CNY Celebration

Last Saturday night we celebrated Chinese New Year with our favorite kiddos. Take a look at all the good-looking kids! It was so great to see everyone again and it makes me realize how much Reed misses being around other kids. He had a blast and it felt great to see him having so much fun.

Last one

Today we had our last meeting with the social worker for our 1 year post placement report. I can't even begin to put into words the emotions that were running through my mind as we talked about the last year and all the changes Reed has gone through.
It's so hard to believe it has almost been a year. It is true when everyone says your bond and love will grow stronger as time goes by. A year ago I never imagined that I could love this little guy and more than I did, but I DO. I love you to the moon William Reed Hammond- you are my sunshine and you make my life shine!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Isn't this the sweetest Valentine you've ever seen??

How about this one??

Oh how I love my boy!!!

Hope your day is filled with Love, Hugs and Kisses!!


Help blog experts---how do I edit my template so it doesn't cut off the pictures??

Where has the time gone???

I find myself being really emotional lately and I know it's because our family day (aka gotcha day) anniversary and Reed's 3rd birthday are right around the corner. I feel like I missed the first 2 years of his life and now I'm missing so much more by working full time. My baby is growing up and I don't want to miss a single moment.
Reed had a check-up visit with the cleft team last week and everything looks good. We go back in 6 months. This Friday he is having his ear tubes replaced. He has really done well with them and they have been in for 10 months before we had any problems. He has had some drainage and they are blocked so it's time to for replacements.
I'm thinking about going out of town to celebrate our family day, just the three of us spending time together. I'm sure our families want to share Reed's birthday with him so I'm not sure what we will do yet. The days are going by so fast it's hard to believe it's almost been a year since we were blessed with the most precious baby boy in the entire world. :) God is good.

Merry Christmas

What a wonderful Christmas! Finally THREE stockings hung on the mantle.

We spent Christmas Eve at Grandpa and Meme's house so Reed was exhausted and took a late nap. Bedtime came even later and Santa didn't make his stop until after midnight. At 5 am I couldn't stand it any longer so I jumped up, showered and woke up the house. Reed was so excited so see all the presents Santa had brought. We talked about the birth of baby Jesus and had a great time opening our presents.

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas too!

Happy Birthday to ME!

What a blessing to hear "Happy Birthday Mama" this morning. Awesome Birthday!!!

Reed cracks me up. He is changing every day and always seems to say the funniest things. The last few nights he has crawled into his toddler bed and went right to sleep without any problems. This is something new. When we first gome home from China he would sleep in his room but we put him in the bed with us after the first surgery and that's where he's been since. I guess he has decided he is too grown to sleep with mama and daddy.

Tonight he was sitting on the potty and Tim was in the bathroom with him. He waved his hand and said "go, daddy" because he wanted Tim to leave. It was so funny. A boy's got to have his privacy on the pot! :)

Getting ready for Christmas

It's hard to believe the year is almost gone. I'd like to stay right here, frozen in 2009 for a while. This year we finally received our son and became the family we have always dreamed of. This year we shared our first Easter as a family, we experienced the love and hurt you feel for your child when they are in pain, we had our first Thanksgiving together and will also celebrate our first Christmas together.

Reed, we love you with all our hearts. Thank you for being patient, loving, happy, sad, energetic and all of the other emotions that fill your precious little heart. You have brought so much joy into our lives and we pray we can raise you to love our Lord and Savior who brought us together and to be happy, healthy, respectful, generous and kind.

Meeting Santa !

Last night we rode to Calera to ride the Polar Express with some friends from the FCC group.

Reed LOVES trains and was so excited about riding "Thomas", as he calls all trains. I was a little nervous about how he would react to Santa (we already tried to get a picture at the mall and he would not get near him) but he did great! I think it really helped that he watched Anne Katherine, Noah and Lily Mei get their pictures made first. We had a great time and hope to go back next year.