Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween!!

Caleb had a great time dressing up for Halloween! Isn't he just the cutest little lion you have ever seen? We decided to dress him up as a lion because his most favorite stuffed animal, Mr. Lion, goes everywhere with him and Caleb sleeps with him every night. So, a lion just seemed like the natural thing for Caleb to be :)



The upcoming week is going to be a difficult one for me- I really am going back to work for sure this time, and even though it is part time, it will be the first time in almost 11 months that I will be leaving Caleb on a consecutive basis. I am so thankful that God provided our family the opportunity for me to stay at home with Caleb for such a long time- I feel very fortunate. I can see how much the time has meant for both of us, and for that, I am sooo thankful. Caleb has adjusted so well, and I know he will be fine without me for 20 hours a week. I will just miss all the little special times with him, like putting him down for his nap and being able to hold him when he wakes up, saying his prayers with him before "bite bite time" (lunch), you know, all those sweet moments. I guess it will just make every moment I do spend with him even sweeter :)
Also, this weekend is the AWAA Spirit of Adoption Seminar at our church. I have really been praying that God would speak to hearts and bring folks to this seminar. He can do anything, and I trust that he will! Oh, and good news- one of the families at the last AWAA seminar has sent in their paperwork to AWAA for the Ethiopia program! Praise the Lord!!!




Wednesday, October 28, 2009

One Year Ago Today....And Updates!!!

One year ago today I received a phone call that I had been praying would never come- One year ago today we found out that we did not pass court. I still remember listening to Duni tell me why we didn't pass and being in disbelief. I remember calling Zack and through tears telling him the news. We would have to wait until December to try again, and hopefully we would be able to travel before the new year. My biggest disappointment came in the fact that we would not hold Caleb in our arms before he turned one year old. For some reason, that was such an important thing to me back then. I didn't know how we would make it through the next couple of months...but we did. Actually, it wasn't near as bad as I had thought it would be. It is so hard for me to believe that all that transpired a year ago....that means that Caleb has been with us for ten months now! Wow! I have no doubt that us failing court was all a part of God's sovereign plan and that he knew exactly what he was doing. Once we saw Caleb for the first time, none of it seemed to matter- he was ours, and would be with us forever!


Just a few updates on Caleb (sorry, no pictures this time.....more of our fall family pics to come soon, though :)

-He is a whopping 27 pounds now and is around 35.5 inches tall- not too bad for the little fella!

-He is beginning to put two words together! For example, he will say "Up momma" when he wants me to get up in the morning. Or he will identify his toys by name and color, such as "yellow ball".

-He is in love with football. That is all the boy wants to watch! So, his birthday party is going to be, yep, you guessed it- football theme!

-He is beginning to say his numbers, 1-10 and his ABC's

-He loves to throw a ball, kick a ball, and he has just learned how to do a somersault!

One of the most interesting things- He will point to other black or bi-racial children and say "Bubub" which is what he calls himself, since he can't pronounce a the cuh sound. He also identifies himself with the black children in his books, as opposed to the white children. Needless to say, he is a very observant child.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Fall Family Pictures :)













This past week we went to the Rockastle River Trading Post and had our fall pictures/Caleb's 2 year old pictures (he will be 2 in December!!!) taken. We could not have been more pleased with how they turned out. Our photographer, Kelli Baker, did an amazing job! Check out her blog. She is awesome!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Fall Fun.....












Fall is here in full force and we are loving it as you can see from the pictures. This past weekend we moved out of our home and in with my parents. Yes, we moved out of the home we worked so hard on :) But, the timing was right and the Lord blessed us with the sale of our home-we did buy it as an investment, after all, I just don't think we were planning on cashing in on it so soon :) So, we on the lookout for a new home! It is exciting, but I am hoping we can live in our next home a little longer....moving is no fun!

The AWAA seminar went great last weekend as well! Zack and I were supposed to just be training at this seminar, but unfortunately, just a couple days before the seminar the leaders son became ill (he is doing much better now) and I became the leader! Thanks to lots of prayers and the support of my family, it went great and I had a wonderful time talking with the families about adoption. God truly moved in hearts!!! Can't wait until the next one!!!