Swimming and a little song.

Last Sunday, our children's ministry from church hosted a warm up swim party at the local universities' in door pool.  This was Gizatu's first time in a pool.  He had a blast.  Of course he preferred his uncle Daniel, and at first I was like really, you want your uncle Daniel not your mother.  But then as pictures were being taken I decided that not being in them in my bathing suit was not such a bad thing. 

 

I did get to swim in the water with him now and then, and my nephew was also there who I swam with.  Although I will give you one tip...don't, do not, don't even think about going into the hot tub before going into the not so hot pool.  Its cold and not fun.  And then don't go back into the hot tub for 2 minutes to be dragged back into the not so hot pool for 2 minutes, to be dragged back into the hot tub to be dragged back into the not so hot pool.  Just not fun. 

But to end on a fun note how about a little song.  Can you guess what it is?

2010 in a nutshell

I know I'm way late, its already almost halfway through January and I'm just now writing a post.  I'll be honest by the time I get done with the day and G's in bed, I sit down to blog and end up reading everybody else's.  Which I love, the ones that make me laugh could possibly be my favorites, but I also like the ones that make me tear up.

But I know that at least a few of you guys like an update on G's and my life together, so here it goes.

2010 in a nutshell...
It was an amazing year.  I honestly thought that I would just now be returning home with Gizatu (of course I had no idea who he would be) when I started the process of adopting, and now we've been home for 4.5 months, almost 5.  It is crazy.

When I started the adoption journey I thought I would be bringing home a child between the age of 6 months and 12 months.  Then things changed and I opened up to an "older" child (children older than 2 in the adoption world are considered older) and received a referral for a 3.5 year old boy who was tiny on Good Friday.  And it was a good Friday.
Then came court in Ethiopia and we passed on the first try and in those court days before you had to travel that was highly unlikely.
Then the embassy delay, which in the end only cost us about 2 weeks I believe.
Then on August 19, I meet G for the first time.  And it was amazing...

And I also realized that my son was more like 2.5, not 3.5 almost 4. So more changes in my world.

I took custody of him on August 23.  Our family day.  I have really mixed feelings about family day.  Some of you may agree, some of you may not.  And that is fine.  That was the day that I became his and he became mine, but it was also the day that he truly lost his birth family.  Adoption is hard and it is full of loss, it is also full of hope and love and joy, but at the root of adoption is loss.  And it is sad.  (okay sorry for that small tangent... i will move on. )

We spent the next 3 days either in the hotel, at the embassy in Addis, or on an airplane.  They were rough days for me.  He did great.  I was a basket case.

We left Addis at 10pm on Thursday, August 26th and arrived home on Friday, August 27th to a crowd of lovely people at the airport.  It was an exhausting flight and I walked the plane more times than I can count, but I was sooooo glad to be home.  You will see the exhaustion in the following picture (normally I would never post a picture of me after only have about 5 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours but here's the real me... :)

Those first weeks home were hard.  Harder than anything I've ever done in my life.  But slowly life with G became my normal and now I have a hard time remembering life before him (although I do miss my sleep, of course I could be in bed right now, but no its quiet and the TV is off and no one is climbing on top of me...ahhhhh)

I took two months off of work which was amazing.  I'm so thankful for the time we had together. He started daycare in November.  We transitioned the week before he started by just spending time at the daycare, getting to know his teachers and classmates.  It helped that his cousin also attends the same daycare.  He enjoys it there, and that helps put my heart at ease.

In November, my church family and biological family dedicated ourselves to G.  It was the sweetest thing ever (Anne I still need those pictures :)!

In December, he became officially mine again.  In order to apply for citizenship for G, I had to readopt him.  So mom came down and we headed to court.  5 minutes and it was done.

Tried to hide my band aids from when my face meet the concrete.  I did a pretty good job of it if I say so myself.

G also was in his first Christmas program.  Love my sheep!

So then Christmas, which I actually did a post about, so you can read that one if you want more Christmas fun.

It's been a crazy wild year.  But an absolutely amazing one.  Looking forward to 2011.

Christmas is here!

Last night as I was laying with Gizatu for him to fall asleep he kept asking about Santa.  Trying to explain to an almost three year old whose been home from Ethiopia for 4 months about Santa coming while he is sleeping is not the easiest thing.  He doesn't get it.  He still doesn't quite understand still.  He woke up this morning at 7:00 am (that might be the last time til he's a teenager that he sleeps that late on Christmas day).  We waited for Grammy and Peepaw to get dressed then headed downstairs to see what Santa brought!

This is the Santa stash before Gizatu came down. 

Gizatu playing with his truck.  The only thing he actually asked Santa for. 

Santa always leaves an apple and orange in stockings at our house.  He loved the orange.  Guess I'll be buying more of those in the future. 

We actually woke up to a white Christmas.  First Christmas in Alabama and it snows.  Who would have thought it, but it was wonderful. 

It has been an amazing Christmas this year.  Having a son has changed everything!  He's the best present ever.  Being a mommy has blessed my life like nothing else and showed me love like nothing else. 

Love this little man!

Christmas, it's a coming!

So Gizatu is currently sound asleep and I actually am still awake so I thought I'd bless you with a quick blog :)

 The tree before all the branches were "fluffed".  I originally was going to skip the tree this year, but got a really good deal on a prelit tree the friday after thanksgiving.  I know how could I skip on a tree, well I wanted a real one, but I also didn't want to keep my cats from crawling up a real one.  And being a parent is expensive.  And it was one cost I just couldn't hack right now...but then this tree with lights already on it (not a fan of putting lights on a tree) was just too good of a deal.  Gizatu wasn't too sure about this whole thing.  But I did get him to put a new ornament on the tree. 

"We" then hung the lights on the holly tree out front. Okay I really hung them and then set up G to do a photo op.  He looks so cute though!

 So my grandmother asked me if it would be alright to get a African American Santa for Gizatu.  I said rock on!  Now he sits proudly atop our tree!

Love Christmas!

It's December!

How is it possible that it is already December?  It seems rather crazy to me.  This December is so different than last.  Last December I was waiting in anticipation for a son or daughter.  For this little person who would so change my life and now, he's here.  And he's amazing.  I adore him.  He makes me laugh everyday. 

We had our first Thanksgiving together.  He played and played with my family.  There were a total of 17 people in my parents house.  It was wonderful.  And he ate and ate.  This boy loves turkey.

He loves his cousin, Andrew.  He would follow him everywhere.

On Saturday, we went and visited his ET friends who live a little way away from my parents.  He was so excited.  He loves G and D.  It did take them a little while to warm up to each other, but once they did there was no stopping them.  They took a ride on the go cart.  Even though he looks not exactly excited.  He was PUMPED! He loves cars and anything that looks like one.

 D and G and Gizatu lived in the same village when they were in Ethiopia and their birth mothers knew each other so we (D & G's parents, as well as me) think it is very important to keep them connected to each other.

 They had a blast. 

 They have this hill where they ride riding toys down.  Gizatu wanted to do it so bad.  Mom on the other hand was a little apprehensive.  But he did and had a blast. Of course he ran into a rock and flipped but he was okay.

 On this past Thursday I took a little spill on the concrete outside Gizatu's daycare and ended up with multiple band-aids on my face.  Gizatu wanted to show me some sympathy (actually he just loves to put band-aids on.)

One final picture chilling on the floor watching his favorite, Mecinas (or C@rs).

botanical gardens

I am very lucky to have an amazing friend in my life who is also quite handy with a camera.  We've known each since the 2nd grade.  Went to middle school, high school and college together.  She's one of those friends who you call when times are awful and who you call when times are amazing.  So last Friday we headed to the Botanical Gardens and she took a few pictures.  I personally think they are amazing!  She is also an amazing poet, and writer.  One of the most crafty people I know.  She's been through some really hard times recently and yet she's still one of the strongest people I know (although she would probably deny that).  Hope you all enjoy the pictures.  I know I do!

p.s. daphne all the photos are for you!

Random things

So I decided I should do a post before its been a whole month since the last.  This past month has been full of many new and different things.

Gizatu got his first haircut since he's been home with me.  He did great.  Sat in my lap and let Ms. Kristi cut away.  Mommy of course had hair everywhere.  Here's some pictures to show how he did.

I have also started back to work.  Thankfully I am only working 3 days a week until the end of the year, so G is only in daycare those three days.  The week before I went back to work, we went almost everyday to his daycare so that he could meet his teacher and get to know some of the kids.  I left him for 3 hours one day.  It was hard, I'll admit.  I cried as I walked out the door.  I didn't know that it would be that hard, but he did really well.  Then the next day he spent 8 hours.  He didn't want me to leave, but didn't throw a fit or anything.  He was excited to see me when I picked him up.  I missed him throughout the day, and thought of him often, but really didn't worry about him.  My nephew goes to the same daycare so I knew there was someone there G knew well.

I also had a birthday.  My first birthday as a mother.  My brother got a card for G to give me for my birthday.  It was so sweet.  It sang to me.  Of course my brother says that when they were choosing a card the based it on the cry factor.  This one made me tear up.  Being a mom is the best thing ever, it is also the hardest thing ever.  I adore him.

So the following pictures are just silly.  G had put stickers all over my face and then started making funny faces at the camera, so I though I'd share.

G and the animals are doing really well.  This picture is the first time my cat, Tallie, has come within 10 feet of G though.  He was so excited that she was laying on him.  Then he sneezed and she jumped right off.  He thought it was hilarious.