Some much to Celebrate

This week was fun times!!! Last Thurs we left for Boone North Carolina. This is one of my favorite places in the world. It is a small ski/college town set in the Appalachian Mountains and home to Appalachian State. I don't know why I feel such a connection to Boone, I just do. Not to mention that Appalachian State beat my CCU in the championship game last year. It seems to be a place that heals my soul and recharges my spirt. There is no better time to get lost on the trails then in the fall when the leaves change and the air is crisp. Everything seems to filter away in those hills


This year the new addition joined the team of us. Last year during October I was in a little stump due to the adoption process (or the lack of progress) and although the trip was great and hiking the Boone hills with Cliff, our four legged children, and our best friends was close to perfect there seemed to be a bit of melancholy in the air. As you can see from last year's picture and this year's picture life is so much fuller! Perfect.




We also celebrated referral day, October 27, along with Max's Uncle Shane and Godmother, Blaine.


A year ago the stack of papers of my dossier became a child and Maxim Bryce entered my life. It was a year ago that I really became a mother. It was a year ago I received the call from my CHI rep and asked to look at some pictures on my computer. He was the most beautiful child I had ever laid eyes on. I was in a daze that I will never be able to explain for the rest of my life. She said he was 21 months and lived in Vladivostok (my region was Astrakhan). She said that she was going to receive his medical report in a couple of days and to wait and make my decision then. I called Cliff and my parents. I called her back a couple hours later and said... "this is my son please send my dossier to Vladivostok" Thankfully he was not a medical nightmare- we got the report a few days later. I just knew that he was my son.

I remember looking at Vladivostok on the globe in my office, this was the first time I saw how far away it really was. I had to take a second to catch my breath. "My son is on the other side of the world", "I am going to the end of the Earth!" I knew everything about Astrakhan and it's history. Astrakhan was a 2 hour flight from Moscow. Vladivostok was 9 1/2 hours!!! God can really have a sense of humor when he wants to.

Here are pictures of that child a year ago and here are some pictures of him one year later eating German chocolate cake with his family- that loves him more then the fear of going to the end of the Earth for him and can't remember life before him.












Max also celebrated his very first Halloween. He was the cutest Godzilla ever! He didn't really get the whole concept that you go house to house. Max would go up to a door, take the candy, eat it right there, and then want to "hang out" with the nice person that just gave him candy. He wanted to see what there house looked like inside and if they had a pet- forget it! We couldn't leave. We went to 8 houses and it took about an hour 1/2. He was exhausted and ready to go home by the end of the night and we were too. The best Halloween I have ever had~