The cutest little shepherd boy!!

Max was in his first CHRISTmas play at school! It was the sweetest thing ever!!! His preschool class sang and everyone had a speaking part (in groups). Max has been practicing, and practicing, and he knew his lines by heart! Of course I cried, and he was as proud as can be! Here's his part...complete with hand motions!

Clop, clop, clop went the donkey's feet
Clop, clop, clop down the stoney street
Nod, nod, nod went Mary's head
She was tired and needed a bed
Knock, knock, knock went Joseph at the door
Do you have room for even one more?
No, no, no the innkeeper said
I don't even have one more bed
Wait, wait, wait the innkeeper said
You can use my stable instead
Shh, shh, shh what's that I hear?
The cry of baby Jesus, oh so dear!

Love, love, love amidst the gifts and parties and holiday fun, that even at school Max is learning exactly why it is we celebrate!!!

The most wonderful time of the year!!!

We are having sooo much fun making CHRISTmas memories around here! Tonight's agenda.....baking and frosting cookies! Max was the perfect little helper, and had a blast decorating each cookie. I remember doing the same thing as a little girl, and its so cool getting to be Mom and watching my little boy love it to! Now we're all camped out on the couch, enjoying our cookies, watching Frosty The Snowman! The perfect night!

Yay for CHRISTmas!

Our tree is up and we are LOVING it! Max's favorite thing to do when we get home from school or from running errands is to ask "can I plug in the lights now?!?!" It makes him feel so grown up! Its fun to experience the CHRISTmas season through Max's eyes this year. He's really understanding everything so much more this year. We've talked about how much more important it is to give rather than to get....and how Jesus is the best gift ever given. Our sweet little smarty pants reminds us every day "God loves us sooooo much that's why we have Christmas!" We've got lots of other fun things planned for this month. Can't wait to experience them all with him!

The cutest Indian ever!!!

Max had his Thanksgiving feast at preschool today.....and he had a blast! The kids were supposed to dress up as either a pilgrim or an Indian, and Max chose to be an Indian! A friend of mine at church, who is a kindergarten teacher gave me supplies that they use in her class to make costumes for their feast....so we set to work! We had a lot of fun putting it together, and Max had even more fun wearing it! The feast was great (the teachers always do such an amazing job with the kids!) and he looked soooo darn cute! Unlike last year (after only having been home a month) Max really understands what it means to be thankful....and how incredible our God is! His prayers tonight showed just that. "God, I'm thankful for my mommy, and my daddy. And I'm thankful for my house, and Charlie (our dog) and for my muscles that are getting so big!" Goofy, but straight from the heart! We have soooooo much to be thankful for...and this little boy is a HUGE part of that!!!

Its official....he's a boy!

Well, we had our first trip to the ER on Monday....let me tell you, it was horrible! Max and his cousin Noah were having a great time, dancing in the living room when...BAM! Max flipped himself right into the coffee table. He split his left eyebrow right open!!! And he did it good, let me tell you! We rushed him to the ER and he bought himself three stitches. The doctor really did a great job, and I don't think he'll have much of a scar thankfully.

I have to tell you though...being a nurse.....its WAY different when you're mom!!! It was the HARDEST thing I've ever had to do watching Max being strapped down screaming "Mommy, Daddy don't leave me!!!". He was so scared, and he hates needles and hospitals anyways, so this was ten times worse for him. But, we all made it through together, Stephen and I just kept reminding him that there was no way we were leaving and we held his hand through it all. Afterwards Max really thought french fries and ice cream would make him feel better....so of course we agreed!

He's one tough kid! The very next morning, he was off to school to show off his battle wound. And he hasn't complained of it hurting since! Hopefully that's the last ER trip for a while!

Tomorrow?!

Today at lunch, Stephen and I were chatting when Max all of a sudden said "Excuse me Mom and Dad." He looked pretty serious as he asked "Can we bring my sister home tomorrow?" Oh bud, how I wish we could say "yes!" and have that be the case. We had a really good convo about how we have to wait, and continue to pray for her, for her health, and for her to be well cared for...just like we did Max while we waited for him to come home. He really seems to understand exactly what is happening through this process, and we loving sharing with him about it. I know among other things, Max is super excited to FINALLY one day have a picture of his sister. We're right there with you kiddo!

Yesterday we went to Cracker Barrel and picked up the CUTEST little baby doll!!! A friend of mine on a facebook adoption group had spotted it and posted a picture...I couldn't resist!!! She has dark skin and black hair, just like our perfect little girl will have! And its super soft! You could tell Max was a super proud big brother carrying it up to the register. Can't wait to see the two of them together!!!

Our paperwork is moving along really quickly and we're praying like crazy for continued smooth sailing......we're coming baby girl!

Super blessed!

My two guys sure do know how to make a girl feel special!!! Friday was my birthday and it was such a great day!!! All I wanted this year was a chance to shop!!! And shop I did! The boys were such troopers and I scored some serious deals! And of course there were fun things for them along the way too! We had a fun dinner out and stopped by a fun ice cream shop. All in all, GREAT family day with my two best guys! The pics are from our wait at the restaurant. We decided to entertain ourselves by taking goofy pics. Max was laughing so hard we were afraid he might pee his pants! Crazy kid!!

1st Annual Family Day!!!

One year ago today.....I seriously remember it like it was yesterday! I was unbelievably excited as we rode in the cab to Pakkred Babies home, but I also couldn't shake this feeling of almost needing to throw up! I was about to officially become Mom....and boy oh boy that feeling was BIG!!! And then suddenly, there he was...slightly terrified of all the chaos around him but undeniably the most adorable little boy we had ever seen! Even though I feel like EVERY detail of our two weeks in Thailand are still so fresh in my mind, its like it was yesterday.....I don't remember much of anything that was said to us during that hour or so we were at the babies home....I couldn't take my eyes off of Max!!! Nothing else mattered in that moment...he has there...right in front of us...and it was magical!!! And now, a year has passed, seriously?!?! A year?! I still can't quite grasp that....it feels like just yesterday in some ways. All that time of waiting to bring him home...and these last 12 months have FLOWN by! But on the other hand...I think back and its as if Max has always been a part of our lives, he's ours, 100%. The family that the three of us have become is a true testament to the awesomeness that is our God! We prayed for this incredible little boy not knowing his face or his name....but our Father knew him all along....had a plan for not only our lives but for his!! Stephen and I have been blessed in ways we never even imagined we would by being "mom" and "dad" to this awesome little boy! And today we reminded him a gazillion times just how super cool he is!!! We talk a ton about adoption, and Thailand, and the trip that Stephen and I took to bring him home, but we wanted to especially remind him today just how special he is, and just how much we prayed and longed for him. We let him pick what we did today...and it turned into a pretty cool day! Lots of pictures ahead!!!


First stop, Curtis Orchard! Fall incarnate really! We stocked up on donuts, cider and apples!!! So yummy!





For lunch, we headed to Flesor's Candy Kitchen! Yummy food....but of course that's not what we were there for!!!



Next on Max's wish list....bowling!! He's never been before, and he's been talking about wanting to go forever! So, today was the day, and according to Max, it didn't disappoint! He had a great time, and so did Stephen and I! Check out the score....Max really kept up thanks to the bumpers! I am truly terrible at bowling...but the bumpers came in handy for me too! And check out Max's strike! That was completely on his own...without the bumpers....he was jumping up and down cheering for that one!







And, to round out the evening, we headed to the baseball diamond close to our house. Max want to run the bases and practice batting. He's pretty pumped about getting to play next year, so we're getting in practices now while the weather's still nice!





We ended the night watching the dvd that Max's Aunt Rae-Rae made for us. Its a slide show of pictures of Max before we brought him home, and then pictures of the three of us in Thailand together. Its an incredible gift, and makes me cry every time I watch it!!! What a great day...with an amazing boy!!!

The big 3-0!!!!!

Happy Birthday to my love!!! We celebrated with a fabulous weekend in Ohio with our best friends and Stephen got to spend Saturday golfing....doesn't get much better than that as far as he's concerned! It was so nice to spend some quality time with them and their two boys....and even more fun to make a fuss over Stephen!!! Max LOVED getting to spoil Daddy, and he did an awesome job of keeping everything a surprise! We got Stephen a new fancy set of golf clubs and topped the night off with ice cream sundaes. So glad we got to celebrate like that because......unfortunately today for his actual birthday he's all the way in Texas for a work trip. Big boo for that!!! But, we talked a million times today and we packed some small presents in his suit case for him to open this morning....so hopefully that helped make the day special!

Happy Birthday to the sweetest and craziest guy I know! Max and I are beyond blessed to call you ours!

Here we go again....Yay!!!!

We have officially begun the paperwork for our second adoption! We are praying that we'll be bringing a little girl home from Thailand some time in the next two years! We've chosen to work with a new international agency this time around.....but we're sticking with LCFS for our homestudy and post placement "stuff". They were so awesome through Max's adoption, and really worked so hard to pick up all the pieces of the mess created by our international agency.....there's no way we'd work with anyone else! For the international portion, we've chosen New Beginnings out of New York. They place "special needs" children which is what we were looking for. We knew we wanted to request a little girl, and we knew we wanted a waiting child. With my medical background and God blessing us and allowing me to now stay home full time, it has been on our hearts since the start of our adoption journey with Max to bring home a child that might need extra medical attention. We thought that might be the case with Max, but he's such a rock star the most "extra medical attention" he's needed is a few dr.'s visits! We can certainly handle that!

We've been told to "expect two years" start to finish, but "pray for less." And you know we'll be doing that! Start to finish, we brought Max home just one month shy of two years. While we were in the middle of the waiting, it seemed never ending, but now we're just two weeks short of celebrating the one year anniversary of having him home! So, we're praying that maybe having this awesome guy to journey through the waiting period with us will make it that much easier! He's sold on the idea of having a sister....and he's for sure ready to be a big brother! He loves talking about how his sister is "being born in Thailand just like me!" He's very interested in helping us choose a name.....although I'm not 100% sure we'll go with his first choice. I just don't love the way "Chicken Nugget Kull" flows! He was very proud to make his sign for the picture. His writing skills are getting better and better. I wrote the words out and he traced them and then colored in the arrow. That's definitely one drawing that will be going in the keepsake box!

We're so excited about this process! Feels like just yesterday we were mailing off all the papers to begin Max's adoption! God revealed so much to us during those two years......I remember days of feeling his presence so strongly it was as if a literal hand was guiding our direction.....and I remember days of kneeling down next to Max's empty bed sobbing, feeling so alone and unsure. But God's timing and provision was (and continues to be) PERFECT and I am so ridiculously excited to see the journey as it unfolds!

We so covet your prayers right now, as we wait....and wait some more! I'll continue to share daily fun things in the life of Max on this blog, but also update you all on the adoption. Thanks for all your support!

Chicago!!!

We had a fantastic time in Chicago last weekend! Believe it or not, we had never been downtown! We tried to fit as much as we could into our day and I think we were pretty darn successful! We started the day off with one of Max's favorite parts...."riding the train!!!" aka the subway. We took it to Wrigley field and stayed through the 4th inning of the Cubs came. Then we took a bus (another fave of Max!) to Navy Pier. What a cool place! We took a boat ride on an architectural tour. This was Stephen and I's favorite part for sure! What a beautiful city!!! And those buildings!! My word....they are HUGE!!!! After that we headed over to Millenium Park for some fun at The Bean (such a cool attraction!) and the fountain. Then it was off to dinner at a fabulous Chicago-style pizza place!!! We had a blast and I'm so glad we went! And an even better part, we got to catch up with some of Stephen's friends that we hadn't seen in a really long time. Great weekend!

More birthday fun!

Man what a birthday extravaganza Max has had!!!! As if he hasn't had enough fun already....it continued this past weekend! We headed to Indiana for my dad's side of the family's reunion and celebrated with them. It was Max's first experience with camping (although we stayed in a hotel....so I know we can't really call it camping!! But we were at the campsite all day!) and he loved it! His fave part was definitely swimming in the lake and of course....spending time with his best bud Noah! My grandparents hadn't met Max yet and it was really special for them to get to have such quality time with him. We were also able to head to southern Michigan on Monday and Max got to meet Stephen's grandma for the first time. Such a special, family filled weekend!

Today Max got one last chance to celebrate! Its was his turn to bring snack to preschool in honor of his birthday! We made chocolate chip cupcakes (they ask for healthy snacks....but we had to be at least a little festive!!) and I got to be the class helper. It was a super special day for him. They gave him a special birthday hat and sang to him, and then he got to lead the prayer and inspect the classroom at the end of the day to make sure everything was cleaned up! He felt super cool!

I think I can safely say the birthday celebrations have come to an end....but my oh my he's had a great run!