VERY SPECIAL SILVA DAY

Once upon a time, there was a very special woman who began visiting a little boy she called "Kostie" in an orphanage in Vilnius.  

This little boy never had anyone visit him so it was very special for him to have this special attention.  The woman loved this little boy and advocated and prayed that he would have forever family.  

When this woman found out about us becoming the family for Kostas, she began to tell him that his mama and dada were going to come soon.  She lovingly kept watch him over for him and gave us updates for the 18 months it took for our adoption process.  She fought the red tape battle over me having breast cancer back in 2011 that almost made us not eligible to be the family for Kostas.  

She was a guardian angel to our little "Kostie", and we owe her so much gratitude and love for how she fought for this little boy to have a family.  

The most wonderful thing is this amazing woman did this for many children in Lithuania besides our Benjamin Kostas.  And today some of those children with their new families got to reunite with this woman and have the most amazing celebration of  what love can do!  

Silva came to the US!  And what a reunion it was!  

Silva on one of her orphanage visits with our Ben (Kostas or "Kostie")

When we were in-country for the adoption, Silva brought her dog to town on our last night in Vilnius so Ben could meet the puppy.

Our last night in Vilnius.  The next morning we would fly home to the US.

Bittersweet goodbye: anxious and excited for our new life in the US as a family of 7, but sad to say good bye to our amazing Silva.  

Today at the reunion, Ben found his safe spot in Silva's arms.  He was so excited and happy to see her.  We spent the past few days preparing him for this visit.  We reminded him what a good friend Silva has been to us and how she helped him find his family.  But we kept reminding him that after seeing Silva today, he would come home with us because we are his forever family.  We didn't want him to worry that his time with us was over.  We never know how much of this process Ben understands at this point so we wanted to be very careful with Ben's emotions.

Silva was so happy to see her babies again.  I wish I could show you the group photo of all the children from the reunion.  It was very touching to see them all gathered around Silva.

I included this goofy photo of us because I thought it was pretty neat that while sitting by Silva, Ben reached for me and said "Mama".  Ben doesn't always show affection towards me, but today he acknowledged me as his mama to Silva.  What an affirmation!

The ride home- Ben partied hard today!