2 years of awesomeness!!

I seriously remember October 15, 2010 with the most precise of detail, its crazy.  I remember the details of the room we waited in, I remember wiping the tears away as we watched Max walk across the parking lot of Pakkred Babies home towards us, I remember the sounds of the children playing as we toured the amazing place he had called home for three years.  I remember so clearly the feeling of finally holding my son in my arms.....of knowing that I would never have to let him go.  It was the most amazing day and in many ways it feels like I have blinked and two years have passed! 

But in these two years, our son has grown and changed in so many extraordinary ways!  He is still the same loving, tender-hearted, shy with strangers boy that he was that first day we met.  But he has also grown into a super goofy, crazy smart, energetic, sports obsessed five year old that we are head over heels for! 

We celebrated our forever family day with dinner out and bowling (something Max LOVES) and had a blast just being together.  Can't wait till we're celebrating our "Forever Days" as a family of four!!

Professional bowlers we are not :(

Our new love....

Our hearts have been stolen!!  We have "met" our sweet Ellie Renee' and our heads are still spinning!  Max has been carrying her picture in his pocket since the morning we received the phone call!

Our sweet Ellie will be two on 2/2/13 and we should be traveling to bring her home in just 6 short months!.  She is perfect in every way and to say the three of us are in love is an under statement!  We sent her a care package as soon as we could with clothes, and a picture book we had made so she can start to get to know our faces.  We also got her this ridiculously cute stuffed bunny that let you record a message that plays every time she hugs it.  Well all kissed it as we placed it in the box :)

I haven't stopped smiling since we opened the email.....just like the day we first saw Max's picture!  This adoption journey is pretty amazing!  We are again so humbled that our great God has chosen us to be the parents of this incredible little girl.  We cannot wait to hold her in our arms!  Thank you all for your prayers and support through the first phase of waiting....and now as we journey to bringing our sweet girl home!!!

   

Celebrating Dad!

We have had SUCH a fun day celebrating Stephen's birthday!  Max LOVES birthdays....he loves his birthday, and he loves getting to be part of the surprise of other people's  birthdays.  He did a great job of picking out gifts, wrapping them, helping me make the cake, and then of course decorating it!  All the while, keeping everything a secret!

We woke Stephen up this morning with our customary "Hey its your birthday!" song, gave him his gifts and sent him on his way to work.  Max and I used the day to pack things up and then sprung him early and headed to Nashville!  We are treating him to a fun family weekend and its going to be great! We even kept it SUPER classy tonight....brought his cake with us and ate it straight out of the 9x13 in our hotel room :)  Making memories! Yay for an awesome Dad, and yay for birthdays!!!!