Official Introductions

We received this email from our agency yesterday:



We are thrilled to be able to share with your family that your case has been approved in court! With the approval from the Ethiopian courts, this means that your adoption is full and final in Ethiopia and you are now the legal parents of your child. This is quite a milestone in your adoption journey. We encourage you to take a moment to celebrate this good news!!



With no further ado....Micah Awate Neal or Micah Awate Daniel Neal....thoughts?

Are those not the most kissable cheeks EVER???

I will be kissing them on Feb. 21st and everyday there after!!!!

Winter

This is what I have been looking out at for weeks now....

Luckily...This is what is on the inside...

Chinese New Year!!!

We had an informal Chinese New Year celebration this year. We don't really celebrate "gotcha day". I think it is complicated with bio kids and adopted kids. So, CNY is really the time that we celebrate Sophie and her heritage. I can't believe how fast another year has gone. She is just such a sweet, funny, spirited little girl!


*Sophie took the latern decoration and decided it was a hat.

The end

Remember this? I am back in this space. I am trying hard to be optimistic and tell myself all the things that are I know are true. Sometimes it works. This week has been hard.


*I've tried 10 times to post a clever picture of an "end of the road sign". It won't work.

Missouri

Our normal tradition is to head to Missouri to celebrate Christmas the day after Christmas. For the last two years, we haven't made it there. In 2006, we had just returned home from China with Sophie and weren't up for a road trip. On December 26, 2007, Makenzie went in for an MRI because of leg pain, where they discovered a tumor on her spine. She was admitted into Children's Hopsital that day. She had surgery on the 28th and another the second week of January. We were packed and ready to go to Missouri. Needless to say, our trip was postponed. We were celebrating being stable enough to travel this year. We had a great visit with all the Neals. I wasn't great about taking pictures, but here are a few...

Christmas!

We had a great Christmas!! It was full of excitement. We for the first time EVER successfully accomplished reading an Advent book and actually finished on Christmas morning! We read Barthlolmew's Passage and really enjoyed it! Sophie opened baby Micah's presents for him. We felt his absence for sure! Hopefully soon...