We met ALEX!!!!

Warning!!!!! This is some very heavy picture content. Please, if diabetic, don't view for a prolonged amount of time as this is full of sweetness!


Okay, for those of you who do not know, Alex is Samuel's buddy from the orphanage. They were both there from infancy and are just a couple of months apart in age. Alex went home in October to be with his forever family in Arkansas. This means it has been about 10 months since Samuel saw him. We have shown him pictures, (just about all the pics we have of Samuel have Alex included =), but we weren't sure how they would react.

So Tina and I decided to meet together, with our families, in Birmingham, Al. We arrived around 8:30pm to be greeted by the Cornelison Crew in the hotel lobby. This was a very exciting moment for me. Well, after the boys saw each other Alex kinda got shy and Samuel put on his roughness and wrestled with Blake. We finally decided to get them up to the room so they could be more comfortable. It was amazing. They played together and we talked until 12:00am.




Okay, so here is a picture of them playing together in one of the rooms shortly after seeing each other. It's really cool, Samuel has the same shirt that Alex is wearing.


So on Saturday morning we got up and went to the Birmingham Zoo. The kids did really great. No one had a melt down and we walked all over for 4-5 hours. Unless you count Samuel's terror at the geese walking around when we got there. They were moving them and he was not too happy about being so close.

The boys in front of one of the ponds at the zoo.

This is us going into the zoo. Not sure if you can see it, but the boys were holding hands.

Blake was enjoying pretending he was a cowboy.

Grace and Addie on a giant frog. She is such a ham and Addie is a beautiful China doll.

Somehow we were allowed to bring some animals home from the zoo. Maybe the zoo keeper won't notice =)

Here is a picture of the boys just before we got ready to leave. I really do think they will be buddies forever.

Just a little more. Tina and Johnny are some of the greatest folks. We didn't know each other before this weekend, but I hope this is a friendship that lasts a lifetime.