Another Milestone

Besides the fact that I am posting only two weeks after the last post, Today is another wonderful day to remember for our family. It was one year ago today that we got to see(face to face) and hold our little boy. It was a fairly smooth morning and we got to get our referral and get to the orphanage before lunch. When I first got to see him, one of his caregivers carried him in to a room of about 12 adults, most of whom he probably never saw. He was so unsure of what was going on and once they handed him to me, he began to cry. I only held him for a minute or two in that first meeting, and then they wisked him out of the room. We did get to see him later that day, after his nap. He was still unsure but no crying. He was cautious but was too excited to play with the toys we brought to let that hold him back.

Here he is that first day:

By the end of the day we knew that he would be our little boy.

It is so wonderful this time of year to start the many anniversaries of our adoption. What is so amazing is to see how things have changed since then.

Here he is today telling me how much he loves me:

He is so sure of himself now and so a part of our family. I was thinking as I tucked him in tonight to bed and he looked up at me and smiled and we did our bedtime routine, one year ago tonight, someone else was putting him to bed, he had no real routine except they put him in bed. He had no hugs, no kisses, no family to love him. It breaks my heart to think that he had to go through that. But we came to get him and now there will be no more nights like that, he can always wake up to a mommy and daddy.

Another great event this weekend was that 5 families who adopted from Astrakhan in the last year all gathered at our house for the weekend. It was such a great time to see each other, to see how the kids have grown and remember and share our journeys. I will write more about that later but you can check The Beadle's blog for her update(she always is so great at posting).

Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

 At the zoo with all those adopted from Russia( one from Kaliningrad, the rest from Astrakhan) minus one.

Later in the weekend minus three( just love how Micah and Grace are trying to hold hands.)