A picture sharing site...for now

This is a picture of our family on the one-year anniversary of our Gotcha Day in Russia! (June 9)

I don't know if anyone even checks this blog anymore, but I am missing it lately. I'd really like to devote more time to chronicling our family's journey--as that was the point of starting to write here from the beginning. I am hoping a bit more margin in my schedule this fall will allow me time to work on scrapbooks and journaling our family history.

In the meantime, I have started a new website strictly for sharing pictures. I want our friends and family who live far away to get to see pictures of Sam more often--and I am terrible at remembering to email or print them. With the other site, I'm hoping I won't feel the pressure to write stories--I can just share the pictures.

I am hoping to return here again in the near future to share fun stories as well. But, if you'd like to get the address for our blog, just send me an email or a facebook message, and I'll give you the address. Thanks for walking with our family!

One year ago (last Thursday)

Last Thursday, March 19, was the anniversary of the first day we met Sam. It is so hard for me to believe that a year has gone by since that day. I have so many clear memories of walking into that Russian hospital, and the surprise we felt to see Sam when we walked into the room (we were told they would be bringing him in later). My heart fell in love with him immediately, and it was so difficult to get back on an airplane, and leave our son in a hospital halfway around the world! Now, he's been home over nine months and we have found our "new normal."

Here are pictures from March 19, 2008 and 2009. The thing I love is the big smile on Sam's face now!



I've been thinking recently about how different things are now than they were on that day a year ago. Here are a few of my thoughts:

Then: After a half-hour of playing, Sam's face lit up when he saw his nurse return to get him. He reached for her immediately. I couldn't wait until Sam felt that way about me. Now: Mama is his favorite person in the world! If he sees me across the room, he calls my name and runs to me. It's a wonderful change!

Then: We really had no idea what to do with him. We read a book and played with some toys, but didn't know what he preferred to do. Now: We have discovered many new fun things to do as a family. We know that he loves music, stars, fire trucks, dogs, the park, Elmo, and too many other things to name. The key here is that we actually know what he loves!

Then: We got to sleep all night through, and sleep in on the weekends. Now: What is sleeping in again? This is one of the changes of parenthood that isn't my favorite, but is still well worth it!

Then: We prayed together every day for God to protect our son and keep him safe until we could return to bring him home forever. Now: We get to pray with Sam every night, and tell him in person how much we love him and how glad we are that he is a part of our forever family.

Of course, there are countless other ways that our lives have changed. I'm so thankful for this amazing child that God brought to our family--hand-picked just for us!

Baby Dedication (and more)

After almost two months of silence on the blogging front, I am shocking the world with pictures that were taken just a few hours ago! This morning at church was Sam's baby dedication. He was the oldest one up there by over a year. :-) It was a blessing to be in front of our church family (and many of our Nav students and staff) to publicly affirm our desire to raise Sam as a man who loves Jesus. We know that this dedication has absolutely nothing to do with his eternal salvation. It is our prayer that one day in the future he will make his own decision to trust and follow Jesus. But for now (and always), we will do our best to tell Sam about how much Jesus loves him and to spend time reading the Bible and praying with him. What a high calling to get to spend time each day with this little man who we pray will one day be a warrior for Christ! Here are a few pics from this morning:


While I have my blogging inspiration going (and while Sam is napping), I'll share a few other recent pics as well:
This is us in Atlanta celebrating Thanksgiving. We are so thankful to be a family of three this year! Ben was growing a beard for No-Shave November with The Navigators (which is another story on its own), but is back to his normal beard-less self now. I did get pretty used to the beard by the end of the month, and told him I wouldn't mind if he grew one again. I don't think he wants to.

What do you get when you cross a little boy tripping over a toy with a metal queen bed frame? A five-hour ER visit and nine stitches! Three of them are underneath holding together the lower layer of skin, and six are on the top. It was a rough afternoon for all of us--the day before we left for a ten-day trip to Wisconsin and Chicago. Sam is healing really well though. It just looks like a scratch now, and we are told that if we use sunscreen every time he goes outside for the next year or so, it should heal so we can hardly see it. Like a friend of ours at church told us, "If a scar's not on your face, it doesn't count!"

The Andersons came to Florida to celebrate a late Christmas over New Year's weekend. Of course, the highlight was watching Sam and his cousin Isaac play together. They did great sharing and having fun together. And they kept each other entertained so the adults could talk without interruption once in awhile. Of couse, we wish they could see each other more, but we made the most of our time together! (Notice how great Sam's scar is already looking!)