KohlBabySweetStars

This is my friend, Kohl.

(He put some ant stickers on his face and we were making face at each other in the mirror)

He happens to live next-door and is the son of some of our best friends. He's my KohlBaby/SweetStars (and yes, I stole that last nickname from my sister, but it seeemed to fit Kohl better than the traditional "sweetheart".)

A few days before we found out we were going to get Lexi and Nathan, I stopped by to visit Kohl and his family. I was chatting with his parents about my recent trip to the Netherlands and some of the adventures there. Out of the blue, Kohl announced that he had something to tell us. When all eyes were on him, Kohl said that he had a friend who was a little boy ('Like me!", he said), except "hims got black skin and hims lives REALLY FAR AWAY."

Cliss, Rob and I all look at each other, hoping that one of the others will know what he's talking about. Cliss asked Kohl some questions, trying to figure out who this friend was. "Is he from your church class? Is it someone from preschool? Is he in your gymnastics class?" Kohl answered "no" to each of these questions. "Well, who is it, Kohl?" "Hims my friend."

He kept talking about this little boy who had black skin. He said that the boy's mommy and daddy wouldn't let Kohl come to "hims house because hims lives "REALLY FAR AWAY". (Every time he said that last part, his eyes would get big and he'd make this broad gesture with his thumb like he was trying to hitchhike.)

We'd talked to Kohl before about how Brent and Lolo (that's what Kohl calls me) were going to get a little boy or girl. I don't know how much he understood about it, and we certainly didn't have any news to tell them at the time.

Cliss said that Kohl kept talking about this little black friend for a few days after that. He never could explain who this little boy was. Just a few days after that initial discusison with Kohl we found out that our referral was going to be official and that Lexi and Nathan are ours.

You can say it's just coincidence, but I think Kohl knew before the rest of us that he was going to be getting some new friends. He's right - "hims" is really far away, and as "hims" new mommy and daddy, we won't let Kohl go see Nathan. But we will bring Nathan here to be with Kohl. How does that sound, SweetStars?

It does make me wonder how much we'd be able to understand if we had the faith of a little child, ears to hear and hearts to understand. Thanks, KohlBaby!