Thankful

Tomorrow is our first Thanksgiving together as a family. We are so very, very thankful for the many blessings God has given us...but the absolute best is our son. Last year at this time, he was thousands of miles from us in a small crib in an orphanage. We were busy preparing for his arrival and so excited that we would soon be traveling to meet him. This year has brought many changes to our lives.

Tomorrow comes with an over abundance of thanks for us. But, it also is filled with just a twinge of sadness. Last week we lost a very dear friend. The strongest and most courageous man I've ever know passed away almost two weeks ago. At his memorial service, his pastor said..."I thought I knew what courage and hope was, but then I met Tim. HE was courage and hope." So, so true. Last year, he was at our house for Thanksgiving making his delicious corn casserole. He had been sick for a long time and we prayed that he'd be around long enough to meet Ian. Not only did he meet Ian, he was able to give him his first haircut. I'll treasure that memory forever.

My heart also is saddened now for some of the Dillon families that are waiting for their little ones to come home. There has been a terrible delay in the guardianship process and it's not over yet. One family that lives here in Oklahoma is waiting to bring their precious little Jadyn home. Jadyn turns one tomorrow. Happy Birthday Jadyn. I know how much her Mom and Dad wanted to have her home by her first birthday. We're praying that the guardianship goes through soon and perhaps they will have her home for Christmas.

OK...enough sadness. God has been so good to us. He is a gracious and loving God that led us to our amazing son.

This year Thanksgiving has a whole new meaning for us. May God Bless all of you and your families during this busy holiday season.

Our Precious Monkey....Cuter Than Cute :)

It all started on Saturday with the Boo Ha Ha parade in Brookside. The top 3 pictures are from Saturday. Notice the one in Starbucks....he's starting early :)

Then we move on to Tuesday evening Fall Festival at First Baptist Church. The first picture is of Ian and his friend Henry. Henry and Ian are almost exactly the same age. Henry is from Guatemala and came home around the same time Ian did. They are in Sunday School class together.

We move on to the pony rides. It was Ian's first time. He seemed to like it, but it was really cold and windy in Downtown Tulsa. The final two pictures are of him walking around in the Church. He loved watching everything that was going on.

We may be a teeny, weeny bit biased, but we think he is absolutely THE CUTEST MONKEY EVER!!!

Halloween was fun....I can't wait until Christmas.

Technical Difficulties

Hopefully I'll be able to post Halloween pictures tomorrow. Tonight, I'm experiencing technical difficulty. Stay tuned.....

The Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday afternoon we visited the Pumpkin Patch in Bixby. Ian had a great time. The weather was beautiful and he thought he was in "ball" heaven. He ran to the pumpkins saying "ball, ball, ball". He enjoyed climbing around on the hay bales and through the pumpkins. He especially liked the animals at the petting zoo. He wanted to ride the pony, but he was too little. Maybe next time.

Each Day Exciting

Ian is such a delight. He's 19 months old today. It's hard to believe that in 5 short months he'll be 2. Amazing!!!

He's walking, running and generally just enjoying life. He finds something new and exciting to do or explore every day. It's so much fun to watch him.

He does, however, have his "moments". Dr. Sood tells us that the "terrible two's" start at about ONE. Well....I think 18 months is the magic number. He wants to be so independent. He thinks he can do everything (except when Mommy's in the room)...and then when he can't he gets very frustrated. Of course if I'm in sight, he screams even more and everything is so much more "traumatic". :) We keep telling ourselves that it's just another developmental phase and that "this too shall pass."

He can now identify 13 body parts. He's so cute when he shows us his belly. Of course nose, knees and toes seem to be his favorite. He is however pretty fond of Daddy's belly button.

He's cutting tooth number 12. It's one of the big ones on the bottom right side. He's been miserable....miserable...with this one. Hopefully it will pop through the gum soon. He's not eating much right now (which is just not like him at all). At his last check up (at 18 months), he weighed 23.5 pounds and is 32.5 inches tall. It was great to look at the growth chart and see how far he's come.

I don't think I've mentioned it lately....he's just cuter and than cute :)

He has a buddy at school. Cortez, who is almost exactly his same age, really likes Ian and the feeling seems to be mutual. Cortez is usually there when Charlie takes Ian each day. When Ian goes in, Cortez comes over and hugs him or pats him on the chest. Ian reciprocates. How cute is that?

He's now taking swimming lessons on Saturday mornings. We had to miss last week since Mommy had strep throat. Things should be back to normal this week. He loves the water. Next week is "submersion". Not too sure how Mommy's going to handle that one. Saturday afternoon is Boo Ha Ha in Brookside. We have Ian's first Halloween costume ready to go. He's going to be a monkey. Cute, cute, cute. I can only hope that he keeps the costume on long enough for a picture.

Speaking of pictures....Ian had his first "school" pictures taken last week. They look amazing!!! I can't wait to get them. He looks like such a big boy. We'll scan one in and I'll post it as soon as we get them.

Life in our house is good. Hectic and crazy most of the time....messy and unorganized nearly all of the time, but filled with laughter and blessings galore. We are so in love with this amazing child.

More as life goes on for the Amazing Ian and his terribly spoiled parents. :)

Eighteen Months Old

Today Ian is 18 months old. It's hard to believe that we've been home for 8 months. Some days it seems like yesterday that we walked off the airplane in Tulsa with this beautiful child and other days it seems like we've been home forever. Either way...it's been 8 wonderful months!!!

We had his picture taken yesterday. What a chore!!! The first time we did this (6 months ago) it was pretty easy. Not any more. Now that he's walking...running...it's hard to get a good shot of him. The photographer was able to get a few and posting a couple of those. Hopefully we'll be able to do this again for the holidays.

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

I've been trying to decide how to post this for 2 days now. I couldn't decide if I wanted to list it from our perspective or from Ian's. I've decided to do it from ours. Maybe he'll be able to give me his list a little later.

So....These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things...about Ian.

*His beautiful, sparkling brown eyes
*His sweet, infectious smile
*His giggles
*The fake sneezes
*The way he plays peek-a-boo (he covers his eyes but opens up just enough room between a couple of his little fingers to gage our reaction)
*The hugs he gives...you have to "hear" them. Every time he hugs us he says "aaaaahhhhh"
*The way he loves books. He has a couple of favorites right now....both are books by Sandra Boynton (Snuggle Puppy and Doggies). It's not the dog theme...it's the "OOOOOOOHHHHH's" in the books.
*Bath Time....When I ask him if he's ready for a bath, if he's ready, he immediately stops what he's doing and heads to the bathroom. Usually trying to take his diaper off at the same time. He patiently waits by the side of the tub for the me to get the water temp just right.
*The way he combs his hair. If he picks up the brush and we say "brush your hair"...he tries. Usually it's with the back side of the brush, but the attempt is there.
*Have I mentioned his smile?
*His inquisitive nature. I may grow to dislike that in the future, but for now, I'm loving it. He wants to know what everything is and then he tries to figure out (on his own) how it works. Sometimes he's successful :)
*The way he smiles when he sees us. It's really great when we pick him up from daycare or the nursery at church. He's just so excited to see us.
*His love of blueberries. He now calls them "blues"...of course grapes are "blues" too.
*His loves to play with the bouncy balls or soft balls or golf balls....any kind of ball. He thinks that all things round are balls
*The sound of ma-ma, ma-ma coming from this sweet boys lips. Mmmmm, mmmm, mmmmm..what a good feeling.
*His playfulness...especially with his daddy.
*He has learned to offer us food and then just as he's about to put it in our mouth...he takes it back and puts it in his. Gotcha!
*He makes himself laugh. When he does something that he thinks is cute or funny...he giggles.
*His vocabulary. He says about 15-18 words. Not all at once, but periodically. His vocabulary has slowed down a bit since he started walking.
*The way he chases his daddy.
*The sweet hugs we get first thing in the morning when he gets up.

My goodness....I could go on forever. These are only a few....each day is a new day and each day brings more and more things that we love about this amazing child.

Ian Now

Our smiling, happy angel now (home 6 1/2 months).

Ian Then

The first glimpse of our angel on September 7, 2005.

One Year Ago...We Saw An Angel

September 7, 2005 at 1:54pm, I had a voice mail from Tami at Dillon. She had a referral of a little boy and wanted to know if we wanted to take a look. About an hour later, we received all of his medical information and then we looked at the face of an angel....OUR ANGEL. Even though we were trying to be logical and make sure that this was the child that God had intended for our family, in our hearts we already knew that Kushal was OUR son. We prayed and asked God for a clear sign...and He gave it to us several times. We accepted the referral and 5 months later we traveled half way around the world and held our precious angel for the first time. God knew that Ian was our son long before we ever even thought about it.

Ian...we love you so much. You are THE most amazing child ever and we are so very blessed to have you. You have made our world so much brighter and clearer in the past year. We see things now through your eyes and we marvel at the newness of everything. You are a true gift from God. Our hope and prayer for you is that we would be the kind of parents that will love you, help you and guide you to become the outstanding man that we know you can be. We are so proud of your accomplishments so far and look forward to many more. We love you son....

Pictures of our little man

From top to bottom: First trip to the Tulsa Zoo...just hangin' in Daddy's shades; Sunday was "promotion Sunday" at church....so Ian was in his new class for the first time; having dinner with Brad, Tim and the guys on Saturday evening; sleeping on Mommy's chest; Ian is perfecting his "cheesy" smile; Walking, walking, walking....; Ian loves the Oklahoma Aquarium...even the big Eskimo Joe's "Fish" (they were cleaning and feeding); Ian admiring the big fish during his recent trip to the Oklahoma Aquarium.

My batteries died in my digital camera while we were at the Zoo. I had to get a disposable camera. As soon as I get those developed, I'll post some more from our Zoo trip. He liked the Zoo, but he LOVES the Oklahoma Aquarium.

The Joy of Ian

I know I've said this hundreds of times, but I have to say it again. Ian is just pure JOY for us. He is such a sweet little guy and he's growing and developing so much every single day. It's hard to believe that we've been home from India with our precious little man for 6 months. Charlie and I were laughing this evening and said that our house has not looked the same since the day we got home. We have toys, clothes, bottles, cups, and the like every where in our house. It's a wonderful kind of "mess".

Ian discovered that "scaring" mommy was fun this evening. I thought I saw a mouse. But it was a little stuffed animal. Charlie threw it at me and I screamed. Ian cracked up laughing. Then he decided that was fun. So he'd pick up the little grey furry thing and throw it at me. We laughed and giggled for nearly 15 minutes (until I had to stop because my stomach was hurting from laughing). What simple fun we had. I LOVE IT!!!!

He has another new word....door. He started saying it yesterday morning. It seems like he never stops jabbering. Some of his words are very, very clear and others are just sounds. His caregiver at day care says that he talks constantly. He must get that from Charlie :)

He is also cutting tooth number 9 and number 10. The molars on the top are finally coming in. These have been hard ones for him. He's been pretty miserable until they popped through the gums. The one on the right is almost through the gum. Hopefully that'll happen tomorrow. Bless his little heart...he gets cranky when he's cutting teeth.

Here are a couple of pictures from this past weekend. He's just so cute, I can't stop taking pictures.

Walking, walking, walking....

Walking, walking, walking....chasing, chasing, chasing....that's what's happening in our house right now. Ian has really started walking a bunch in the past few days. He still falls down, but he gets right back up and takes off again. Charlie says that he still has the "drunk walk" going on. Whatever it is..it's cute and we're so proud.

We had another great weekend with this remarkable little guy. I looked back at some of the pictures we took while we were in India. He's already changed quite a bit. It's happening so fast.

He gets very frustrated when he can't do something. For example....he has this little puzzle that he tries to put together. He knows exactly where the pieces go...but he can't quite manipulate them in the right direction. So...he slams them down and squeals at them. His little brain is working faster than his little hands.

He's been feeding himself with his fingers for a while now, but he's started using the spoon occasionally. Tonight we tired eating yogurt. I'll post a picture of his "success". We went directly from the high chair to the bathtub. He actually does pretty well.

Oh, oh...one more cute thing. I told him today to shake his "booty"...and of course showed him how to do it. Now anytime I say "Ian, shake your booty" he does. He doesn't have the booty shaking too much...but he shakes the rest of his body and gives me the scrunch face look and just giggles.

This is just the best!!! Watching him grow and develop daily is awesome. He makes us laugh out loud every single day. We are so, so blessed.

I'm sitting here trying to decide which pictures to post. As soon as I pick the camera up, he starts coming toward me wanting to touch it and take it away. Between Charlie and I, we've been able to get a few shots.

Please say a prayer for our new friends Grace and Shane. They are in the process of adopting a little girl from India. Things have gone remarkably well and how they've hit a snag. Hopefully things will speed up and they'll have her home soon. As you all know, this can be heart breaking when you're so close to traveling. Grace...I know this will be over soon and you'll be on your way to pick up sweet little Jadyn.

Weekend Pictures

From top to bottom.....Tami (our original social worker), Jynger (the India program director) & Ian; mmmmmmmm....yummy toes; beautiful dancers at the opening ceremony; Ian and Mia sharing rings; Tami holding a comfortably sleeping Ian; Daddy & Ian taking a walk; Anju, Nadra & Ian.

Our Families Are Connected Forever!!!