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.