It's Official!!!

 

Someone was a bit tired since we had to get up at 6AM to make the court date. We are waiting for our turn!

 

Proud to be an American.

We completed a last step of adoption yesterday, re-adoption!!! It was so neat and such a blessing for us. Nataga had an official name change and is a US citizen now! He even got a bear from the judge to celebrate with. There was another Gladney family there with a boy adopted from Ethiopia. Nataga LOVED seeing him and playing with him. Nataga was a PERFECT traveler and even serenaded us for part of the trip down. However on the trip back he was so tired he slept the whole 5-6 hours.

Happy 11 months, happy re-adoption day: This morning Nataga woke up singing again. He has the cutest little voice and his songs are priceless. I was glad to hear it and can't get enough of his singing. It is too cute! I went in to change his diaper and told him I loved him. He looked at me and says "I know". Then I put him down to play with some toys and in that sing song voice he says "I'm loved, I'm the baby". The things he comes up with I am ALWAYS blown away by. He is 11 months today and doesn't say things like other babies his age. They repeat words over and over. With Nataga it is a one time hit or miss but the things he says are amazing and make so much since that sometimes I wonder if he just "happens" to say things at certain times. He comes up with things I would never think of or think he would even know to say. He seems to understand though. I spend a lot of my time asking David "did you just hear that"? to make sure that I am not the only one hearing these cute things. Right now he is standing beside me, while I type, and just patted my leg and said "Momma!" when I looked down he grinned at me and said "Hi" followed by a giggle, and then said "meeeee big". I can't express how much I love this child and how amazed and lucky we feel to have him as part of our lives. He is an amazingly great kid. Who still demands to be fed the moment he is hungry, who is curious about his world and loves to see how things work, who is observant, and stubborn to do things only when he wants, smart as can be, sweet, funny, cute beyond belief, precious, has the best facial expressions you have ever seen, and wonderful. I don't think you can meet him without him bringing a smile to your face. We are so lucky to have him and are so glad the official became even more official yesterday!