Happy BIrthday Kareen!

Dear Kareen:

Today is your 4th birthday and my heart is very full! I am completely overwhelmed by the love and support you (and we) already have from family, friends, and all your "prayer warriors". I can not begin to express the amount of love we have felt in your behalf already. You are loved by so many, and you don't even know it yet! My heart is aching today as I think about how we can not be with you today on your birthday. I want so badly to be able to kiss you and hold you and let you know you are loved and that you have a family on your birthday.

Your sisters are SO excited to welcome you into our family. They want to honor you today and celebrate your birthday. We will be having cake later and they made you birthday signs that are hanging in our house.

Kyra's says this:

-I love you

-BSF=best sister forever

-I can't wait

-Your gonna have so much fun

-I'm so excited!

Adrie's says "Happy Birthday Kareen! I love you!"
They also made you birthday cards
Kyra and Adrie have been excited since the moment we showed them your picture and asked them what they thought about becoming your family. They talk about you every day and at night your dad and I will walk past their room and hear them talking about all this things you will get to do with them one day. They talk about how you may have never had a story read to you, and they are going to read them to you. They talk about what your favorite color might be, and your favorite food (Adrie asked me what kind of food they eat in "your world"), and what your favorite character and princess will be. They talk about taking you to Disneyland. They knew before we did, that you were meant to be part of our family.

When this decision of adoption was weighing heavily on our hearts, and we were trying to explain that we were still deciding and still praying to know if the Lord wanted us to take this journey, they knew they answer was yes! Adrie said to me "Mom why wouldn't Heavenly Father want you to do this?" and the night we prepared to go to the temple for answers to our prayers, Kyra looked at me and said "Mom you know the answer is going to be yes!" and through my tears I said "how do you know?" and she said "I just know!" What amazing big sisters you will have soon!

The night we told Kyra and Adrie that we were officially going to commit to adopt you, they immediately stood up and dumped out their piggy banks and made this jar for you! They wrote "Kareen's money" on it and have scowered the house and the cars for every penny they could find to put towards the cost of your adoption. They gave every penny they had and they did it happily. They have all sorts of plans to help with raising the funds to bring you home. The other day they asked if they could make bookmarks and sell them on the side of the road (in the snow). When I told them we should wait, they said "ok we can just do it when we have our lemonade stand for Kareen"

You are already teaching your sisters and family about loving unselfishly as we start this journey.

Your dad and I are so thankful for all those who prayed for you because we know that those prayers reached our hearts. Your dad left this sweet comment on Patti's blog last night as we shared our news of bringing you into our family with our friends and family.

"Patti- There aren't words to explain how much we appreciate the time and effort you have spent on behalf of our new little angel. We are so excited that our little Kareen already has so many people that love her and pray for her daily.

One thing that we pray for daily for our little Bree is that God will place friends in her life that will watch out for her and see the good that she has to offer. To see that our prayers are already being answered for our little Kareen through you and your great frineds and family is a witness of the love God has for all his children!

We are so excited to begin this new chapter in our life to bring home our little girl. We look forward to sharing our journey with good friends like you, and also look forward to a future reunion where Kareen can meet her "warriors"

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!"

Kareen, we want you to know how much we already love you and we haven't even met you yet!

Last night as I lay awake thinking about you I thought, " Is she warm? Is she healthy? Is she happy? Is she safe? Does she feel loved? " I pray every day that you are, and that Heavenly Father will protect you and will continue to bless our path to you.

Here is another birthday tribute to you at aunt Shaley's blog

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET GIRL! This is the last birthday you will have to spend alone! Your family is coming to get you!