When we were going through the adoption process our social worker told us, "A lot of times, the child so closely resembles one of the adoptive parents that people who don't know would never guess the child is adopted".  We kind of just nodded our heads and didn't give it much thought.  We were way more concerned about how long we'd have to wait to be chosen, we could've cared less if the child looked like us!

Recently our daycare mom told us she gets choked up thinking about our boys and how they were destined to be our children.  She is just so impressed with God and His plan for the 4 of us.  She said there is no question that Kade is Erik's son and she thinks Mason looks exactly like me.  She said he has my coloring.  Mason is tan, his hands are so tan they look dirty most of the time--even when they aren't, which only happens at dinner time :-)  I've NEVER been described as "tan".  Never.  I'm extremely freckly and under the freckles I'm extremely white.  He also has brown eyes and brown hair, I'm blue eyed and dirty blonde (well, I would be if I hadn't discovered the beauty of hair coloring), so I kind of laughed to myself when she said that.  But it made me think:

Kade is exactly like Erik.  Don't get me wrong, they look nothing alike but when people see the 2 of them together they always say it's obvious Kade gets his size from his dad.  Erik is naturally good at everything he does, so is Kade.  His love of sports, being outdoors, working, farming, tractors, etc. have been apparent since he was 6 months old--he was born with those passions--and they are the same things Erik loves.  Kade is a very responsible kid, he's a hard worker and rule follower, just like Erik.

Mason is only 15 months old but he is definitely showing signs of being like my side of the family.  I think he even looks a little bit like my brother, their eyes are the same shape and their hair color is exactly the same (when my brother had hair, anyway).
I mean this as a compliment, in the nicest, most loving way possible--Mason is a smart ass!--just like my brother and I are :-)  Obviously he can't talk yet but his facial expressions, gestures, and actions lead me to believe we're going to have our hands full with this kid.  He's funny and he knows it.  He's naughty and he doesn't feel the least bit guilty about it.  When he's about to do something he knows he shouldn't be doing he'll wait for someone to look at him, pause for a split second with a little hint of a smile on his face, then proceed with whatever he shouldn't be doing, followed by an ear-to-ear grin with a cute, little giggle.  As Erik so perfectly put it, "Mason is THAT kid" and my brother was "THAT kid" as well.

I guess our social worker was right!  Although I don't think our boys look like us (Erik and I joke all of the time that it's obvious our boys are adopted because they are so darn cute.  We always say if we'd had a biological child it would've been one ugly kid), they sure do share a lot of similar characteristics with us!