Christmas Comes Early for Me

For those of you who know me I'm a big kid at heart. I recently received 2 presents related to Sebio. The first came a few weeks back when I was asked along with my travelling companions to speak at the church about our trip.

When Linda arrived she had a red folder for me. In it was something I'd been waiting for, a copy of Sebio's high school diploma. I will find a frame for it to proudly display in our home but here for all of you to see is the proof of his accomplishments.

 The following is a photo of Sebio first with Dan, the Asst. Director at God's Town and with Purie, the Director. As always he appears his shy, apprehensive self. But handsome none the less in our eyes. We are so very proud of him even though we couldn't be there to see him that day. I almost was but missed it by I believe about a week.

Just a note about the background on the photos, that is made from the husk of coconuts. It is a page from a book that was filled with photos and some notes made for the 3 of us on the day we departed God's Town. Each book was personally made and if we first thought they were photos taken earlier that was proven wrong by the fact one of the photos in my book had me in it! They were very covertly and creatively made and tied with some other natural material I'm not quite sure of its origin. It was also a gift and remembrance of the trip I will always treasure.

Now I mentioned 2 presents, Sebio's diploma copy being the first the second came recently and sent me into quite a 'tizzy' around the house. I suppose the precursor to the big surprise came in the form of an email from Sebio. Yes, our first technical communication. The funny part was thankfully I always check my email spam folder. In it was an email with the subject line of "I Am Happy".  My first assumption was oh well another Viagra ad for me to delete. But there was something about the senders email address that I kept reading before automatically hitting the delete button. Then it hit me: that is Sebio's name. So with great excitement I opened it and sure enough here was our first communication via email:

Sent: Fri, September 17, 2010 11:10:41 AM
Subject: I'm happy

Hi ma'am Dawn and sir Aaron
I'm happy this DVD and letters that I recieved yesterday, you show me your love and to my co-children here I'm happy also that sir Aaron would like to sponsor for Eric.

Not only was this message monumental being our first email but it confirmed his support and approval about our decision for Aaron to sponsor Eric.

This inaugural email arrived as a duplicate message in my Inbox but also, in duplicate was a request for me to sign on and add Sebio as a contact on Yahoo chat. I figured ok but what were the odds that was ever going to happen? But I obliged his request and added him onto my Yahoo contacts. I haven't used or been on Yahoo chat since Aaron was deployed in Iraq. It was our lifeline while he was there but I haven't had the need for it since.

Sebio's first email came some time during the night on a Thursday. This past Thursday we had left our home computer on a bit later than usual and I went to turn it off before bed. I figured if Sebio is going to the Internet Cafe' as part of his college course on computers just maybe there might be another email message from him. Well in my Inbox again was another double request to add him on Yahoo chat. Well ok, thought I did that but just in case I log onto Yahoo and check to make sure it's done. Suddenly and for me my second present I literally yelled to Aaron: "SEBIO IS ONLINE". Sure enough it showed our guy was online so I immediately typed in a message; Sebio is that you?  And after what seemed like forever it was confirmed it was. He was at the Internet cafe' but our connection seemed to go in and out. But we exchanged a few words back and forth that he was doing well and liked school.

Unfortunately it was getting late and I had an early call for a work event the next morning so I tried to tell him why we had to log off. Not sure if he got or understood our message but to my surprise and happiness came our next email correspondence:

Dear Ma'am Dawn and Sir Aaron

Thank you for the letter and DVD that you sent to me that I received last week and we watch the Pirate movie it was good continuation of the story about pirate number 1and 2.


I want you to know about my studies, College is a lot of work in school but it's fun,
I got 24 speed above accuracy per minute in my type writing and I focus on computer so I know about the parts of computer and when the computer was made and Involved so I enjoyed this course because more Information we studied.


Ma'am Linda said that Eric does not have a sponsor, I'm happy that Sir Aaron would like to sponsor with Eric.


I hope you read this letter


THANK YOU AND I MISS YOU
SEBIO

What better presents could a person get, except maybe some hugs, but I'll just have to wait until my next visit for those.

Next Post: Meet Eric, our new addition to the family.