Judah's bedtime story

Once upon a time, a baby was born in Ethiopia.
His name was Tesfahun.
The world was so happy.
The stars danced. The moon glowed.
Tesfahun's mom was happy. She loved him.
More than mountains.
Taller than trees.
Bigger than oceans.

But, she was very sad too. She couldn't take care of him.
So, Nannies took care of him. The Nannies loved Tesfahun.
More than mountains.
Taller than trees.
Bigger than oceans.

Far away, in America, a mommy and daddy wanted a baby.
They searched and searched.
They flew in an airplane to Ethiopia and the moment they met Tesfahun,
they loved him.
More than mountains.
Taller than trees.
Bigger than oceans.

They promised the world and the stars and the moon,
they would take care of him always.
The mommy and daddy named him Judah. The mommy, daddy and baby Judah flew all the way home to America. Waiting for them to arrive was Judah's family. As soon as (I name his family members) met Judah,
they loved him.
More than mountains.
Taller than trees.
Bigger than oceans.

Now, every night all the people who love Judah look up at the dancing stars and glowing moon and smile because they are so happy that he was born to love
More than mountains.
Taller than trees.
Bigger than oceans.

Our Big News!

We are excited and thrilled and scared to announce:

We are growing our family!

We don't know any details yet (boy, girl, age, etc). We just know that there will be one more person in this crazy clan. We'll let you know the details as we figure them out :)

YAY! Judah's getting himself a sibling!

Note: I'm a Mrs. Flakeyflakerson. I have done some fun crafty stuff with J. I have. I just haven't posted. Perhaps it will be a one time per month gig :) We've been a bit busy with iHeartAdoption.
If you haven't had time, please take a peek.

Pumpkins!

Today we went to the Pumpkin Patch. It was goodness.










and just because I can't believe how he's grown, here's a picture from last year...

The Teacher

When I was little, my older sister and I played school. Yes, I got the coveted role as student. Well, to be honest, there were actually a lot of us students.
She would line us up (the stuffed animals and me) and we would sit VERY still and try to be well-behaved. We tried to be good students. We really did.

But, we couldn't do anything right.
We had never completed our imaginary homework from the night before.
We never answered the questions correctly (no matter how many times she explained the concept).
We were bad, bad students.

So, the stuffed animals and I would sit very still and hope not to be called on.
It was a strict program.

Last week, as Judah lined up his animals to read to them, I recalled what it felt like to be one of them, even though their teaching styles differ. Here's a peek at the reading program that Judah has started:



Here's a rough transcription:
"Night night! Question Mark. Question Mark. Here you go. Read a book. Read a book. Read a book. [Reads book] The End."

Thought you should know ...

I'm so touched and honored to be a tiny part of our Ethiopian adoption community. Seriously fabulous, supportive folks.

Today's realization:
I started blogging 2 1/2 years ago. That's a chunk of time, huh? Many of you have been in my life for YEARS now. I started blogging because I saw Amy Bottomly's blog and thought it was so darn cute and fun that I wanted to blog too. Then, you comforted and supported me tremendously during the year of our adoption process and celebrated his homecoming with us. It's been confirmed once again, for numerous reasons, that blogging has been an excellent use of the last 2 1/2 years :) I adore the strong, smart, opinionated and fabulous people I've met along our journey. Thank you.

As most of you know, Judah, Tommy and I put together a little baby book. We are super happy with how it turned out and have huge dreams of being able to drill a whole well in Ethiopia from the profits (ALL the profits are going to water).

If you don't know, click on the picture to the right (I Make the World Better).

Note:
If you sent me a picture and I was unable to use it, please know it was due to size/quality (I just passed all the pics on, so you can really blame my layout department :). Obviously we would have loved to have used all of them (as you know, ALL of our babes are absolutely stunning). Last year, when I sent Judah's pictures to the GAP, I was personally shocked and offended when he was not chosen. Ok, I'll be honest. I just haven't really liked GAP that much since. I want to be clear. I am not like GAP. I adore all of you and all of your gorgeous babies. Equally.

Much love to you all and THANK YOU...for everything.

Judah

liked his copy so much, he fell asleep holding it :)



Get your copy here:

www.iheartadoption.com

I Make the World Better

The books are here! The books are here!

Go order your copy!

www.iheartadoption.com

*if your child was in the book, I will ship your copy tomorrow!

Two Year Referral Anniversary

Two years. For two years we've thought of little else. The face we first fell in love with exactly two years ago.

He's grown. He's a little complete person, with little complete ideas.
I am increasingly proud of him. He's a nice person. He loves to make other people happy.
He's extremely social and his smile lights from within. His comedy skills are unmatched. Judah has a huge personality and I feel constantly elated that I get to be his mom.

Judah loves his family and his friends. He squeals when he sees people he loves.
I adore the way he often rubs my arm gently when I read to him. Judah's good at loving people.

I know he's going to be a wonderful brother.