kembe has these connections to his life before us.  I got to see relatives I hadn’t seen in a long time this holiday season, and Kembe getting to reconnect with his family felt right, too.  It was so good to see Kembe interact with his friends, and also so good to talk with their parents and relate to someone else on this journey.  I look forward to more years of “family reunions” with all the boys from Maranatha Children’s Home.