Newborn Pics

I still remember vividly staring at Addi's 6 month referral photo. I had every single detail memorized. The way her hair fell, her pouty little lips, her cute tiny nose, her beautiful almond eyes... I think she was the most beautiful little girl in the world.

But life before that picture was a mystery to me. What did she look like when she was born? Three months? Five months? How had she grown and changed? I knew that with international adoption, these holes and questions were often hard to fill. Pictures were hard to come by and I was prepared to help Adelyn grieve this missing part of her life that I knew she would wonder about.

But God had a different idea.

He gave us not one, but two incredible angels to watch over her and photograph these moments. You see, Adelyn did not just have one amazing foster family, she had two. Since she was born in southern Korea, she was placed with a foster family at birth until she could be transported to SWS's baby reception center in Seoul. She was with them for one month. Then she spent her next few months in the baby reception center being loved and cared for by a team of wonderful nurses. When she was almost four months old, she was placed with the foster family who she was with until we brought her home. They gave us a gift that I will treasure forever. They gave us an entire photo album and flashdrive of photos and videos documenting those months from December until June. We have pictures of her laughing and smiling and wearing crazy hats and making silly faces. This gift was priceless to us!

But God wasn't done yet.

On our way home from our first meeting with Adelyn, I asked our social worker if there was ever a newborn picture of her taken at the hospital. She said that typically they do not take photos at the hospital, but that since she was with a foster family at birth, she would check with them to see if they had any pictures of her.

The next day, we were given a CD of photos from her first foster family during her first month of life. Words cannot begin to say how treasured these photos are. I know I will never be able to thank this family who took care of her and photographed these first weeks of her life, but this was a priceless and rare gift that we were given. This is something that Addi has been given that many adopted children will never have. I am so happy for her that these pictures fill in some of the missing gaps of her life. Whoever you are, thank you.

Three Days Old:













Fourteen Days Old:




























Twenty Eight Days Old:














One Month Old (33 days):