3 Years!

3 Years ago this week we met our N!

Can you believe 3 years have gone by?!

I can't.

It's to hard to put into words how life has changed for us all since he came to us.

I remember seeing his little face for the first time on my computer. He tiny little head shot was the first one I opened. I wondered what was going through his little head at that moment? Then I opened the next picture, saw the little wet patch and had a chuckle. Poor little guy, on top of everything he had had to endure they were taking pictures of him in wet pants. The indignity!

Then the day we arrived in Ethiopia. D and I both cried when our plane landed, we had fought so hard to get to this point. We were finally there!

Then his beautiful little dimpled smile looking at us as we drove into the compound. I had scanned all the little faces as they looked back at us from behind the sliding glass door. I saw him in a instant and my first words were "He has dimples! BONUS!" ;o) You can't tell me you don't just die when you see those amazing dimples! ;o)

We got into the room and that was the end of the joy...lol He wanted nothing to do with us. Understandably so. He was so smart even at the age of 2 yrs. Poor little man, we were about to rock his world.

One of my favorite memories of our time was a night that D and I had walked down to the orphanage on our own to visit him. (they wanted us to keep the kids at the orphanage until the Embassy appointment to help with transition). We got there, a nanny went to get him, and he cautiously came to sit with us. We just sat on the floor with him in my lap and talked...or 'communicated' I guess is the better word. ;o) The lights went out while we were there so we got out our cell phones and looked at all the pictures. We would name the people and he would name them back to us. It was precious.

Then the other kids came in the room. We were sitting nicely looking at pictures when all of a sudden N got up from my lap, stomped over to the other kids, scolded 1 or 2 of them ...wagging a finger...then huffed back to me, sat down and continued looking at the pics. ;o) No clue what they said, or what he said. But it sure gave us a window into his personality. He's still bossy. ;o)

It's not all been a cake walk. In fact this last year has been more of a tight rope walk...but he's my precious son. My sweet, bossy, crazy, creative, insane, fearless, courageous, back talking, chatterbug, dancing king, song bird, son.

I love that little man so very much. I can't believe God blessed me with this sweet boy.

My heart hurts for the family that doesn't get to witness his greatness every day. See that smile that is on his face every single morning when he comes running saying "Good morning mommy! I love you!" He misses them. I am so glad I have a way to tell them now that he does miss them, as much as they miss him. ;o( Oh how that hurts...

Adoption has changed our lives in so many ways. All of them good, but not all of them painless. We have this new family, across the world. We have a branch grafted to our family tree that adds such an amazing dimension.

I can't wait to see what amazing fruit we will get to see born.

Happy 3 years home my sweet precious N!