One Year Ago

September 25th, 2009. A day I will ALWAYS remember. I can see it very clearly in fact. Phil was giving a CE course at the University Of Minnesota so we decided to make a get-away weekend out of the trip. It was a rainy Friday. I spent the bulk of the morning in the hotel room scrambling online to buy tickets to the FEI world games in Kentucky for this year. The tickets went on sale at 8am, and I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon in my pj's watching tv - a rare treat! Since it was a crummy day, we decided that once his course was over, Phil would pick me up at the hotel and we would head to the Mall of America for a little shopping fun. Trying to leave down town Minneapolis on a Friday afternoon at 4:30 was not the greatest plan, and we ended up completely stopped in traffic gridlock on the highway. Bummer. At 5pm Phil's phone rang. He answered.... "Oh Hi Ann" (our social worker)......I froze...."you're kidding, that's great news"......my heart stopped. We had been matched...it was a BOY! I had a SON! This was the moment we had been waiting and worrying about for so long. We were finally going to be parents! It should have been the single happiest moment of my life. I remember during the long wait before this moment I envisioned just how the call would come and wondered what I would do: would I scream, would I jump for joy, would I cry?

In reality however, my actual reaction was something I had never anticipated. I did start to cry, but it wasn't the cry I expected, it was a totally panicked "oh no ...they made a mistake .... I'm not ready.... what if we made a mistake" kind of cry. Then I was horrified at my initial reaction which made me cry harder! I was a wreck, and I think my poor husband was in shock because of it! It took about ten minutes for him to calm me down and for me to actually compose my thoughts, but it wasn't until Phil pulled the referral picture up on his phone that I took a really good look at Christopher's face that all the fear went away. When I think about it now, I am ashamed that I ruined that wonderful moment for Phil..... and for myself.

Thankfully, by the time we called our parents to tell them the good news, I was over the moon! We celebrated with a lovely dinner over which we discussed boy names and spent the rest of the evening looking at every boy related toy and outfit in that crazy mall!

When I look at Christopher now, I can't imagine him not in my life. He is my son. I love him more than words could ever describe...even on his worst day! ;o) He is the light of my life, the joy in my heart! It makes me sad to this day, and I still shake my head when I think about how I panicked.

Wordless Wednesday-Daddy hugs make everything better!

Wordless Wednesday - Corn On The Cob!

It's Official!!

We finally had our day in court last Thursday, and Christopher's adoption is now official....and he is officially a US citizen!! Whoo hoo! It was a great day! Our judge was great. We took lots of photos afterwards, but to my total embarrassment, Christopher hit the poor judge on the side of the head in attempts to get his glasses! He was a great sport about it though, and just laughed. If you look closely at the photo with the judge, you will notice that Christopher was "petting" him! When I realized what was happening, I tried to stop him but the judge just laughed and said it was "ok", he was just curious. The judge pretended to let Christopher beat him up afterwards and it had our little man in a fit of giggles. It was great that he was such a kid (or crazy toddler) friendly person! We had a small group of family members join us at the court house and we all went out to dinner afterwards. I can't even begin to describe how relieved I feel to finally be his "legal" parents...even if we have know for a long time now that we are a family and there is nothing that will ever change that!! We took advantage of the fact that we were all dressed up for once to have our first professional family portraits taken that evening. What a great way to remember such a wonderful day!!

Beach Day!

Another beautiful weekend of fun! This has been one great summer! We spent Saturday at the Lake MI beach with a couple other families who have Korean adopted children. I couldn't believe how warm the water was! Christopher is a water baby to the max! He had a ball jumping in the crashing waves with mom and dad; I could have played in the surf all day just to hear him squeal and giggle! He spent some time playing in the sand with his new friends Parker, Maya, and Jack and we had a good lunch with new friends. He played until he crashed on dad's shoulder and fell asleep. It just doesn't get any better than that!

We are now looking forward to the end of the week when we will finally get to go before a judge and have Christopher's adoption finalized! Yippee! I have been waiting so long to know that we are finally and officially (in the eyes of the government) a family forever. :o)

Wordless Wednesday - Reading Chair!

Seven Months!

Tomorrow will mark 7 months from the day we met our son! In some ways it is hard to believe it has been so long, and yet he fits in so well it seems like he has always been here! We have been having a wonderful first summer as a family! Last weekend we took our first little family vacation to the Traverse City area. We went to Horse Show by the Bay on Saturday to support one of our favorite animal rescue groups, CANTER, which was holding a benefit auction and dinner. We then took Christopher to see his first drive-in movie! He played on the playground and "drove" our truck while we waited for the show. We watched Toy Story 3 (I give it two thumbs up). On Sunday we toured Mission Point, waded out into the ridiculously warm water, and enjoyed some delicious ice cream. We all had a blast! Now that we are home and settled again, it is back to work. We are busily readying the house and yard to have a big party for Christopher when our adoption is finalized. We are just waiting on a court date and are excited to get things completed. Here are some things we have learned about our little man in the last 7 months:

*He is one healthy eater! He LOVES pretty much every healthy food you put in front of him (even the ones we won't eat!) He has even spit out a cookie in exchange for a piece of broccoli! His favorites include blueberries carrots and green beans.

*He loves the water! He has a blast playing in the pool and splashing in his water table. He doesn't mind being wet head to toe while swimming (but try to wash his face and hands, and he is not such a happy camper, lol)

*He FINALLY sleeps through the night! It took 6 1/2 months to get to this point! He now has a projector that shines moons and stars on his ceiling and has a blankie and a stuffed monkey that he takes to bed with him. When he wakes up at night he finds them in the bed, looks up at the stars, and just goes back to sleep. I still don't sleep through the night though, since every time he stirs I am sitting up watching him on the monitor! :o)

*He doesn't talk much (yet) but seems to understand most of what we say to him.

*He has the most infectious giggle!! He loves to be chased and tickled and I could listen to the resulting giggle all day!

*He LOVES pillows and regularly wants on our bed to he can roll, hide and play in them. I think he would love one of those bouncy houses full of pillows....dream come true!

*He is quite the entertainer and loves to dance! We go to a Kindermusik class once a week and he loves to entertain with his groovy moves! The bigger the audience the better!

*He has an inguinal hernia that needs to be surgically corrected (we see the surgeon this week). It turns out his Michael Jackson impression is not just little boy curiosity....glad we pointed that one out to the pediatrician! Poor little guy!

I can't wait to update the blog with photos from our court date....hopefully it will be soon! Here are a few photos from our first vacations as a family!!