Merry Christmas

Ethan & Maranda playing wii boxing



Rubber gloves and pj's--what a fashion statement




Ethan loves his dumptruck--notice who is driving!


It's a few days past Christmas. I haven't written for the simple fact that I felt like I should have something profound or witty to say and I just couldn't come up with he right words to sum it all up. It was Ethan's first Christmas. He loved it, as any 4 year old would. He opened his presents and has been playindg non-stop ever since. With every present he opened, he wanted to play with it right away. We had to tell him to set it aside to open another present. It was a little confusing for him; but still fun. At the moment, I'm being served plastic hamburgers, hot dogs and soda! We are still awaiting for the arrival of the replacement parts for the play kitchen we got him that arrived in a few too many pieces.

Our first trip to the ER

We survived our first trip to the Emergency room after a plunge head-first into the corner of the coffee table. They put some of that dermabond glue on it and we were good to go. The next day at school, Ethan fell at school and bumped it again, and then scratched it in the night and scratched the glue off of it. Now he has a nasty scab on his head which looks much worse than the picture you see above.

The pajama pictures are from the Chinese Adoption Playgroup get-together we attended which was a pajama party at a friend's house. As you can see, Ethan is the only boy amongst all of the little girls!

Untitled Entry

So the title of this entry is "untitled". I had too many witty titles and just couldn't choose.

I could have named it "Ethan's School picture", which you can see from the above picture. What's really amazing is looking at the referral photo to the left of this blog and then looking at his school picture. Wow-what a different little boy!

I could have named it "Happy 6 month anniversary" since 6 months ago today our adoption was official in China. I can't believe how fast that went. 6 months doesn't sound that long in the scheme of things. It really feels like he's been a part of our family forever. I can't even remember what my life was like before Ethan!

I could have named this entry "Why?" I think we hit a language milestone in the car today. I told Ethan after school I have a meeting with someone's mommy (parent/teacher conferences). He asked me, "Why?" *His first why question*!!! On the way home, I told him I had to go somewhere after dinner for a little while and I got another "why?" He asked if he could come with me and I had to tell him no. Another "why?" I wonder how long this will last??!!!

What I really was going to name this entry was "My 4 year old eats Kalamata Olives, does yours?" I was making a veggie pizza and cutting up random veggies that I had on hand. While at the cutting board, Ethan came up and started asking, "I wanna taste it." So he nibbled on broccali, tomatos, and then moved on to the olives I was cutting up. He loved the olives and when it came time for him to help me put the toppings on the pizza, he was eating more than was getting on the pizza. He then moved on to plucking the toppings back off of the pizza until he got caught! He wouldn't leave the olives alone!

All in all things are going great. At the end of every day, I'm exhausted, amazed, and in still awe that I have the most incredible little boy asleep in the next room

A verse to share

Saw this on someone else's blog today. It's one of my favorites.

"Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east, and gather you from the west." Isaiah 43:5

100 good wish quilt

Quite a long time ago, when we still thought we were going to be adopting a baby girl, we started collecting squares of fabric for a 100 good wish quilt for our baby. We received squares from family, friends, and other adoptive families around the world. Some of our pieces are from France, Spain, England and Australia! Once we found out we were having a boy, the style of squares changed from baby girl fabric to little boy fabric. You will notice we have a little of everything in Ethan's wish quilt. We decided to include all of the pieces as they represent the journey of Ethan into our family.

I think we well surpased the goal of 100 squares--I'll have to count them, but I think we ended at about 112. Look closely...if you contributed a square to the quilt, it's in there somewhere!

How we chose the name "Ethan"

Psalm 89 (from The Message translation)

An Ethan Prayer

1-4 Your love, God, is my song, and I'll sing it! I'm forever telling everyone how faithful you are. I'll never quit telling the story of your love-how you built the cosmos and guaranteed everything in it. Your love has always been our lives' foundation, your fidelity has been the roof over our world.

3 month "Gotcha" Anniversary

I haven't really been keeping up the blog since we got home. I give credit to all of you bloggers who continue to keep us all in the loop months and years after you return home with your children. I got in the groove of "real life...new and improved" and haven't been posting as much.

Tomorrow is our 3 month "Gotcha Day" anniversary. I can't believe how quick it went and how far Ethan has come. He's talking (in English) more and more every day. He's picking up words and phrases that I haven't even made a point to teach him--he's such a sponge. I guess I better be careful what I say ;0 His motor skills continue to improve and he is catching up to his chronological age. He was slightly behind on motor skills due to lack of experience in the orphanage and foster environment.

He loves anything that's transportation related: airplanes, helicopters, trains, cars, boats, construction vehicles, etc. He's into a few tv shows: Backyardigans, Curious George, Clifford. He enjoys play dough and makes me laugh when he makes poop with the play dough--truly boy humor!! His adjustment into our family and American life has gone smoother that I could have imagined.

A few random thoughts on China:
We were already homesick by the time we got to Chongqing. Once we had Ethan, we were ready to come home. By the time we got home, I didn't want to see another airplane or suitcase for a very long time. Now I wish I could be back in China. I feel like while we were there, we were so focused on coming home with our son, I might not have appreciated it as much as I could have. Now I would give anything to go back and have hot pot again for dinner, drink Jasmine tea and just soak it all in. It still all seems a bit surreal. I think part of it always will.