Celebrating Little Man

January 22, 2015 marked our one year anniversary of officially becoming parents to our not so little man. In the adoption community, it is termed “Gotcha Day” or “Family Day”. For us, it wasn’t the start of our adoption journey, as I have well documented here before, but it is still an important part of our journey non the less. When we started this whole process, we set out to adopt a healthy African infant. Within six months, we held a squirming blonde haired, blue-eyed toddler instead. We really scratched our heads at the turn of events, but looking back, it was a great gift from God, who is changing us everyday (for the better) through this little boy. Our lives, and the lives of everyone who has been around him for any amount of time has been immensely enriched. Our friends and family no longer come over to hang out with us, they come to be around him! He is such a joy and we are honored to be his parents.

So, how can I describe what little man (and hence us)  is up to these days....

For starters, his personality is really starting to emerge. He loves being silly and I think he will end up being the class clown down the road. He loves to dress up, and when he is at home (and occasionally at the grocery store) he is almost always in costume. From ninja turtles, to batman, Columbus Blue jackets, or Ohio State Football player, he is always dressing up to play the part. And as you can guess, we are often asked to join in as well. 

He is athletic, loves every sport and is good at nearly every sport he tries. We have played soccer, T-ball, swimming, tumbling, and basketball (so far). He has a very competitive spirit, and is only a slightly poor loser. He is SO active! He practically runs everywhere he goes.                            

He is smart; learning to write, sound out letters, he can count to a 100 (with a little help from time to time), and he loves to read books. 

So, we decided to celebrate our anniversary of becoming (officially) a family by letting little man lead the way. First, he wanted us to come have lunch with him at school. On different days leading up to his special day we both visited and had lunch with not only Jayden, but his entire class as well.... I learned a lot about the other parents through their very open and very talkative children. I am however a little nervous about what he tells others about us....

                                               

He also wanted to eat a restaurant and go to Cosi (our local science center), and that’s exactly what we did.

  

 

We had a wonderful day(s) celebrating our little man and our family. On the (other) adoption forefront, Chinese New year is approaching in February, so I am not expecting any referral until at least March. After that, who knows...maybe an April referral with a late summer travel? Fingers crossed. Little man is beyond excited to be a big brother, and he predicts a little pink in this blue dominated house....we shall see...