From Baby To Big Boy!

BJ had his two year old portraits taken! This was one of our favorites!

BJ's Dedication at our church with Pastor Ron

Our little Pastor BJ (Doesn't he look so deep in thought?)

That's right buddy, you "hide His words in your heart!"

Our sweet boy on Dedication Day Jan. 17

It has been awhile since I last posted and so much has happened! BJ was dedicated at our church in late January. Most of all the family came from far and near (pictures above) and mommy (Melanie of course) even sang a song to him entitled "Jesus Here's Another Child to Hold." The dedication was beautiful! He is growing (well maturing, hasn't really grown at all height or weight!) by leaps and bounds! His skills are up to par with his age and his language understanding is phenomenal! It's hard to believe that he's only been in the U.S. for 5 months and he's already picked up on so much! We are so proud of him! We do have some speech concerns, although this is fairly normal for a "second language learner" like himself. He tries to repeat everything, but really struggles with getting it out. We are in the process of getting him evaluated to see if there are any issues we should be concerned with. In all, we are overly pleased with his progress and we thought it would be fun to make a top 10 list of his milestones! Yes, I know I'm bragging, but I'm just so proud of him!

10. Can walk, jump, run (hysterical to watch!), climb and dance! (Which is all amazing since he just learned to "crawl" last June!)

9. Feeds himself with a spoon without spilling anything!

8. Can undress himself and tries hard to "dress himself" (also very funny to watch!)

7. Can stack blocks higher than himself without knocking them over!

6. Loves simple puzzles!

5. LOVES CARS! Can make any car and train sound and knows how to push them all over everything and ALL OVER THE HOUSE! (Funny tidbit of info: BJ will not watch much T.V., but will sit and watch Nascar for a 1/2 hour. What's wrong with my child! LOL!)

4. LOVES TO SWIM! He can put his face in and blows great big BUBBLES!

3. LOVES BOOKS! BJ will grab a book and climb onto my lap to be read too! He sits patientely until I'm done reading the page and then turns it! He is such a teacher's child!

2. Has finally taken to a soft blanket! For so long, he wanted nothing to do with anything soft, just hard plastic toys. Now, he falls to sleep clutching his bear blanket or rubbing mommies hair! So Cute!

BEST ONE BY FAR!

1. LOVES TO GIVE KISSES and CUDDLE! BJ is such a loving little boy and has for many months been blowing or giving light little pecks. However, just recently, he's been grabbing our faces, turning them, and planting big, juicy ones right on the cheeks. Then he turns our heads and gives the cutest little peck on the lips! It completely melts my heart and I can hardly get enough!

With this being said, adjusting to being a "working mom" has not been without it's challenges! I struggle with being away from him on a daily basis. I feel like I miss so much and wonder how I'm supposed to do all my motherly duties when I only see him for 3 hours before I have to put him to bed! I must say, I felt prepared for almost everything, except for this. I feel like I'm being selfish and I do have it the best I could (since grandma and grandpa get to watch him), but "I" want to be the one with him all day! Let's just say, it's been a lot tougher than I thought it would be!

Finally, this will be the last update on this blog. We are leaving it "as is" to be used as a resource for our family and other perspective adoptive families. Our next post will be a link to our new family blog, which is still a work in progress. I will also have a video posted that we made (for a presentation I did on our adoption) displaying our journey with BJ from start to present! It is called "Bringing BJ Home!" and is simply adorable! BJ especially loves to watch it and that in itself makes me cry! We hope to post again very soon!

Love you All!