Early Christmas Present

When I went to visit my family in Alberta, one of the things I was most looking forward to was meeting my new nephew and niece for the very first time. Sadaya (5)  and Elijah (7)  (siblings) were adopted from Ethiopia by my brother Mark  and his wife Sharla at the end of August. So it was high time I’d met these little ones face to face.

Oh, and they are soo0 sweet! It didn’t take long for us to bond.  (It’s amazing what a simple little gift can do to get the bonding process started! ;) )

Elijah and Sedaya are now part of a family of 7 children and two amazing parents. And they are settling in really well, thankfully. I can’t even imagine how hard that would be!

Elijah loves soccer, and he’s doing very well in training!

Sedaya and I are watching Elijah at soccer practice.She loved to snuggle on my lap. 

Here are a few pics of two of Sedaya and Elijah’s  siblings, Gracie and Josiah, both of whom love to ham it up for the camera. They kept me laughing, I’ll tell you.

It was great to go back to Alberta and reconnect with family – especially all of my little nieces and nephews belonging to my brothers’ families  … I missed a couple of them because they were in school, but I loved being the ‘aunt who brings candy or treats when she visits’ --I’m taking after my mom, I think.