Ethan's 2nd Birthday

Yesterday was Ethan’s 2nd birthday.  Actually, it is his estimated birthday.  When he was found at a Post-Office on December 30th, 2010 and then taken to the orphanage, this was the day they chose for his birthday.  So, this is the day we will celebrate.  I’m sad for him to be alone, especially for special days. I managed to have a pretty normal day at work and kept busy, then had a great staff meeting (I am very proud of all the teachers for all the hard work they have put into the start of this school year, we are off to such a fabulous start!).  We all had lunch together, which is always fun and then had a productive time of planning.  We got to meet baby Gabe, Ms. Rachel’s precious son, who is only 10 days old!  I was glad to have some great distractions, but then on my way home I started feeling guilty for having such a normal day, so I had a little cry in my car by myself and then got it all together at home. 

This whole ordeal is just a part of our lives right now, we have been slowly learning to just deal with it.  Which meant we could choose to sit around and be sad about him not being home to celebrate turning 2 or we could have a party.  We chose the latter…

We have the most amazing friends!  I know it was weird and a little awkward to have a party for a child who is not here yet, but our wonderful friends came and helped us celebrate!  We kept it pretty simple and just had cake and ice-cream.  For those that wanted to, we had notecards attached to balloons to write messages to Ethan and we let them go all together and wished him a “Happy Birthday!”.  It was good to have some way to feel connected to him and to give everyone a chance to think about him and pray for him. 

We are very thankful for the group of people who came over.  We are so blessed to be so loved and supported by our church family!  It was a great night and we were able to get all the details about our friends’ referral from Thailand.  So happy that there is still good news out there in the adoption world!  It was nice to just sit and chat with them and realize how much we have in common (thanks for staying so long, Angie and Jason!).  I love talking about adoption and how God is working to bring families together.  There really is nothing better to talk about!  I cannot wait to see how little Lauren changes their lives!

We got Ethan’s medical reports yesterday.  We will have to take them to the doctor to make sense of all of it.  There was also a picture of a chest x-ray.  GW said there is a video, as well, but they were having trouble condensing it so it could be emailed.  We are assuming that it just of his heart, but we will see.  It would be nice to see new pictures of him.  We are supposed to prepare ourselves for a wait of up to a year to travel to get him.  My stomach feels sick thinking about all we will miss and how much harder it will be for him to transition into our family.  I really wish they would just do his surgery now instead of waiting 6 months.  He needs us and we need him.  I want to be the one to comfort him and hold his hand when he recovers from another heart surgery.  It is very hard to remember that God’s timing is perfect, but I will do my best.

We have talked with GW about a possible match for Reese.  We are trying not to get our hopes up, but they gave us a little bit of info and said we could view her file as soon as they get it, which should be “very soon”.  What a roller-coaster we are on.  We have talked about baby Reese for so long, it will be surreal to actually know who she is!  Prayers for this adoption are very much appreciated.  We will keep everyone posted…