Thankful for littles

Today I am thankful for all the wonderful little people in my life.  Ones that aren't family but feel like it.  My friends have the most adorable, sweetest kids and I am so blessed and honored to get to love on them and be loved by them!

And these are just a few...

11.7.11

One year ago today I was making phone calls, leaving messages, getting calls coming in on the other line on each call I took.  I had been waiting, but that day I realized just how much "we" had been waiting for this. You laughed and cried and celebrated and dreamed with us.  I realized as I was falling in love with my sweet boy over the waiting, you had been too.  You love him simply because he is mine, and I don't think anything in the world means more to me than that.

After a exhausting weekend of fun mixed with tears and anxiety I woke up Monday morning feeling defeated.  I had just prayed a prayer suggested by a friend that went something like, "I cannot keep waiting God, so you either need to make this stop or give me some super power to keep walking through it." I guess I wasn't in line for a super power because He ended the waiting!

My phone rang and the voice on the other line said, "Congratulations, you have been chosen to be Anthony's adoptive family!" Details came next but I don't remember another word. I hung up, called Drew and the best phase of our life began. We were parents.  Even though we knew on August 17th that he was our son, and I had been his mommy in my heart since that night, it was such a relief to have his team finally make that decision!

There was a RRC staff dinner that night and we showed these photos of our boy about 100x!  We couldn't have been more proud, more excited to start our life with him!

This is the first photo I ever saw of my sweet boy!

 A face I now know so very well....

Those photos seem so long ago, I barely recognize my boy in them anymore! He has grown so much! Not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually.  This kid is incredible and I can't believe God chose me to be his mommy.

Us a year ago celebrating before dinner!

Being excited with some best friends!

His very first special gifts given the next night by some amazing best friends who would end up being some of Anthony's very favorite people!

And a very special gift I wear almost every day from my sweet friends! 

Thank you again, Rachel, Jill, Jess, Laura, Adrienne & Julie

So, today I am thankful, so very thankful for that phone call, for this boy and for the lifetime we have ahead of us, together!

A gift gathered, given, good...

#1. Gathered

Red Rocks Church We are so thankful for this community, this family we have found.  Some of the most incredible people I know gather together each week to live out our mission statement, Connect.  Connect with God, Connect with people and Connect people with God.  I am proud to say this is where I "gather".

#2. Given

The sweet friends and family who posted something about Orphan Sunday today.  That feels like a gift given to me, my boy and all the orphans right here in our county who are waiting for their very own mommy and daddy.

#3. Good

These boys getting to be together and be brothers even though they are growing up in different homes. Having sleepovers, trick or treating, meeting for park and lunch dates, bedtime facetime calls, this is Good.

3 gifts that start with N...

#1. Nieces:

My sweet, sassy, smart, tons of fun Gracie Love!

 My beautiful, smarty, funny, athletic way too grown up first ever niece.  This girl made me an auntie and I love being hers!

 #2. Nephews

Tommy was the first boy to steal my heart and is now a handsome, sweet, kind talented young man.  His little brother will forever be a baby to me even though he is also a handsome, kind, sweet and talented little boy well on his way to being taller than me in no time.

Cage is one of the sweetest little guys ever, I love seeing his karate moves! I don't get to see these boys near as much as this auntie would like! Cash is our newest family member and SUPER adorable!

Jacob is turing 6 this week and I got to meet him on his 1st birthday in Guatemala, so it's sort of our 5 yr anniversary of being buddies!  Not only is he adorable but he brings so much joy to our family 

And our little Nico! I couldn't be prouder to call this boy my nephew :) Anthony's little brother has such a special place in our life and we love our chatty, animated, cute as can be little buddy so very much!

#3.  Our little family can't get enough of Nella's! One of our favorite warm day treats is Nella's and a walk around the lake :)

30 Days of Gratitude

I am already running late!

Okay, this blog is now public again since our adoption is finalized and no one is scrutinizing our life :)

I love November because I love Thanksgiving and my birthday! I love everyones birthdays :)

I am going to say 3 things I am thankful for each day and mostly using Ann Voskamps prompts because she rocks. (My friend Tami does this and I am copying:)

Here is what I will be following...

Day 1. Gifts Eaten...
Chocolate chip pumpkin bread
A's halloween candy
Tacos, because they are my favorite and my sister in law always remembers that :)

Day 2. Gifts Worn...
My old CCU sweatshirt
My running shoes as I learn to enjoy my runs
My bright blue cords

Thank you

On Saturday Anthony will have been living with us for 4 weeks.  On November 7th we got THE CALL that his team of caseworkers had FINALLY chosen us as his adoptive family!  Although we had known he was ours since August 17th when the first line of an email from his caseworker read, "Hi Gina, Here is information related to the questions you asked about Anthony. Anthony’s middle name is Daniel..."

As most of you know I prayed for God to give us clarity when it came to his middle name.  It felt like a silly prayer at the time but it was answered so very sweetly.  You see, Daniel is Drew's middle name and when we started talking baby names we decided that each child would have their middle name after someone significant and we would for sure use Daniel.  When we chose to adopt to begin our family we decided we would add Daniel to our sons name as a double middle so he would have that part of his Daddy's legacy.  So, you can see when I got that email how Anthony Daniel settled in to our hearts to stay, forever.  He was meant for us and we knew it with out a doubt from that day forward.

This seems like a great time to say thank you. We had a few of you who NEVER questioned us, never used "if you have Anthony" but always used "when".  When we told you we knew he was ours, my prayer had been answered and we had never been so sure about anything in our lives, you chose to believe with us. The process wasn't going our way and taking longer than it was supposed to and near the end everything seemed to be pointing to the possibility of us never meeting Anthony let alone being his mommy and daddy forever.  We had well meaning people not want us to get hurt, not wanting us to get too attached in case it didn't work out, we even had our caseworker ask us if we had a support plan for if we weren't chosen.  Almost everyone was giving up hope, but we weren't.  And neither were a few of you and for that we couldn't be more thankful.

If you can believe it we even had a few people try and talk us out of adopting at all, especially an older child because of course he would be damaged beyond repair.  I am not going to get into that though because it makes me incredibly angry and I will start using bad words and calling names like, uneducated, heartless and selfish.  Yes, so lets move on.

THANK YOU, you know who you are, you never stopped believing with us, never warned us to guard our hearts or prepare for the worst. You weren't uncomfortable with it being a messy process or the frustration and tears that came along with waiting.  You didn't try and  patch things up with common christian cliche's or suggest we wait differently.  You just believed with us, walked with us and in the end you celebrated with us! 

Here are some of our favorites so far :)

Flowers from Drew's work

First family pics

We are loving baking together!

His first night in his very own bed @ his very own mommy & daddy's house!

Move in day!  Our sweet friends surprised us with this

Snuggling

 Striking a pose? ;)

Painting and giggling with Aunt Kelli

Visiting Evergreen for some Beau Jo's

Cousins