Gotcha Day!

Today was Elijah's Gotcha Day! I have dreamed of this day for so long. Elijah was all smiles and so was I. The orphanage dr. gave me Elijah's baptismal certificate, schedule and health records. One of his caregivers brought him in and asked if she could change him into his new clothes. She walked with us out the door. I know she is going to miss him. They take very good care of the children and love them very much. While they are happy when a child is adopted, it is sad to say goodbye. I told them we would be sending pictures and updates often.


My Cookie Monster at the hotel.:)

Here's our Elijah :)

More cookies please

I took Elijah some cookies on the first day that I saw him again. When he wanted more, I showed him the sign for more and then held his little hands and made the sign for "more". After a couple of times doing this with him, I asked him if he wanted more and he signed "more" perfectly! The next day when I came in, Elijah saw the diaper bag, and knowing that the cookies were in there, he signed "more" without any prompting or me saying anything! I was so excited! I have to do a Mommy brag....."He's a smarty pants!"


Elijah signing "more"


He's a Cookie Monster!

Playing with Elijah

March 27
Today I saw Elijah.:) He has grown a little and is doing so many things that he wasn't doing when I was here 5 months ago. One big one was while we were sitting on the floor, and all of a sudden he just stood up all by himself, not holding onto anything! I was so surprised! He is also cruising around the furniture pretty good. He is clapping his hands (he wasn't doing that before) and when I sang to him, he started waving his little hands. He is vocalizing a lot! He tries to repeat the sounds I make. We were playing with big styrafoam blocks and I put one on top of the other and said "block on" and gave him a block and he put the block on top!

March 28
This kid is all about balls! We spent a lot of our time today playing with balls. He had fun in the ball pit. He has a pretty good arm and looks like he is going to be a lefty! He loves to play games. He would throw a ball out on my side and then throw it out on the other side and laugh when I had to run and get it!
His little laugh is just the sweetest sound!

I put him on a riding toy and he started to make it go. He went forward first and then backwards across the room. Last time his feet wouldn't even touch the ground when I put him on it!

1st trip in October

I'm here!

I made it here finally this morning at 5:00 am!!
I'm waiting to go see Elijah in about an hour! I am so excited!
Please pray for Caleb because he was coming down with a bad cold when I left.:(

I have internet in my room so I will hopefully be able to update more often.:)

I miss you guys and love you!!

Elijah's crib

Here it is! I still have to buy some new sheets and a dust ruffle but I couldn't wait to show it to all of you. Thank you again to my Reece's Rainbow friends whose kind donations helped by Elijah's crib.:)


And where is Caleb while I was putting the crib together? In the box of course!!

Jimmy's pizza

Caleb loved it too!

Jimmy made dinner for us the other night. He made homemade pizza. Yum! Jimmy has been on a diet and has lost 12 lbs. so far. It hasn't been easy, but he is doing so well. I am proud of the way he has been more willing to eat salads and cut down on some of his favorite snacks. He kept asking to order pizza so I suggested we buy the ingredients to make one. He told me the toppings he wanted: ham, pepperoni, mushrooms, green pepper, and black olives. Then we went shopping to buy what he needed. He bought wheat crust and turkey pepperoni (which by the way tastes very good and has a lot less fat) along with the rest of the ingredients. When we got home, Jimmy made the pizza. He did great! And it was DELICIOUS!

Getting Ready!

I have been very busy the last few days trying to get everything ready for my trip. Over the weekend, I went to BabiesRus and ordered Elijah's crib. I will post pictures once we have it together. I want to thank my friends at Reece's Rainbow again for their generous donations towards Elijah's crib! I also went to the mall and got a really nice outfit for court. And I am trying to get things organized to pack.:) I don't know how I will fit it all into my suitcases!

The boys are all excited. I am sad that I will miss Ben's birthday AGAIN. I also missed it when I went on my second trip to bring Caleb home a few years ago. But we are going to celebrate it early and he is very happy that we will finally be bringing Elijah home.

Thank you for all of your prayers!!:)

AT LAST!

We have a court date!

We are so excited! It has been such a long wait but so well worth it!
I can't wait to hold my little peanut again!

God is Good!!