the airport pictures i've been waiting for

i've been hoping and praying for these pictures for awhile and i smile from ear to ear every time i look at them. they combine two things i have come to love...adoption and blogs.

when i was younger i often said i would one day adopt a kid from africa. i didn't really know what i was saying. i think my thought process went something like this: i love kids. african kids are terribly cute. this must be a good idea. i've since given the idea some actual grown-up thought and adoption is still something i'd like to pursue someday.

the pictures above are of the via family. their daughter alethia came home yesterday. it was a beautiful day. it's been a long, hard road for them. not as long as some, but long just the same. i met this family through my second new love...blogs.

the via's and i are what i like to call 2nd degree friends. not in a black belt kind of way, but in a 6 degrees of kevin bacon kind of way. they went to seminary with my friend lindsey and i got to know them through their blog. we've actually e-mailed back and forth a bit [she was my original cvs resource] and are kind of like real friends now.

i remember when i first heard that someone i knew was writing a blog. i thought they were nuts. why on earth would you want to type out your personal thoughts and memories for the world to see? i would never do that. well, as a wise lad once said...never say never.

originally i used blogs solely as a way to keep up with my 1st degree friends. [aka people i actually know] i've always loved knowing what everyday life looks for others, even before facebook and social media put it at my fingertips. i started writing a blog on a whim, and i'm oh-so-glad i did. it wasn't until recently that i realized this, but i'm not just sharing my life with others, i'm gradually writing my life story. i've come to love reading other blogs that reason...i love life stories. i've always been a fan of biographies, specifically ones with a good storyline. there have been multiples times in the recent past that i've come across a good blog and proceeded to read it from beginning to end. [or technically from end to beginning...that is a major drawback] at first i felt a little guilty about it being a time-waster, but then i realized it's really just an online biography. and i love them.