The End.

Well it's time to do this. For some reason it's a little bittersweet to say "The End." This is the end of the Bringing Home Kobe story. Now it's time for me to edit and put it into a book to treasure forever. I started a new family blog that is private. I'm still trying to decide if I want to go public, if you have not received an email invite for "Life In The Fast Lane" - please email me or comment with your email address and I will send out the invite. I have several pending invites so check your junk mail - Jodi, Annie...etc. and if you don't find it there let me know and I'll re-send.

I am going to leave this blog online but do some re-organization because I found it so helpful during this long exhausting wait to read stories of children coming home. So I will put in a few search terms and keywords and leave it online. Maybe it will encourage someone along the way.

Bon Voyage!

Old Friends in New Places

These pictures are from Kobe's visit with his great friend Peterson from Haiti. Both boys weren't quite too sure what to make of it. They smiled ear to ear the second they saw each other but were oh so very confused at how this happened! When we picked Lou up from the creche Peterson asked me "Loudince fly?" - which is what they say when they are going home and I told him yes but that "Peterson will fly soon!" and Peterson did fly soon after Kobe and is home with his brother Alder and sister Aurrora.

Who teaches him this stuff?

Seriously. Kobe cracks me up. I have to get a clip of him saying this but suddenly yesterday he figured out the word "Hungry" it's so cute so now he's constantly saying "Ma-MA - hungwee" he says it until he gets fed too.

One month!

Yes today marks one month that our littlest darling has been home. It's so fun having him around. I get tears in my eyes often watching him learn something new or conquer fears that were very real on his first day home (like our dogs!). Here is a list of some things that may be of interest to you:

-At first Kobe would spontaneously burst into song, Happy Birthday, to be exact at completely random times. Nobody has had a birthday in our household in the last month.
-Kobe now corrects me when I use a creole word and he would prefer that I use English.
-Kobe visited the doctor and the hospital to get blood drawn - he hated it. Absolutely HATED it. Truth be told, so did I.
-Sometimes I think I need to get out of the house and breath alone and I think I may start running or something - my next thought is I should get a jogging stroller to take Kobe with me. I like him that much.
-I sometimes want to curl up with him at nap time because I just want to watch him sleep.
-Every single night after he goes to sleep and right before I go to bed I go in his room and kiss his cheeks and tell him I love him so much. Every.single.night.
-I love that he loves me. Nothing beats walking into a room and having your baby look up and exclaim "MAMA!!!!" with a huge smile. Nothing will ever beat that.
-Kobe's imagination is blossoming, he plays pretend all over the house and will bring me a baby to hold and feed.
-He's learned how to ask for a drink, go potty, wash his hands (?)...etc to be able to get up out of bed at night.
-Kobe mastered riding a trike within the first week and is onto his two wheel bike (with training wheels).
-Sometimes, only every once in awhile, when I put him into bed he scoots over and pats his pillow for me to lay with him. I have never said no.
-Kobe has been to Glacier National Park to the top of Going to the Sun Road, to the Park, boating twice, jumped off the boat into the water once, and stayed up way past his bed time with no nap to watch one beautiful display of fireworks, his first as a United States Citizen.

He amazes me every day with the things he is learning. His MP3 player is still his favorite toy and when he spots it he lights up with excitement. I still can't believe I get to be his mama forever.

Kobe is a US Citizen

Kobe Loudince received his certificate of citizenship in the mail today! Nate and I were super excited and so was Lou because it had his picture on it and he loves to see pictures of himself! :-)