Fast Approaching - Our First Christmas Together

In three short days we will be celebrating our first Christmas together as a family. It's an amazing thought when we look back at our journey, going from two to three. We had only a fraction of the whole picture when we decided to add to our family (surely this is true for all new parents). There are countless things we never considered, despite how much we tried to prepare. However, now it's pretty entertaining to think back to some of our earliest times with Nataga. We'll likely never forget his guest house clearing, "security installing", first "dirty" diaper change. Nobody from the house would attempt to go to anywhere near our room for the rest of our stay and the owner would come find us everyday asking "Where is the poop?" in her heavy Amharic accent, quickly rushing it outside. Later we were shown a place far away from the house that we could leave his diapers! We won't soon forget the way he struggled with needing food so desperately that his cries would shock us so much they would send our formula mixing and preparations into the air, all over us, and not into his mouth soon enough which yielded more crying; we won't forget the sudden reality of parenthood when he was first placed in our arms; we can't forget the fright and uncertainty of his first food "reversal" where after all of that crying nothing stayed down anyway, his subsequent bath, and our clothing change; we still remember his first night-terror that was unlike anything we had heard before; we'll never forget the pride we felt (and continue to feel) each time he does something new; we'll never forget his cute laughs and giggles he lavishly pours out. The pride we feel having him as our son through the good and the bad (but mostly good of course)! There are undoubtedly several others we have not recounted here, but often enjoy together. We hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas, filled with the enjoyment of the simple joys of life.

A year ago today!

 

 

 

 

It was a year ago today that our lives changed. Exactly one year ago we got THE CALL and saw Nataga's sweet little face for the first time. It was one year ago today that we knew he was ours to love forever, that we accepted a referral for our son, and knew who it was we had been praying and longing for, for so long. It is hard to believe we have known him for a year now. Our sweet, mischievous, and fun loving child. I am so glad we chose to adopt. I am so glad God chose him for us and us for him. We couldn't ask for anything better or more! Happy one year Nataga! Thanks for blessing our lives!

Snow comes to Texas

 

On another note today was Nataga's first time to see snow. Yes, you heard me right. Snow came to Texas today! He LOVED it... and we might have enjoyed it just as much!

At the park

Yesterday we all went to a park that is close to our house. We go there pretty often but I usually end up forgetting my camera. This time I made sure not to, here are some of the pictures:

 

 

 

 

Keep scrolling for more!

 

 

Who would have thought pine needles are so multifunctional? They work great as a tootpick...

 

As a general chew toy...

 

Look at this thing, what doesn't it do?

Fall

 

 

 

The leaf is about as big as he is!

Livin' the good life

 

A stroll through the park with snacks!

 

All sorts of neat things to look at.

 

Someone just wanted to be held by his daddy!

 

But I wasn't allowed to eat the bug I found!

A walk at the park

 

 

 

 

K loves to go visit the turtles and I love that he will still hold hands and walk with me!

 

 

 

 

One large leap...

 

 

 

Recently K hasn't walked all (if not most) of the time. Instead he "spider crawls" when he wants to get somewhere. Today he found out that he can run and has had a blast doing so! It's so fun to see him run from place to place and quite a change from his recent preference of crawing. He also wore his first tie today! He is a sharp looking boy!

Our cutie!

Before you watch this you'll probably want to scroll all of the way down to the bottom and pause the music. Nataga's favorite thing to do lately is laugh. It is so fun. He'll laugh at about anything, but his favorite is when you hide behind something and then spring up and "boo" him!

 

Fall fun!

 

 

 

 

It doesn't get any better than this...

 

 

 

 

...except maybe, when he's yours! I love adoption!