Let's Party

Sorry for the delay...we've been busy, busy, busy. But, I wanted to be sure to post lots of pictures from our super fun weekend following our court date. We had a blast! Family came into town, and we had a great party! The pictures (all 500 of them!) pretty much tell the story themselves. Max had a great day, and that's exactly what we were going for! We wanted him to know how special he is, and how much we all love him, and I know we felt that! We also spent a day at Rockome Gardens with Grandma after everyone else had left. It a small place, just a town or two over, but we'd never been and wanted to check it out. It was so pretty! The weather was perfect, and it was a great day! Alright, now onto the TONS of pictures. Enjoy!

Finalization Day!

"I want to stay with Daddy and Mommy for eba and eba!!" Those were my sweet boys words to me this morning as we got ready to head to the court house. We've been talking this week about what this court hearing means, and explaining to Max how happy Stephen and I are to tell to the judge that we are so in love with our little boy, and we can't wait to once and for all make it 100% official! Well, Max wanted to make sure that his opinion was heard too!

This morning could not have gone smoother. Although, I will say, the whole thing was a lot more "official" than I thought it would be. Both Stephen and I were called to "testify" and I was beyond nervous. Not that we had any reason to believe that anyone would see us as anything other than what we are, a family, formed by our AWESOME Father, happy and healthy....but we had encountered so many stumbling blocks and hiccups on the road to actually bringing Max home, that it felt as if at any moment the judge would notice a piece of paper was out of order, or a document was missing. But.......everything was great, and the judge was lovely and so kind, and I cried way more than I anticipated, and I fell in love with my husband even more than before. Our lawyer asked us as we were walking in "Who wants to do most of the talking." Stephen looks at me with a wink and says "I got this." She called him to the stand first, and I don't know what it was exactly, but something in the way he answered her simple questions, and the confidence in his voice as he assured the judge that our love for Max is unfailing.....oh how I love that man!!!

We gave Max the choice on how to spend the afternoon. And he wanted to go the movies. We chose to see Kung Fu Panda II, and little did we know it had such a strong adoption theme.....perfect movie for today!!! Max had a blast and ate WAY too much popcorn!

We're gearing up for a party this Saturday with friends and family and Max is super pumped. Max's favorite question to ask anyone who will listen these days....."Are you coming to my party?!" Silly kid!

Great day....Incredible boy.....man we are BLESSED!!!

Heading into the courthouse!


The judge said "Hello Max!" and Max said "Nice to meet you!" She got a kick out of that!



Its really dark and I kinda chopped Max's head off, but the movie was about to start and it was the best I could get!

One blessed Mommy!!!!

What a great Mother's Day this has been! For the past couple of years, as we've journeyed to bring Max home, Stephen has done an amazing job of making Mother's Day special, but there's nothing that can compare to having my little guy march up the stairs this morning with his home made card Daddy helped him make and hear him declare "Happy mudder's day!!!!" I seriously teared up!!! The boys got me beautiful flowers, we went to church together, ordered pizza for lunch, had a family nap, and now we're headed out to play some basketball in the driveway (Max's new favorite sport and check out the picture of him in his Daddy's old t-ball t-shirt! I love that he can wear that!!). Its really been a perfect day with my boys, just the way I'd want it! I'm so blessed by these two guys!! Oh, and I got a wonderful surprise yesterday! My mother-in-law sent me a beautiful plant to put out on our porch! Such a sweet gift, and I'm so excited about it! Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there! My own fabulous mother is in Hawaii right now (sooo jealous!!!) celebrating her 30th wedding anniversary to the love of her life (who just happens to also by my dad!!) Love you both!

Happy Easter!!

What a wonderful Easter!!! We started our day off with an INCREDIBLE Easter service at our church, where Max sang with the other children. It was the coolest thing to watch him! He had been practicing at home all week, and he was soooo excited to be up there!! It was so special for Stephen and I to have Max be a part of such a special worship service. These past several days especially, we've really been talking with Max about Easter, and how awesome the story of Christ's resurrection is! Its hard enough for a three year old to really grasp, let alone one who's still fairly new to English, but we really think he's "getting it"! Last night, when we were praying as a family, Max's prayer was "Jesus, thank you that you are wwwwaaaaayyyy up high now!!!" (aka "risen") Makes sense to us!!

Stephen's sister (Aunt 'Ginia) was in town this weekend, and it was so nice sharing the weekend with her too! We colored eggs, and then Max hunted for them today after church. His Easter basket was filled with way too much candy, but even cooler than that......he got a replacement guitar! The one he had gotten for Christmas has been out of commission for a while. I think it took him all of three weeks to wear through all the strings. So, we got him a simpler (and cheaper!) one to use for now! Luckily for us, he's got a great imagination, and he's not at all picky! He's been using his baseball bat as a guitar since his last string broke, so since he saw the new one this morning, he's been on cloud nine!!!

I'm also including pictures of the Easter gifts we made for Grandma and Meemaw this year. We painted small flower pots for them and Max had a blast! We used my mom's as center piece for her birthday that we celebrated week before last, and since we had to mail Grandma's all the was to N.C. we decided to send along packets of flower seeds that she could plant at home!

We are LOVEing the weather these days! Max can't get enough of being outside and I don't blame him! Hope you all are having an incredible day and as we were reminded in our service today I pray you are celebrating the EPIC VICTORY of Christ!

Look at us now!

Oh my word......6 months!!!! Are you kidding me?!?!? I can't believe how fast these last 6 months have flown by! And man, Max has changed like crazy in that short time! He's a brand new kid, in a very fantastic way!

As I've said a bazillion times, he's a rock star in every way! He aced his preschool screening, so much so that he qualified for no special services...and will be attending a private preschool in the fall. What?!?!?! How's is that even possible? Because our little guy is AWESOME!! And because our God is fabulous, and knew exactly what he was doing!!!!

He's one great kid, and we couldn't be happier!!!

Here's us then.......



And look at us now!! Oh my!!!




So blessed by this little man!!! So looking forward to a million more "six month anniversaries"!!!!!

Max + Laughing Gas = HILARIOUS!!!!

Today was dentist day :( Never a fun day! But, Max was a super trooper. Our first trip to the dentist with Max when we brought him home was......tough, lets just leave it at that. We took a month break. Did a lot of "practicing" at home with dental tools we bought at the store, and headed back for a cleaning about three weeks ago. That visit went a TON smoother, and Max was such a big boy!!! Along the way, they discovered two cavities that needed to be filled. With Max's history of not enjoying the dentist (understatement of the year!!!) we wanted to approach it carefully to say the least. Yesterday afternoon we headed out for a consultation, where the dentist showed Max all her tools and walked him through what would happen today. We decided to have only one of the cavities filled today, the "easy" one, and use it as a little test to see how he'd do. Well....the little rock star passed with flying colors!!!

They gave us a brochure to take home about the nitrous, and Max was most nervous about that part. I don't think he liked the idea of having the tubing strapped to his face. But, he and Daddy had a long convo about it and looked through the pictures...and he was ready this morning. A couple of deep breaths of that stuff and he had no cares in the world!!! He was so silly....he just kept giggling! After about 5 minutes in the chair, breathing in the happy juice, the dentist came in and got to work. She explained everything she was going to do before she did it, but I don't think Max heard a word of it, he just kept giggling!!!! Afterward, they had him breath fresh air for a few minutes while he enjoyed a sucker. I was soooooo proud of him. I can't believe how far he's come with his fear! I planted a big smooch on his cheek....and noticed when we got home that my lip gloss left a big 'ole mark! That's what mom's are for right?!?!?!?!

So, three weeks from now, we'll head in and have the second cavity filled. This one is a little deeper, and will take longer to fill. But, I really think he'll do just fine. Max knows exactly what to expect, and even just talking with him this afternoon, he had such a pleasant experience today, he has no reservations at all!!!

GENIUS!!!!!

So, I know that this tends to me a common theme of our blog, but our Max is so darn smart! We've been working lately on writing his name. Thought this might be a good place to start with preschool coming in the fall. Its only really been a few days, and so far, its mainly been me standing next to him saying "ok, now make a straight line up, now down, around".....and so on. We were really happy with the little bit of progress we felt he was making and figured we'd keep working on it through out the summer. Well, the other night we really got a surprise! Max was drawing on his magnet board while Stephen and I were watching a movie. All of a sudden Max yells....."LOOK!!!" and sure enough....he had written his name, all by himself, without any prompting or help from us! He was so proud of himself. We all danced around the living room as Max yelled "I did it, I did it!" It was such a fun family moment!!! And, of course, we had to snap a picture!