The Big Brother

Every night before Benjamin goes to bed, we read a page from his preschool devotional. The topic last night was 'blessings.' As we were reading, we began to name blessings in our lives like food, a house, a bed, blankets and then he added'a mommy and daddy' which led us into a conversation about adoption. He has known we have been planning to adopt pretty much from the beginning. We had already received the news that we had been accepted to the Russia program and we celebrated with him earlier in the evening, so it was fresh on his mind. We explained that the little girl we were adopting didn't have a mommy or daddy and he got a really sad expression on his face. Then he said, "That makes me really sad for her. I will take care of her. I will teach her not to go into the street if there's a car and protect her." It just melted both of our hearts. He was so tender and sincere in the way he was describing how he felt. I can already see a compassion in his heart towards his new sister. I am so proud of him and I know he is going to be a wonderful big brother.