Meet the Cousins

Shawn received a call last week from his cousin Troy asking if we could quit being rude and invite them over already to meet Ian. We were so excited to be nudged from our parental daze and made a plan to have them over today.

Most people don't know that they are part of the reason why we decided to adopt and also why we chose our agency WACAP. About 6 years ago, they asked us to write a letter to WACAP explaining why we thought they would make good candidates for adoption. Family is not supposed to write reference letters, but they made an exception and we were more than honored to be asked. Almost 4 years ago, their son arrived at Sea-Tac airport; 6 months old, from South Korea. It was their adoption experience that got us thinking that "someday" we would like to adopt internationally.

Almost two years ago, they came over for dinner with Alex, 2 1/2 years old then, and we quickly changed our mind about adopting from Russia and decided to look into other countries. It was Alex, with his wonderful personality and adorable demeanor that made us realize that we didn't think once the entire visit about his ethnicity. At the time, we thought it would be smart to adopt from Eastern Europe to continue Shawn's heritage... but Alex proved that lineage has nothing to do with where you're born or what language your ancestors spoke. We didn't look into Korea because it was at almost the exact same time that we received a Special Needs Waiting Child album in the mail from WACAP and the majority of the kids within were from Thailand, India, and China. Thailand and India have rules that would have made our wait lengthy and complicated, but China had several program components that were the perfect fit for us. That was March of 2006. The same month that Hu Xiang Xuan (Ian) was born in Wenzhou, China.

So, it's been almost 2 years since we've seen Shawn's cousin Troy, his wife Shannon, or their adorable son, Alex. He is now 4 and so grown up, but just as cute as we remembered him.

Alex brought Ian a cool orange truck that was a bit hit...and the two of them played "around" each other most of the evening except for when we made them sit next to each other for pictures. It's OK. One day they'll be playing with the same toys and running off to each other's rooms to play with trucks and otherwise cause trouble away from parent's ears and eyes.

It was great to get together and we hope to do so more often. Below are a few pics from our fun evening. I also included one from another homemade fun game... This credit goes to Trish and me. We discovered that Ian's ball popper is good for more than one purpose...It also makes a great snack shooter!

Ball Popper turned Cheerio Shooter

Ian meets Shawn's crazy cousin Troy

Ian really wanted to play with Alex's Transformer, but it was a prized possession not intended for babies.

Chatting about where eachother was born. Alex knew Ian was born in China. Very cute. It's hard to believe Ian will ever be this big.