Elijah's first birthday home!

Go big or go home!!!! That was the motto for the love of my life's first birthday home! Elijah's special day was amazing and it brought tears to my eyes every time he gasped at all his favorite things we had at his party! It was crazy to think that a year ago to the day we were packing and headed to Colombia to bring our son home! Enough said before I start crying again thinking about it. So here are the pictures from his construction themed birthday party.

The meeting

I did not get a chance to post this until now but here is the video of  the first day we met our son. To explain this video a little bit the director of the ICBF branch in Puerto Asis suggested that we do the meeting in a more relaxed setting. A family member of a ICBF worker opened up her beautiful home to us for this wonderful meeting to take place. It was a very beautiful home situated on acres of land for which the owner also used as a farm. All of the women that are present are ICBF workers who helped prepare our son for meeting us. As you can see they did a WONDERFUL job because he did not cry. It almost seemed as if he new we were his parents and we were coming to pick him up. Excuse my reaction I was in shock and I didn't know what to do with myself . Anyway I hope you enjoy our video and I hope this serves as encouragement for anyone who is thinking of adoption. I promise you will not regret your decision.

Almost a year!

So its almost a year since Elijah has been home and I cant believe it! Elijah's first birthday with us will be next month! He has been such a wonderful child and it feels like hes been with us all his life. I am proud to say he is officially bilingual now but prefers to speak in English! Another shocker! He has also come very far with his speech with out any speech therapy. We have forced him to speak when he wants something by only paying attention to him when he asks for what he wants rather than pointing or making sounds. This has been an AMAZING year. We also had our second post adoption visit with our agency and in another six months we will be ready for our 3rd. I would have to say this has been the best decision we have made and I now know that having a hard time conceiving was actually a blessing in disguise.

Life at home

Life at home has been wonderful. Elijah has really settled in great. It was as if he has been with us forever. Its still crazy to hear this little voice yelling Mommy through the house or even seeing sippy cups and toys all over the house. He is such a loving child! I dont know what else to write to express my happiness so I will just post some pictures!

going home

Well our time here is finally comming to and end and I couldnt be happier! We finally got Elijah's visa 2 days ago and to my surprise it went pretty well. We were only in the US Embassy for about an hour. But im sure to Elijah it felt like a day.

Elijah has been adjusting very good. He has learned his new name already which was one of my biggest worries. ICBF did a great job of preparing him for his new family and his new name. So he no longer responds to his old name. It was as if he was born with the name Elijah. We still have some work to go with his speach but he is catching on. We found out today that he has an ear infection and it seemed to be a problem he has had for a long time which explains the reason for him not being able to speak yet. I couldnt be happier. its crazy how you can fall in love with a child in only a months time. Well that is all for now. The next post will be home!!!!!

video of the meeting!!!!!!

It has been 3 days since the metting and its all still not real. I never knew I could love someone so much!!

I800 Approval

So yesterday we received our I800 approval and that was followed by a call from our agency giving us our travel date! So the count down begins! In 2 1/2 weeks we will finally meet our little one!!!! Next step on this CRAZY journey is for me to get my Colombian visa which will be done on Friday. I'm still in shock its almost here and now I'm starting to get nervous about how the meeting will go. Well nothing else exciting for now so I guess my next update will be a day or so before we leave!