It was difficult. How do you say, "Hello! We're about to take you from everything you've ever known or experienced, fly across the world to a place where everything looks different, smells different, and tastes different, where you understand no one and no one understands you, and call it something you've never heard of....being adopted. Oh, but don't worry....it won't make any sense to you, but we're excited about it!"
Oh....and make that sound normal and reassuring to a THREE YEAR OLD.
Yeah, you pretty much can't, I'm thinking.
So I settled on phrases like,
"We would love to have you come and live with us!"
and
"We saw a picture of you. You are so handsome! We are sending you pictures of us, too. Can you count how many kids there are in our family?"
and
"We live in a white house with a big yard. When the weather is sunny, we like to play all kinds of games, like soccer..."
I decided NOT to include
"We know when you look at our pictures, the size of our noses will freak you out. Don't worry, we've been through that with two other children before! We know it's coming!"
and
"For your benefit, we did not include pictures of what our yard looks like now in the Winter That Never Ends. We would like you to actually want to live here."
The letter is somehow already in China thanks to however words instantly get from my computer to a woman in China that translates and delivers the document.
In 5 days or less, Levi's world will turn upside down...
And all I want to do is hold him, and kiss him, and tell him that somehow, someday it will all be ok.
