Mother's Day Photos

We had a great photo shoot at Portrait Innovations today. I wanted to badly to get one picture of Brakston kissing me (he puckers up so cute), but of course, he refused to do it. We'll be giving away pictures for Mother's Day, these were two that didn't make the cut.

Why I shouldn't leave things on the oven...

Happy First Gotcha Day Brakston!!

Wow, one year ago today this beautiful boy was placed into my arms forever. The day has been harder than I thought. I have so many emotions running thru my mind, so much happiness, guilt (there are many that still don't have their children home), sadness (for the tough choice his birth mom had to make and for the huge loss his foster family had when he came home)....and many others. It's hard to put into words. I've just felt overwhelmed the last few days.

This past year has been amazing, watching Brakston grow and change. He's a wonderful, loving child. God sent us the most precious gift and I often wonder what I ever did to deserve it.

Brakston's new favorite word is "bump." He likes to bump his cars into everything. He's starting to put two words together and he imitates everything. He eats just about anything and his favorites are chicken, sausage, ham, and gerber puffs. He loves chips and "dips." Dips can be anything from salsa, queso cheese, oil for dipping your bread into, butter, or salt. (and don't ever forget to give him his dips if you're having them, I have to fake putting salt on his food before he'll eat it if he sees me use it on my food)

Happy Gotcha Day Brakston, I hope you'll always know how many people love you. I am proud and beyond thrilled to be your mama and I can't wait to see what you'll do next.

Brakston's first Easter!

It dawned on me today that we are approaching the last of our "first's" this week. This will be Brakston's first Easter at home. These pictures are from last year at Easter in Guatemala. Easter in Guatemala is amazing, they have huge parades and the men all dress in purple and white robes.

Monday will be our first "Forever Family Day" celebration. We got Brakston on 4/13/08 at the Westin in Guatemala knowing that we never had to give him back again. I can't imagine how much is foster family has to be missing him. I have a much larger post planned for Monday, I have many thoughts running through my mind, it's just hard to get them down. Life with an almost two-year old is crazy!!

One year ago....

One year ago today, we were in Guatemala. Around 1:30 Guatemalan time, we got the call that we were out of PGN and Brakston was ours.......I can't believe how fast time flies. I don't know how I could have left him without the knowledge that we were returning in just a few short weeks.

At times, I can't believe that I traveled not once, but twice, to Guatemala last year. Me, who really doesn't like flying and had never been out of the country. That first visit trip was just amazing. I can remember seeing the moutains for the first time from the plane, I remember walking into the Westin and seeing Brakston for the first time in the lobby, I left LT at the desk and practically ran across the room., I remember feeling like a "mom" for the first time when I finally got to hold him in my arms. I can't believe that I have been blessed with such a wonderful son and husband.

Brakston is a joy. We have so much fun together as a family. ( I just asked him if I could have a couple of his fish crackers and he shook his head "no.") We have been so blessed.

Good Dog!!

Harley is such a good dog, he just loves Brakston. This is Brakston watching his new Thomas "sing-a-long" video from Ma Pat and Boppa, he loves it!!

Happy 10 months home Brakston!!

Today Brakston has been home for 10 months!! We are spending the day watching Thomas videos in my office as I try to list a bunch on eBay. You can't really tell it, but Brakston is actually sitting on Harley in the one picture, poor Harley.

It seems like Brakston has changed a lot in the last couple of weeks. He talks non-stop (except when I want him to talk to someone) and really seems to understand stuff now. He now goes to bed much easier, he tells me "night night" and then I can leave the room. I think he understand that I'm still there, just in the other room. His new thing is that he says "bye bye" (or "die die" in Brakston speak) and then says "See ya." I guess I must say that a lot. Today while we were at Kroger, he kept saying "arm arm" and I look down and his arm was stuck in his coat sleeve, I didn't even know that he knew the word arm.

His favorite thing right now is carrying around picture frames. I'm going to make him his own photo album this week. He names everyone in the pictures, including himself, which is "baby." He calls cousin Grant "baby" too.

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful son. He brings us so much joy.

We went to the children's museum last week, me, Brakston, KK, and Yoce (Joyce). How many kids have the 3:1 ratio when they go out? We had a blast and I took lots of videos. He loved digging in the dinosaur area, he had a brush and kept brushing the kid's hair that was next to him. He liked the slide in Lego Land the best. He's going back in March when he spends the weekend with KK and Joyce. They have so much planned, I don't know when he'll sleep. They have schedules of their friends and Bonnie and Mel, Nona and Joe, and Aunt Lacy are all coming over to play with him. He won't want to come home after all of that!!