A Evening with the Symphony!

Tonight one of our friends organized a night out with the symphony.  Okay so the symphony was already playing at a local park, but she told us all about it and about 9 families came out to play.  The park was full of families and kids.  It was a  good time.  They played Sound Of M@sic, Pir@tes of the C@ribean, and H@rry Potter.  They were beautiful.  The kids had a blast just running around.  They also had a time of arts and crafts prior to the concert. This is Gizatu giving the "what are you taking a picture of me for" look.

He made a fan, which was really nice for mommy because it was hot outside.

I have no idea what we were talking about... but it looks like why do I have to put my shoes back on, when in reality he continued running around minus the shoes for the rest of the night.

And we ended the night on the playground, well the men ended their night on the playground, I was still listening to the symphony play beautiful music.

A first for me!

Today is my first mother's day!  It has been a lovely day.  Yesterday, Gizatu gave me a card he made for me at school as well as a beautiful butterfly.  Today, started with a wake-up call from my sweet boy.  My sister called and wished me a happy mother's day, and so did my brother.  My brother said let me talk to Gizatu.  So he and Gizatu talked for a few minutes and then I hear "Happy birthday, mommy".  Close enough for me.  We then headed for church.  Multiple happy mother's days later I decided to surprise my mother and headed to her house for mother's day.  She lives about an hour and half from us.  So we hopped in the car and headed on.

We surprised her and had lunch with my mom, dad, sister, aunt and uncle, aunt, cousin and his wife, and my grandmother.  Then we spent a few more hours hanging out.  We headed home after that.  After a full day, my sweet boy zonked out.  He barely woke up for a minute while I was laying him in his bed.  But then he was out.

I can't believe what an amazing experience it is to be a mother, to be this sweet boy's mom.  He's brought an unbelievable light to my life.  He makes me laugh, and sometimes I cry tears because his first momma doesn't get to experience all of this.  Her loss made me a mother.  She is my hero.  I hope she knows that he is safe and loved.  I know he was loved when he lived with her and I hope she knows that he is loved now that he lives with me. 

Easter Egg Hunt

Today Gizatu experienced a first.  Easter Egg hunt.  He decided he wanted to wear his hat and didn't take it off for most of the morning.  Thus most of the pictures I got of him today you can't see his face.  His hat is way too big for him, because it was my sisters. 

I wanted to try and get some pictures of the two of us together, but he was way too interested in finding more eggs, so here was the attempt.  I still think he's cute though.

 A final run down the side of the hill, minus the hat.  He was dirty and sandy and all around happy.  It was a great day!

I'm a cry baby.

So I just watched the Blind Sid@ for the millionth time and always it makes me cry.  It touches me in so many ways.  For those of you who don't know, I'm a social worker.  I work with foster families and also adoptions.  This movie hit me the first time I saw it because of the way the system can fail its children.  The ones that they are supposed to protect and how sometimes it doesn't work that way.  But it also hits me with my son.  While I realize that Gizatu's story is so different than Michael's, there is that part of me that relates.  Will I be ready to take someone down in the middle of a football game for any disparaging remarks made about my son?  When he's in his first car accident and I race to him, will they question the fact that he is my son?  As I watch his momma leave him for college, I'm gonna be a basket case.  I know I'm getting way ahead of myself, he's not even close to beginning kindergarten, but these are all thoughts that run through my head. 

Everytime I see a young black man, I wonder who he's going to grow up to be.  Will he be tall, or average?  Will he want dread locks or braids?  When is the time that he is going to wish I understood all that it means to be a black man in this world?  Because as much as I wish to protect him from the prejudices and stereotypes that this world has, I won't be able to.  So I will, instead, prepare him for them to the best of my ability.  Make sure there are men and women in his life who do fully understand it and get it, because they live it everyday.

Okay so that was a much deeper post than originally planned.  To end on a happier note here are some pictures from our first Thom@s the Train event with our Ethiopian buddy. 

Dancing to the music.

His first tat!

Love these boys!

The first time I saw your face.

One year ago today was the first time I saw his face.  This boy who has so changed my life.  Its amazing to think about how it all came about.  This is the first picture I saw of him.  It was so small and hard to see.  Of course the tears in my eyes didn't help any either.  You can read all about that day here.

I then received this picture about 3 weeks later...

(I can't figure out how to get the picture to flip on blogger.)

 

 

 

 

I was so excited to get this picture.  I could actually make out his face and his features. 

He's an amazing little boy.  He's brought so much to my life.  Its changed in ways I could never imagined.  Love you little man.

Wordless Wednesday

I need your help choosing...

So in December, my friend Daphne who adopted Ben told me that her BFF wanted to take pictures of G and myself.  Of course the Thursday prior to the photo shoot I fell and busted my face all up, so it became a photo shoot of G with a little bit of Ben thrown in for good measure.  He did so good and with Daphne's help the following smiles were captured. There were about 30 pictures.   So now I want to get one of these pictures blown up and put on canvas.  I've narrowed it down to 8 photos. Of course I can't choose so I want your help.