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!

He's growing up folks!!

Oh my! I don't know if I can take much more of this growing up thing! Max turned 4 yesterday....4!!! Are you kidding me! He was just turning three...we were just packing our bags, heading to Thailand....and now he's four.....time has flown! And now today he headed off to his first day of preschool! Seriously, too much change! I'm so excited and proud of him, don't get me wrong....but man oh man...he's supposed to be my baby a little bit longer!

We had such a blast celebrating his birthday together! We've already celebrated far too many birthdays apart....so Stephen and I were beyond excited to finally be all together for Max's big day. When Max woke up on Saturday we surprised him and told him we were heading on a road trip for his birthday. We drove up north and took him to "A Day Out With Thomas the Train"! Oh my goodness, he had a blast! He kept saying "we get to ride on Thomas?!?!" We went to a Japanese hibachi restaurant for dinner and it was a perfect ending to the day. The waiters brought Max out a HUGE ice cream sundae and sang him happy birthday, complete with a big drum!

On his actual birthday, we kept the fun going! We had lunch out with Stephen and then let Max pick his favorite meal for me to make at home for dinner. And not surprisingly at all....he chose spaghetti! He got himself a scooter and a keyboard along with some other smaller gifts. We also discovered recently that his legs are finally long enough for him to reach the pedals on his bike, so after presents we headed outside to ride! Then it was cake time! Stephen and I are definitely NOT professionals when it comes to cake decorating but we had a really good time making it, and Max seemed to think it tasted good, so that's all that matters!

Really it was just a super special family day! We got to love on our boy and I got to pretend for one more day that he wasn't about to head off to preschool!

But.....then today happened! And now there's no going back! He's most definitely a preschooler! He had a such a blast on his first day and already can't wait to go back! I really am excited for him...and I'm so proud that he's in mainstream preschool...having learned so much in the short ten months he's been home! He looks so grown up in these pictures! So many big things happening these days...I'm ready to just settle into this schedule and enjoy it!