A Thousand Words

I’ve been getting sentimental these last few days because I know that in just a few weeks I will be breathing in the warm scent of my new son. However, nothing can compare to those days and weeks leading up to AJ’s adoption.

I came across this photo this afternoon and it stopped me in my tracks. It was in my most used photo folder on my desktop but I had passed it by so many times lately. Today I stopped and looked. He didn’t look like the same kid. So much so that I spent 30 minutes looking for a picture to prove that our representative in Russia had sent us a picture of the right child.

Of course, I knew it was him…his number was 4 and he has the same gnawed fingernails and scar on his eyebrow. But, he just seemed so peaceful, so content, so NOT my AJ.

But as I started looking through pictures that is all I found…peace. In every photo of him I see a happy child. I see Sasha, the orphan who is not really an orphan, who is content, delightful, witty, goofy, and fun.

I did not, in any picture, see grief, sadness, or anger like I see in him during the day.

And they say a picture tells a thousand words.