One Year Ago Today.....

Wow...Where has this year gone? One year ago today we started our journey into parenthood. It was a cold, wintery day in Siberia. We arrived at the orphanage not knowing what God had in store for us. All we knew was that we were picking up a little boy that we had quickly fallen in love with. I remember clearly all of the mixed emotions that we were feeling. We were scared, curious, and very excited. It was overwhelming wondering if this little boy would accept us. Would he attach to us? Would he love us? Would he cry when we took him? Would we be good parents?

Here is a picture from that very much anticipated day.........



Fast forward one year................




So today we celebrated our Gotcha Day........ We got up and went to church. On the way home from church, I told Carter that it was a special day and again we told him our short version of his story. I went on to tell him that it was Carter's day and that we were going to go somewhere special. (We still wasn't quite sure what we were going to do.) So he yells out "Cheese" and has this big grin on his face. We knew what that meant...Chuck E. Cheese....... So off we went. We played games, ate pizza, and enjoyed the little show. He loves turning in his tickets for the little prizes. When we left there, we decided to go to this Russian store that we had found one day. We went in and bought chocolate, candy, and some Russian ice cream. That stuff just can't be beat! Carter fell asleep on the way home. It was a wonderful day. Tonight we enjoyed just watching him play. It was so sweet. He just kept hugging and kissing us all day. IT'S BEEN THE BEST YEAR OF OUR LIVES!!!