"Mommy, I had a dream..."

Anthony: "Mommy, I had a dream that I was in lost and found and you found me and adopted me!"

David's Quote of the Day

After excitedly opening his birthday card from his Abuelos, I asked David what he might do with his birthday money. His response:

David: "I'm going to save it, but not all of it."

Me: "Why not?"

David: "Because I don't want to be rich because that wouldn't be fair. Some people don't have a lot of money...like the orphans don't have any money and I'd want to give some of my money to them."

Birthday Cards

I'm so thankful that I have a son who gets almost equally excited opening birthday cards as he does opening presents.

Happy Birthday, David!

His actual birthday is on the 10th of this month, but we celebrated today. I am still in denial that he will be six years old.

We made blueberry pancakes this morning.

Did FaceTime with Grandma, Grandpa, and cousin Naomi. 

Went to his birth mom's place for gifts.

Then we celebrated with Cold Stone ice cream.

It was a small, low-key party, but we had a blast. It was so sweet watching David as he played with his brother, birth cousins, and former foster sister, Z. David, Anthony, and Z are forming quite a bond together...I love it.  I love that we still get to be a part of her life.

Anthony handled everything surprisingly well and I was so thankful for such a fun day!

David and Anthony finishing up a 100 piece puzzle from Grandma and Grandpa.

David in all of his baseball gear. 

Anthony loved his stuffed animal gifts:).

Then & Now

 May 2012

Then (Age 4): 

* Both boys were learning how to tie their shoes 

* Anthony was practicing saying the ABCs and counting to 10

* David was starting to read some simple words and practicing counting by 10s 

May 2013

Now (Age 5): 

* Both boys can tie, snap, zip, and button...they can even fold their own clothes, put them on the hanger and hang them up in the closet! 

* Anthony is reading some of David's simple books, adding and subtracting for simple math problems, and counting to 30 (with reminders for 14) 

* David is reading with more ease and can add, subtract, and counts by 10s, 5s, and 2s

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Today was another fun day with my boys! 

Brothers Forever

The boys have off from school this week and today was beautiful. We spent time at the playground this afternoon and as I listened to their sweet voices discussing how many cicada shells each had collected while huddled under a tree (yeah, I'm a mom to boys...it doesn't phase me anymore), my mind went back to one year ago....

One year ago we were at the playground and I was again marveling at how much the boys enjoyed playing with each other. But one year ago the feeling was bittersweet because mixed in with the joy was the impending goodbye...the loss of a son...loss of a brother.

I re-read an old journal entry of mine in which I described the deep sadness of not being able to watch the boys grow up together. Lee and I often wondered how David would handle it.

So as I sat on the playground bench today, I was praising God for the incredible privilege I have one year later...to watch the bond between David and Anthony grow stronger and to have the security in knowing that it will be FOREVER.



This is a wonderful book given to the boys after Anthony's adoption. Sure, the kids are as white as can be, but as I read it to David and Anthony their faces lit up as they listened and realized that the characters were just like them. They like drinking hot cocoa together, they like playing baseball, they laugh at nothing together, they clean up their toys together, they argue sometimes, but always say "I'm sorry"....and best of all they are also brothers forever!

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Note: I want to add that both David and Anthony have experienced the loss of a brother (one older and one younger) and I pray that God gives them both the ability to support each other as they grieve these losses. I am also praying that we are able to extend to them a sense of connection and expanded family as we schedule visits as much as possible! 

Oh, Happiness

"Oh, happiness...there's grace, enough for us and the whole human race"

A dear friend of mine made a CD of songs for me. I'm not sure how, but she included almost all of my favorite songs:).

I had not heard the last song on the CD, but after listening to it a few times, I decided it was my new favorite and would be our theme song for this week:

Oh, Happiness

Wouldn't you know it...at church on Sunday, the take-away message was:

"When we embrace God's grace, we become grace givers."

I pray that God helps me to be open to learning HOW to be a grace giver this week.