one month....

Four Mondays ago we picked our son up from the orphanage, and drove away with him forever.  No, it's not one month home yet, but one month out of a life of forever behind bars.  It's been an amazing month, and it feels like he's always been here with us.  I know lots of families probably say the same thing, but it's true.  He's ours, there's no doubt about it!

Here are some fun things we've learned in the last month:

1. Bulgarian poop stinks....much worse than any other we've ever smelled.
2. This little guy can eat!  And it's truly his favorite thing to do.
3. Sleep is fun....get some when you can, he wakes up early.
4. Independence is good, and he will play in his room as long as you want him to!
5. Dogs and toddlers are a great combination.  Dogs who must wear the "cone of shame" and toddlers are not a great combination.
6. LOVE.  He loves and knows who we are.  He seeks us out in a crowd, and wants to know where we are.
7. He is SMART!  Colton has already learned more than 15 signs, and is working on words.  He will "go" on the potty, but isn't really ready to potty train.
8. He pushes buttons...and knows just how cute he really is and will do his very best to use it to his advantage.
9. I've learned that being pregnant and chasing a toddler takes a superhero's amount of energy.  And I'm just about out!
10.  More people should do this.

That's the update for now.  Still working hard to continue blogging, but I know I've seriously been lacking.  If you've ever considered adoption please pray about it now.  It's SO VERY worth it all.

home...forever

We are home.  It was such a relief to pull into San Antonio on Saturday night, and we both truly breathed a sigh of relief.  Many of our family and friends met us at the airport, and since we were the last off our plane I'm pretty sure they drove the rest of the passengers nuts!  Both sets of grandparents and some cousins came over Saturday and hung out for a while, well until the boy decided it was time for bed!  We blacked out his window and he's sleeping like a champ since we got home.

Sunday was filled with more grandparent fun and a tired mom, dad, and son. Yesterday I finally woke him up at 9:30 and then put him back down for nap at 1:30...bedtime at 8:00pm came without protest, and he's still asleep now!

We feel so blessed to have finished the first part of this journey.  While I can't promise to keep up with blogging as well as I have for the past year I will do my best.  Thank you all for praying us through this journey, and we ask that you pray as we learn to be parents.

Big LOVE to all who read along!

last day in country!

That's right! We are in the middle of the last full day in country. Last night the boy went down a bit early, and he seems to rise with the sun, so we've all been awake quite a while. We went for a long walk today, had some lunch and now it's dark and quiet in our room so he can nap. Once he's awake it's packing, then dinner with our adoption facilitator as a celebration of being done! His passport is ready, his Visa is ready, and we hit the road at 8am local time tomorrow morning. Layoever in Vienna (how we wish it was long enough to tour the city!) and Immigration & Customs at Washington Dulles and we will be home to Texas around 9:30 tomorrow night! I honestly can't believe it's here and real! Please keep us in your prayers as we journey tomorrow. It's just over 22 hours of travel including layovers. We only have about 3.5 hours at Dulles to make this kid a US Citizen and then catch our last flight. The Embassy Agent advised us to not get in line, but to find someone to help us out once we get there. Please pray we have an understanding officer who speeds us through and helps us get to where we need to be. We absolutely can not wait to see everyone, and properly introduce our son to the world. He's pretty precious to us, and hope he is to you too!