Monday, August 31, 2009

Pictures of Bear!

I got two more pictures of Bereket today. He is such a beautiful little boy.






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Saturday, August 29, 2009

Aminals, aminals

The weather here was gorgeous today so we went to the zoo to enjoy it. When the dinosaur exhibit opened in the spring, Andrew was mildly interested. He has since become pretty excited about dinosaurs so we went through it again. He loved it. He roared at a few of them and cracked up when they roared back at him. There was only one that scared him.

We used to just wander through the zoo and see whatever animals were on our path but now he has an agenda and we have to see certain animals: monkeys, zebras, giraffes (which he also calls zebras, for some reason), lions and the dinosaurs.


The new baby gibbon:






























Guess who I took these for? ;)




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Friday, August 28, 2009

Star of the Week

If my life were a classroom (oh wait, it sort of is), this week's Star of the Week would be a wonderful woman named Kendell. You can find her blog here. She is traveling to Ethiopia on Saturday to pick up her two very special little boys. Not only did she agree to take a small package to Bear for me, but she has assured me that she will love on him and get lots of pictures (maybe even some video!) while she is there. AND (can you believe there is MORE?) her husband is a pediatrician and is going to examine all of the kids at the orphanage! See??? She is definitely the Star of the Week, don't you think?

Even after having already gone through one adoption process, I am still amazed by the people I have met and the generosity they have shown Andrew, me, and now Bear.
Bear's package contained a photo album of his new brother and Mommy, a new pair of jammies (size 18 mos) and a toy car that was Andrew's. I asked him to pick out a car to send to his brother and he immediately went to find one. I'm stunned by how much he already loves his brother. He not only gave the toy to him willingly, but kissed it several times before putting it in the bag. (P.S. I am not too cheap to buy my son a new toy....I thought it would be more meaningful if it was one of Andrew's toys.)

I had vowed that I was not going to buy the boys matching clothes but since they are so close in age (and SIZE!), I'm finding that I sort of can't help myself. So, I bought Andrew the same cute jammies that I bought for Bear. If we can't see Bear wearing them, we can at least see Andrew wearing them, right? I'm hoping that Kendell will be able to get a picture of Bear wearing the pj's and then I can have pics of both of my boys in the same thing. Is that weird? It might be. But I don't care.

I asked Andrew to let me take his picture tonight and he decided to be difficult. Aren't the jammies cute, though? They're camo with BEARS!

pretending to be asleep:


his scary face:


the consequence for not letting mama take your picture is that you must be tickled:






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Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Imagination

Andrew has been using his imagination during play a lot lately. It's so fun to watch. Yesterday, he was using an empty juice box as a phone.
One of his favorite things to do right now is to put his plastic animals in a group and then have the Fisher Price little people and his matchbox cars 'ride' them.








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Monday, August 24, 2009

Line 'em up!

I asked Andrew to clean up his tub toys before he got out.
Here's what I found:




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Sunday, August 23, 2009

Celebration!

Tonight, we went downtown to celebrate Bear's referral with some Ethiopian food. We had a great meal and a great time with friends. After dinner, we stopped at Buckingham Fountain to let the kids run around. Andrew had never seen it before. He's a big fan of fountains and this one was no exception. It's one of my favorite things in the city.

Yum!


She tried it!






The Daniels' family:






Ice cream! He was so excited about it and wouldn't eat any of it.









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14 months

I'm not allowed to share certain information with you about our beautiful new brother from Ethiopia. They have asked me not to give out any information which could identify him at this time.  For that reason, I cannot even post his name. I can tell you though, that when I told a friend what his name was, she immediately came up with a great nickname for him: Bear. I love it. As most people who know me in real life know, I'm not a huge fan of nicknames, but I love this one and it fits him. So, from now on, I will refer to him here as 'Bear'.  


During Andrew's adoption, I said that I trusted God to work it all out but I didn't. I worried and stressed and questioned just about everything. When I saw how everything worked out and the amazing things that happened on that journey, I realized that God was in control of the entire thing and all my worrying did absolutely nothing to help the situation anyway. This time around, it is much easier to trust because I already know what's possible. That's not really the definition of trust but you have to start somewhere.  


At the beginning of this adoption, even before it started, my prayer was that God would show me what I needed to do, when I needed to push people to get things done, and when I needed to wait.  My wonderful friend, Kelly, had also been praying for me and God used her to show me exactly when I should start.  (He knew that I value her expertise in adoption and would listen to her sooner than just about anyone else).  There have already been so many signs that this adoption is going exactly as it should be.  For that reason, and because I promised to trust Him, I felt that I was supposed to take whatever referral was offered to me. (I had the option of waiting for a younger child).  When I saw his picture, I knew he was my son and there was no way I could have said no.  There is a small part of me, though, that wanted an infant. I loved carrying Andrew in the sling and giving him a bottle at nap time and bed time. I was feeling a tiny bit apprehensive about not being able to share that with Bear so I went back to look at some of Andrew's pictures from when he was 14 months. He was SO little. It helped me so much to remember how dependent he still was on me and how small he still was.  In the long run, I am going to love having the two of them so close in age and I know it will be great for them to have each other.  I know I'll miss many firsts with Bear but there are so many more to come and I can't wait to experience them with him.


A family using my agency is in Ethiopia right now picking up their daughter. They have promised to get new pictures of Bear and to find out how big he really is. :)

Until I am able to show you the pictures of my beautiful new son, I've decided to post some pictures of Andrew at the age that Bear is now.  (14 mos was when Andrew first said, Dad-dad....his name for Grandad).






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He did it!

Since we got Andrew's bunk beds, he has not been able to go to sleep in them all by himself. I have been sitting in his room with him every naptime and every night while he went to sleep. He will play in there by himself during the day but gets very scared when it's time to go to sleep. Yesterday, he slept in his bed ALL BY HIMSELF. I'm so proud of him.

Right now he is watching his new "Wiggles" video as a reward for going to sleep all by himself.


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