Happy 1st Gotcha Day!

Here is the video of us Singing Happy Birthday to ourselves to celebrate our first Gotcha Day with Andrew. We had just gotten back from our first Family Vacation and were busy unpacking, doing laundry, cleaning and putting things away after our return from being away a week, therefore Robert and I look a mess. We picked up a small cake to celebrate with and took this video of ourselves and Andrew as we sang Happy Birthday to our Family....

Andrew as you can see in the video was so silly and wanted to blow out the candles before the song was over and got a kick out of Mommy trying to stop him from blowing them out to soon. This video makes me laugh each time I see it and find it hard to believe how far we've come in only a year with Andrew.

Since we met Andrew a year ago, he has learned to walk, RUN more like it, talk and do I mean talk, Sing, voice his opinion (ohh he's not afraid to do that), smoosh you as he is trying to get his way and he is learning to swim.

There have been many times this summer that I have reflected on our trip to Ukraine and all of the wonderful people who we met and helped us bring our baby boy home. I have thought many times about our experiences in the orphanage and the other families we met. I have been in contact with a few of them and seen some recent pictures of their children they adopted from the same orphanage we adopted Andrew from. Boy have the children all grown and adapted and bonded well with their families. I wonder sometimes of Andrew's birth family and his birth mother and think of how courageous and selfless she was to give Andrew up for a better life than what she could give him. All the people who played a part in our adoption from the people in Ukraine to our families helping out with keeping our house, bills, vehicles and lawn in order while we were away and all of the people who graciously took the time to pray for us and our adoption and how God worked everything out for good. I get so emotional just thinking and reflecting on the whole experience even when I look back on it today. Anyway, enjoy the video.

Family Vacation - Cruising the Bahamas

We decided to celebrate our 1 year anniversary of becoming a family with a family vacation cruise to the Bermuda. Because of the hurricane moving over Bermuda on the day we were about to depart, the cruise line rerouted the the cruise to travel to the Bahamas. So we went to Nausau & Freeport islands in the Bahamas. It was our first Family Vacation since we've been home with Andrew. We decided to take a cruise that left out of a port that was local to us so we could drive to the port and bypass the flight. This made traveling with a toddler much more enjoyable.

It was quite an enjoyable trip. Andrew immediately made friends with all of the crew members. They were giving him high-fives every time they saw him. He got so used to it that Andrew was approaching crew members that he never met and would lift up his hand to give them a high-five before they would. He was very good at meal time, surprisingly. Our head waitress, Nelli was AWESOME. She made sure that Andrew's food got to the table before anyone elses and would cut up his food immediately after it arrived and gave him a lot of attention. We were very happy that mealtime worked out for us. Especially on the cruise since the meals in the dining room are much more tasty than in the cafeterias.

When we stopped in Nassau we took a walking tour around the Atlantis Resort grounds. Wow what a beautiful resort. We took a lot of pictures and Andrew especially enjoyed the huge aquarium and lagoon. It was amazing how you felt like you were scuba diving right next to the sea life of sharks, sting rays, tropical fish and more since you could walk down a stairwell to the aquarium and there was floor to ceiling glass to separate you from the sea life in the lagoon. Check out this picture of Andrew standing up against the glass with the shark on the other side. Looks almost as if he were right in the lagoon with the shark.

After our tour through the grounds of Atlantis Resort we went back to the ship to grab some lunch and take a dip in the wading pool with Andrew. Andrew of course LOVED the wading pool which was fun because when the ship would rock the waves would roll over in the 1 foot deep wading pool. We all had fun splashing around and keeping cool in the hot sun.

In the evening after dinner, Robert took Andrew into the video arcade to let him give his try at driving a race car. OOHHH Boy.....did he love that. He kept wanting to do it again and again.

The next day the ship docked in Freeport, Bahamas. We took an excursion to watch and learn about the dolphins. We were able to sit on the docks as the instructors talked about the dolphins and their behaviors as well as instructed them to do tricks, like SPLASH or should I say SOAK US! Yes of course it was just Andrew and I that got soaked since Robert was walking over to get the waterproof camera. Andrew started wailing since it surprised him as well. To our surprise the instructors showed us how to pet the dolphins and then said we could get in the water to pet them. When Robert got in the water first with Andrew, Andrew wanted no parts of getting anywhere near the dolphins until he saw his Daddy pet the dolphins. Then he was fine about getting in the water with me to pet the dolphins. We even got a picture of the dolphin kissing us.

All in all it was a wonderful way to celebrate our 1 year anniversary of becoming a family. When we got home we bought a small cake at the store and and sang Happy Birthday to ourselves to celebrate our first Gotcha Day. I'm glad we got it on video since Andrew was so cute as we were singing. I will upload the video if I can figure it out.