A Year Already!

I can't believe it. Toby has officially been with us for One Year. It seems like just yesterday we were packing up to live in Guatemala for a month while we waited for his visa to be issued. I refused to spend Christmas without my son. Our plane arrived late, our lugguge was lost, and I could reach no one from the agency to tell them. When we entered the lobby of the Marriott, we saw Toby immediately. He was there with the attorney, her mother, and one of her children. We sat and talked awhile and then we embraced Toby and headed to our room to start our life as a family. We were looking forwarded to spending Christmas with the friends that we had made in Guatemala 4 months earlier, Todd and Amy. While there we were also blessed to meet Beckie and Chris (who helped us to make happy hour in the baby room way more fun and invited us to Christmas dinner with them) and Kim and Dave with their daughters Ana and Ruth. Kim and Dave proved to be great friends during my stay since they too were waiting out their visa for Ruth. I would have never made it through the holidays away from home if it weren't for my new friends. Friends that are still around a year later and I hope many years to come! Merry Christmas to the Dillons, the Kurns, and the Merrills! It will not be the same without you this year. We miss you every day and hope that one day very soon we can find a way to get together and celebrate all that we have been blessed with through this process.

Toby has grown, developed, and changed so much this year from a young toddler to a full blown two year old. He has brought tremedous joy to our lives. Every day is a blessing with him and I look forward to each one. God's planning and timing were perfect though I tended to fight him and disagree right down to the last moments. My time spent in Guatemala is one I will never forget and will always treasure.


Our first day together. He was 13 months old. I was okay with bringing home a toddler but looking back he was still very tiny. (Beckie do you see you and the peanut. She's not so tiny anymore.)Christmas Day last year and one of my VERY favorite pictures of him!

Cheesing for the camera in early December this year.All smiles on our visit to Missouri last week. He is a total joy. He is my joy! And we can't wait to share all that joy with his sister who we know will find her place in our growing family and radiate her own joy.