Today was Senon's birthday, and we celebrated in grand style at the Manila East water park due to a generous gift for Senon. Only yesterday Senon's greatest friends, Dennis and Jay, left for Kangaroo Island with their new adoptive family, so it was a happy/sad celebration.

Carrying him up to the top of one of the slides he asked me, "No more Dennis?"

I said, "Yesterday Dennis and Jay went in an airplane to Australia with their mom and dad. Do you miss them?"






He swallowed. I said, "We all miss them, don't we?"

He said, "Where's Joy (our social worker)?"

I said, "She's at the bottom of the slide." And he went through everyone who was with us at the park, as if to reassure himself that the world had not been entirely impoverished with their departure.

Senon turns five today, and we expect him to be matched with his own forever family almost any day now. Of course, promises like that fall on deaf ears with five-year-old's. (Let alone adoptive families.)







Still, today was a lot of fun. I think it was the perfect way for him to move beyond his sadness. He laughed and soaked up the attention.








Here he is kayaking with Joy.