our little yoda

I feel like i am always saying this but...i can't believe how much this kid has changed this year! i am so proud of him. joshua loves being with the entire family and if anyone is leaving to do something he gets pretty anxious...when dave is leaving to go to work he always says, "daddy, me, you, go..." it really is adorable. and all weekend long, "happy birthday to you, toby." he melts my heart. he is as sweet as he is wild and as loving as he is busy...he goes to the limit in everything he does!

happy birthday, toby!

Today is Toby's 6th birthday! We had such a great weekend celebrating toby. Saturday my mother in law came to spend the day with us. The boys took Bama to breakfast while i furiously cleaned and sped to pick up the cake. The afternoon was spent at the IMA where toby showed his grandmother his extensive knowledge of American art and we took a walk through the amazing gardens. We came home late in the day and ate an early dinner with Bama, Gogo, and Papa. After dinner, toby blew out the candles on his "WALL-E" cake and opened presents. After dinner toby and bama and I went to see the musical, Seussical. It was so sweet and fun. A complete delight. After church today, dave took toby and a few of his friends to lunch at johnny rockets and to see a a movie (WALL-E). Toby came home ate some left over birthday cake and opened our gifts to him...he told me tonight that he had a great bday but that it was a little tiring:)

***on a side note, toby took off his training wheels this week and is an official bike rider now! i had no idea how exciting and wonderful it would be to see him accomplish this feat! he was so proud of himself--it was beautiful.

Today is such a special day for us. We are so thankful that God breathed life into Toby and chose him to be our son. We have had the priveledge of seeing him grow these last five and half years. We heard his first words, witnessed his first steps, we have hugged him and kissed him everyday, we have seen him conquer roller coasters and mountains, make new friends, and laugh with abandon, have have kissed away the tears and held him through sickness, we walked him into school on his first day and are seeing him be an amazing big brother...we are so blessed. And yet I am also mindful today of another mother. A first mother who had the courage to make a difficult plan for her newborn son. A mother that doesn't know the joy of this special little boy. A mother that loves him too. I am certain that you are thinking of your baby today and wondering where he is... My prayers are with you today--that you will know His peace. May the Lord bless you today and always. May you know that Toby is loved beyond measure.

It's amazing to me how much fun a $10 pool can bring to two little boys. When we haven't gone to the city pool this summer we have filled up the blue plastic pool in the yard for a few hours of splashing summer fun. The boys love to splash each other and jump in and out with great exuberance. It's really not that different from the MLK pool--our little pool also has fights, yelling, screaming, running and a lifeguard that kicks people out for a limited rest time.
The other photo is one of Joshua riding the train at the Cincy Zoo on his second birthday. The entire ride there he he told us with great intensity that he wanted to ride the choo choo. It's a fun little ride where you actually see zoo animals, a beautiful lake and a flower garden. It is most unlike the Indianapolis Zoo where the train takes you to the bowels of the park where one can only glimpse large photographs of animals that may or may not be in the uninspiring hospital building on your right. it truly sucks but we have made the ride a tradition and a must for all zoo visits. at least we get to sit down for a few minutes and take in the zoo smelling breeze.

It's been am amazing couple of months... in May we celebrated Joshua's one year home aniversary. Boy, has he changed. From a sick little baby that couldn't sit up to a strong, boisterous, HUGE toddler who loves to jump off the couch and run! You can see from the picture i posted that he is too fast for me to capture on film! he is amazing to me. Lately, he has been saying, "I love you" to us and we are all just melting away. He is determined. He get's pretty ticked if he doesn't get his way. He's two...but he has a beautiful heart for people!
Toby is growing up so fast these days! He will be six at the end of this month. I cannot believe it... He is passionate, sensitive, and so much fun. Toby loves his friends and has really developed more independence this year. Last week Toby decided to have lines cut into his hair--it looks great and really shows off his personal style:)
we are enjoying the summer so far with trips to the MLK pool, tie dye fun, parks, zoo,etc. it has been more fun than i thought it would be honestly. and of course, we are all looking forward to out trip to Maine later this summer.

warmer days and the baseball game

it's today!

we have all had a bad case of the coughs around here the last two weeks so it was a pleasant if not comical surprise to hear toby running down the stairs this morning, jumping on our bed shouting, "Today is the first day of spring!" you gotta love that kind of hope and expectation in the midst of pain and dark, rainy days! Thank you God for spring, renewel, and hope!

famiversary

i am so glad i made it through january. i hate january. i don't really know what it is about it...maybe it's the dark or the bone chilling, skin cracking cold, or maybe it's the grinding slow down from the holidays that sprinkle the fall months...whatever it is, it takes all that is in me to get through january. the first month of the new year should be marked by the pursuit of new adventures and ideas, it should be the year of goals reached and paths paved but not for me. i just try to put my head down and bear it. it gets so bad that i even try to pound it out on the treadmill.

but now that it is February, hallelujah, i am bombarded by the anniversary of joshua's referral. i can't believe that it has been one year already. for families that have adopted, the day you finally get the call that you have a new son or daughter...it cannot be matched. it was a year ago this week, that we actually missed the call. yes, you read that right. we were in the hoosier dome, oh wait, i mean RCA dome, celebrating the colts superbowl win with thousands of other blue faced colts fans. for those hours we were distracted by the victory and vigorously joining in on the cheering, clapping, and woohooing. we were caught up in it all, the deafening screams and roaring jubilation when the team finally came into the dome on floats and in convertables waving and yelling to fans. we felt their excitment with every bit as much pride and passion. our bodies were crowded with goosebumps and our eyes filled with happy tears. we were so in it that we didn't hear the call we had been waiting for for the last two years! we when returned home that night we checked the messages...i said to my beloved, "dave, the agency called, and they want us to call them back tomorrow..." it was a restless night, maybe we have one more paper for fill out, what if they lost all of our paperwork, what if... but the next morning, the phone rang just as i was getting ready to leave to pick up toby from pre k..."sarah, i have good news for you! His name is Tariku..."