Spiderman's 10th Birthday!

My how time flies!  My momma's heart wants to know how this big guy can be 10 when he's only been home 3 years?  Tonight we watched some old home movies and saw him while still in Ethiopia.  He doesn't even look like the same person.  The common theme though is he's still as sweet as ever.  Here he is above with the Lego set he's been wishing for (and talking about incessantly) for the past couple of months.  To top off that dream come true, he had 4 boys spend the night last night to help celebrate and he loved every minute of it.  Below they are modeling all the Lego creations they made to stage their imaginary Star Wars battles.  He really is blessed with a great set of buddies here. 

His best buddy, Jacob, even came with his own Bobba Fett costume.  That added quite the drama when it came to the Nerf gun, sword and light saber battle they had outdoors.  Spiderman had such a wonderful time and he came down pretty hard when it was all over and the friends had gone home. 

In fact, I was painfully reminded again today that the flip side to the beauty of adoption is deep loss.  While the details are private, there has been no denying that for two of my children - birthdays (and gotcha days)can be difficult.  They are something to celebrate for sure but you can't celebrate a birth and remove it from the fact that it happened in another place with other people present who are no longer in the picture.  The loss of those happy and sad memories, the "knowns" and the "unknowns",  is enough to grieve over again and again. 

Just as my children have long noticed that there is always something "bad" that happens in a story before it can have a happy ending, we are all still working our way through the story and trusting that God's perfect plan will bring us to the ending beyond what we've hoped for.

Boo's Makover

Boo has been thinking about a haircut for awhile now and it finally all came together.  Of course she would only let Katie Ball cut it (not some stranger) and she wanted to wait until fall (I think it's here) so she took the plunge.  This is all a pretty big step for this girl who asked for a haircut this summer and when I took off a couple of inches, she sobbed the rest of the day because Goose's hair was no longer than hers. :)

So this was actually taken well into the haircut, it was even longer to begin with.  I was scooping up piles of hair so she wouldn't see them and freak out how much hair was coming off.  She said she wanted it short, well above her shoulders and when it was done (we went with a slightly longer version) she was THRILLED!  In fact, she couldn't stop giggling and we could hear her from the other room as she was looking in the mirror.  I don't know if I've ever seen her so completely unable to stop smiling.  She posed for quite a photo shoot after that.  Isn't she adorable?

She spent the afternoon trying out all different ways to wear her hair and BOUNCING around the house since, "It feels so bouncy".  Boo tends to be a fun loving kid but she avoids anything that draws attention to herself.  She'd rather not have all eyes on her and even positive attention can make things difficult around here.  My favorite statement from her today was, "I feel like a whole new person".   In many ways this year, I see her becoming more sure of herself and growing into a whole new Boo. 

Mother-Son Stampede

We finally had our turn (according to my boys).  After watching the girls head to dances with their Daddy in the past, there was an event just for the boys and I this week.  The Stampede was put on by various organizations in town and the boys were thrilled to hit the town with Mom.  Of course, the silly thing is that once we arrived and took the hayride to the party, they were runnin' with the boys more than hangin' with their mom.  Imagine hundreds of boys, eating, shooting guns & bows, running obstacle courses - all while their moms are trying to keep up with them or just keep track.  Just when I'd coral Jaybird to say that Spiderman & I were going to get some food, he'd inform us that he already had.  Well, technicalities aside, the boys had a blast and definitely want to go again so in their mind, Mom dates are pretty fun. :)