Package for Joel

(November 26th, 2010)

The lady from our adoption agency (Celebrate Children International) was heading to Ethiopia for a few weeks and we were able to send with her a little Christmas present for Joel (Enku). It had to all fit into a 2.5 gallon ziplock bag and nothing that made sounds or noises and nothing with batteries (as they are hard to come by in an Ethiopian orphanage). We followed the list of suggested items and Eliah and I picked out some onesies, socks, blanket, stuffed animal and a toy (some of it shown below in pic) for our little man across the ocean. I had picked up several stuffed animals and then let Eliah pick out which she wanted to send, and of course she picked out the monkey (she loves monkeys)! The package is really considered a donation to the orphanage where Joel is living now and probably won't come home with him, but I couldn't let him go without a Christmas present for his very first Christmas. Oh how I wish he had been here with us this year to celebrate his first Christmas, but we will be content in celebrating next Christmas as his first Christmas as an official Sutton!

The monkey that we sent in the package sat up on our bookshelf in the living room for a few days before we sent it away to Joel and Eliah would always point to it and make a monkey sound. We'd tell her she couldn't play with it and that it was Brother's. We have Joel's picture as the background on our computer, and when she saw the picture, she would point to Joel's monkey on the bookshelf. To this day, when she sees the picture of Joel on the computer, she makes monkey sounds and I have to tell her that we sent the monkey to Joel in Ethiopia.
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