Al Pacino and the Fairy Godmother

Good News! Matt and I are happy to announce that, as of Friday, we are Godparents! We were blown out the water and surprised beyond belief to receive an amazing package full of photos, cookies, letters, and official invitations to be godparents to our favorite Montana kids, Sage and Owen. We were at the game store for Mah Jong night when we received the package. Once we were able to speak, we offered the Mah Jong ladies a round of homemade chocolate chip cookies from our package. Between bites of cookies and slaps on the back, Rose, our resident cynic said, "Do these people know you're moving to Africa?!" Laughter broke out from all sides. We laughed and shrugged. It's true, we are moving a long ways from Montana and from our now god children. But we're taking this new commitment very seriously. Hopefully the kids will get a kick out of the letters photos, fabric, etc. that we send them from Guinea. And now any visit or move back to the U.S will include stopovers in Montana (or wherever Owen and Sage and their parents are).

While the god parent/god child relationship is traditionally a religious one, our relationship with Owen and Sage and their family is non-religious. As far as we know our commitment to our godchildren involves loving them (pretty easy, since we already do), staying in touch with them and with their parents, who we also love (Guinea will make this part challenging but certainly not impossible), hanging their art up on the walls of wherever we live, and doing whatever we can (big or small) to help or take care of them if anything were to happen to their parents. This all sounds pretty do-able. And it is a huge honor that we feel humbled by.

So here they are, our good friends and new godchildren, Sage Lee (age 4 1/2) and Owen Winter (age 1 1/2). (I'm also including Sage's card which features her art work and a letter to us that she dictated to to her mom).