Daniel's Second Birthday

Once again, my apologies for so much time between posts.

Today we celebrated our first birthday with Daniel. Today he turned two years old. We had a small family birthday party for him last Saturday with members of Greg and Mary’s family present along with his god parents, John and Alice.

Daniel continues to do great. At his 2 year ‘well baby checkup’ today, his pediatrician commented that he’s the healthiest foreign adopted baby she has ever seen. He continues to grow, remain healthy and develop on all fronts. He’s been incredibly healthy. He’s only been sick ONCE since we brought him home back last April (minor upper respiratory infection). His vocabulary grows weekly and he's starting to form small sentences.

Let’s see...what else... Christmas was a blast with him. He didn’t quite understand the ‘ripping into the gifts’ thing. We would help him open a gift and he would find more entertainment in the box and wrapping paper than the gift itself (maybe that’s normal). He had a blast at Halloween.

He and his big sister Katie dressed up as penguins.

Daniel’s also done a little traveling. October of last year he went with Mary and I out to San Francisco for a trip. I find myself being amazed at how much he’s done in just under a year. He’s gone from living in a small orphanage on the outskirts of Moscow, to being adopted, becoming a citizen of the United States, traveling to the West coast, and so much more.

Daniels’ sister Katie has done very well at accepting him into the family. Oh sure, there’s still those moments where the two of them both want to play with the same toys and some conflict presents itself, but hey, their siblings.

We’ve kept up with the Thompson family who adopted Alina from the same orphanage. We’re going to spend a weekend with them in Atlanta this summer. It will be good to see them again, let the kids see each other and get reacquainted.

Another person that’s on my mind today, Daniel’s birthday, is his birth mom. Several times today I’ve found myself wondering how she is, what she’s doing and if she’s thinking of Daniel. Somewhere tonight, about 5,000 miles from here, I hope that she feels the love that we have for her and her son. We pray for her to have peace in her heart and mind for the difficult choice that she made in giving Daniel up for adoption, in hopes that he would have a better life than she could provide.
 
And now, for what many have waited for...pictures!!

Daniel on his second birthday

Daniel after the fair. He won

Mr. Personality in the baby contest.

Enjoying a ride in the van

g, m, k & d