One Year Ago Today ...

... we saw this sweet little face in person for the first time. You can read about it here. This was our first photo together as a family of three. I have so many emotions when I think about that day: happiness, joy, sadness, fear, a burden to keep him connected to Ethiopia, a responsibility to hold his story sacred, relief, nervous. Yes, all of those emotions! And each one has stayed with me to this day. What an incredible responsibility to raise a child. This photo is one that still moves me today. Simon got very sad and scared when we tried to change his clothing that first afternoon. I was so thankful that he let me comfort him. I hope that he will always allow me to be with him in both happy and sad times. We were so thankful that it didn't take long to see his true happy personality. This was just about 90 minutes later ... the beginning of many smiles.

When we received our referral for Simon Kebebe on January 4, 2010, he was 15 months old, 28 inches tall and about 18 lbs. Today, he is 30 months old, 35 inches tall and almost 27 lbs. That's a lot of growing! Simon can sing his ABC's, count to roughly 15 (though most times he skips the number 6), recognizes many shapes, knows his colors, can recognize individual letters and numbers, knows about 20 sign language signs and tries to sign the ABC's, and has impeccable attention to detail -- nothing gets by him!

Simon loves Mickey Mouse, Thomas the Train, playing outside, painting (with his fingers or a brush), reading books, stickers, building with blocks or anything stackable, and dancing. Oh how he LOVES to dance! His favorite foods are pizza, cheese, pasta, raviolis, oatmeal, peanut butter toast and chocolate.

Our daycare is closed for the month of April so Simon has been spending a lot of time with Daddy at the studio. Mark took some updated photos this week. Here are a few of my favorites. Doesn't he look like a little boy?? So grown up!

To celebrate our first Family Day, we had Simon's favorite tonight -- cake. We were really pleased with how well the cake turned out. Thank you, Baker's Peak!

Some friends came over to help us celebrate. We sang "Happy Family Day" to the tune of Happy Birthday and Simon just loved it. He loved the cake, too.

And so it has been a year. We're still learning how to parent our wonderful son -- I feel like we learn something new each day. Simon Kebebe is intelligent, inquisitive, playful, and has a great sense of humor. We love his snuggles and his laughter is about the best sound on earth! He is so very precious to us. We love you, Simon Kebebe!