What was lost has been found...

Anyone who knows Miles well knows who "monkey" is.  The two have been inseparable ever since we brought Miles home over a year ago.Three days ago we lost monkey.  We thought he was gone for good.  We looked high and low for him.  We even called Target and had them post our number with a description of monkey in case he was turned in.  We were getting desperate.  Then, nearly 12 hours later Ele, our nanny, simply asked Miles where monkey was.  Miles walked right to his riding car, lifted the seat, and pulled out his dear friend.  Apparently we just didn't ask the right questions before.  I know this seems like it isn't a big deal, and the truth of the matter is that Miles really didn't seem to mind that he was gone that much. Sure, he spent a lot of time "looking" for him with us, but it may have just been a stalling tactic for bedtime. What I realized is that monkey might mean more to me.
I realized this about the time I hung up with the clerk at Target and thought that monkey was gone forever.  I had to compose myself because the thought of it just made me so sad.  Monkey was given to us by my brother Isaac when we got our referral for Miles.  Monkey was in the care package that we sent to him before we ever met him.  Monkey was with him in his home in Korea, and it was the only toy that followed him all of the way home to us.  Monkey has been through a lot - including a new nose, new stuffing, and even a brief bath in the toilet.  But monkey is our one tangible connection to Miles' foster home.  I imagine his foster mother presenting it to him for the first time.  I imagine the two of them playing with it together.  I remember watching him chew on the nose on our car ride to the hotel after a tearful goodbye.  And I remember him crawling around our house with monkey's nose clenched between his teeth the first weeks he was home.  I know monkey is just a "thing", but to me - to our family - he is so much more.