CHRISTMAS:
This was the best Christmas ever. We felt like a complete family. Our kids were not asking for big expensive things, they just wanted simple things and just to be together for the holiday. We spent time opening up gifts, had breakfast and then we went visiting family. I thought we would have multiple melt downs like last year, but this year was amazing. I think most of it was that the three younger kids already knew what to expect so they were not so overwhelmed with things.
DECEMBER18th: NADIA's BIRTHDAY
I can't believe that she is 7 already. It seems like yesterday that she was 5 (when we got the kids). She is artsy. This girl loves her some crafts. She is still as sassy as ever. I don't think that will ever change. She is in the first grade and loves school. We love you "Little Miss Sassy Pants" and we are
thankful that you are a part of our family.
DECEMBER 12th: 1 YEAR ADOPTION ANNIVERSARY
Oh my goodness!!!! Time sure has flown by. I cannot believe that we are celebrating our 1 year adoption anniversary already. But then again, it seems that they have always been here too.
THANKSGIVING:
What an emotional Thanksgiving this was. My side of the family has a tradition that we do after dinner on Thanksgiving. We each get a candle and we go around the room from youngest to oldest or the other way around depending, but we light the first candle and that person tells what they are most thankful for then you light the next persons and so on.When it was our kids turn, the things that they were saying really brought some perspective to our eyes. The most common thing that was said by the kids was that they are so thankful to have a mom and a dad that love them and that are there for them at all times, and protects them. They are thankful for a family that is stable and they don't have to wonder where they are going to sleep from night to night or if they are going to get fed. They are so thankful to have each other.
I cannot tell you how amazing our kids are. They are so resilient. Yes, they have their moments of confusion, anger and sadness, but man, they have come a long way in such a short amount of time. They are learning to forgive even though they can't forget certain things that have happened to them. No matter how angry they get about their bio family, they still love them and always will. The common phrase usually said is, "I love my birth parents, but I don't like what they have done to us."
We will always tell them that their birth parents love them, but they just were not able to take care of them the way they deserve to be taken care of.
OCTOBER 11th: LIVES CHANGED FOREVER (we are now a complete family)
We have come full circle with this adoption thing. We wanted so badly to adopt the kids older sister (not allowed to share her name yet), but we knew the judge had to follow the law and she had to go with her bio dad. We kept in contact with her even while she lived in California. We have always loved her. Well turns out, she came back into state custody and we got the phone call asking if we wanted her. They told us that she was available for adoption, so of course we said yes. The best decision we could have ever made. The kids acted as if they had not been apart for the past year. They fell back into the groove of being a complete family. To them a complete family is not just a mom and dad, but having each other. They had to depend on one another for so much for so long. I have seen strong bonds between siblings before, but nothing like the bond of three sisters and a brother that have been through so much in their short little lives.
OCTOBER: Breast Cancer Scare
I have been having some medical problems the last couple of weeks of September and finally I ended up in the ER. They did a CAT-scan of my abdomen and found a lump in my right breast. I followed up with my primary care doctor the following day. He immediately sent me for a mammogram. There they found not just that lump, but another one in my left breast. Again I immediately followed up with my doctor. We discussed our options and we decided that it was best if we took the lumps out, so the following Monday, I had double breast surgery. Thankfully, they came back just fine, but still, it was sooooooooooo stressful and nerve racking. I have never been so scared in my life. Here I was thinking, I just got these three amazing kids April 2012 and now we are facing the possibility of me being really ill or even them losing their mom. The thoughts possibilities were endless. But thankfully things were fine. I can't even imagine what was going through Joe's head. He was the strong one in this situation. I could tell he was nervous and scared, but still held the pieces together.
