Little Thigpen's first gifts...

Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. Isaiah 1:17

Not long after we announced that we had been approved to adopt from Ethiopia, we received the first gifts for our little Thigpen. Warning! These pictures may make you cry!

We absolutely love the family who gave us these gifts! They are a great source of encouragement with real life testimonies of adoption, as they have also adopted internationally. This mom had a great gift idea for a new mom-to-be in the waiting. As I opened the gift bag and pulled out this T-shirt - you got it - I started sobbing!! Heart racing, snot bubbles, red cheeks, and tears comparable to the Niagara Falls going down my face as I held this tiny tee... Fatherless No More... 

And then I pulled out the next thing in the bag...yep - I cried some more! A Mother for Choco... Joseph and I both cried when we read through the book for the first time. If you haven't had a good cry in a while, and your tear ducts are screaming to be cleaned out, I highly recommend reading this book! ;)

No doubt, maternal instincts kicked in - fuel the jets, let's cross the Pond and put this tee on our little one and read his/her first book together! And we will do just that...one day soon. In the meantime, we'll be receiving boo-koodles of education about the adoption process and post adoption (all of which we need!), filing paperwork, praying, and waiting... And every now and then, I'll pull that tee out of the drawer and hold it...although, I still can't read through the book without crying, so I usually look at the first page, then flip to the last page before I have black lines streaming down my face. :)

Oh little Thigpen, you are worth the wait! We're starting your library even now - that's something very important to me and Daddy - that you have great books from which to learn. And if I let them, your grandmothers would start buying every cute outfit they see... but I think we'll wait until we know your gender. ;)
-Love, Mommy