A pink envelope in the mail will always brighten my day

The dogs started barking, it is time for the mail to arrive this afternoon (I started writing this on Thursday). The slot opens, I hear the push of paper into the box (our mail slot is a through the wall into our house). Julia rushes over there, opens the door on the inside of the house and grabs the mail. She takes it upon herself to look for any fun Disney items we might receive, takes that item then brings me the rest of mail to go through. Today, the stack contained a small pink envelope with the fluid penmanship of a young writer. An envelope from Julia's birthsister. SWEET! (birth sister / I'll use the initial B for referring to her)

I opened it right away (not looking through the rest of the mail first - WHO CARES about that other mail. LOL) and found two pictures, a pad of stickers for Julia and a note for us to read. It was a short note, but if it were only two words written by B, I would jump up and down with excitement.

This is one of several notes we have gotten from B in the mail over the last year. This is always heartwarming to receive these letters and pictures from her (and some from J's birthmother). She has no idea how much it makes me swell with love for her and her family. Some birth families involved in adoption never have contact with their birthsibling that was adopted. We are so blessed to be in an open relationship with them so Julia (and hubby and I) can continue to grow to know them and know how wonderful each and every one of them are.

I hope and pray we never lose contact with them.

Someone asked me the other day if I was scared to share our home address with them. No, flat out NO! Our door is a welcome mat for them if there were ever a day any one of them wanted to come visit. We are confident with her birthmothers decision to place with us that we have accepted them as extended family and welcome them any time. We are so blessed to have them in our lives and we always look forward to seeing them or seeing an envelope from them in the mail.

Ok, off to write a letter to B and to H (Julia's birthmother) and family. I made a 2nd Birthday flip book of pictures to put in the envelope from snap fish a few weeks ago, so I'll include that in the envelope.

Open adoption ROCKS!