Dealing with a medical emergency with my brother yesterday kept me from posting this.....

Yesterday Sept. 18th marked one full year of having Derek in the United States as a part of our family!!!
We are so thankful to have him!!!!

Here is what our day looked like one year ago.....

HAPPY GOTCHA DAY 2009 DEREK!!!!!!

SEPTEMBER 1, 2008 AT 3 pm WE SAW THIS LITTLE FACE PEEKING FROM THE ORPHANAGE GATE.....











HERE WE ARE ONE YEAR LATER, SEPTEMBER 1, 2009 AT 3 pm THIS IS THE LITTLE FACE LOOKING AT ME FROM MY LIVING ROOM COUCH


PRAISE GOD!!!!!!!

SO MUCH HAPPENED FROM THIS DAY FORWARD....


It was one year ago today that we embarked upon a journey that would lead us to this beautiful country.....



To see for reality this beautiful face...


It has been a fun, enjoyable,yet some days challenging ride through this adventure but I wouldn't turn back in a second. We just look at Derek each day and thank God and our friends and family for each day we share with him.

I think I can confidently say that.... Derek is potty trained. He even did a poo in the potty today!!! WOOHOO!!!!

Daycare is going quite well. He usually wants to stay when I get there for him. He loves the kids. Even though they were all in their little cots sleeping when we left today he still waved goodbye to each of them. So cute!!!!!

I am campaigning for prayer again for my mom. She got a report to day that her liver enzymes are quite high and that she will need to have a full body cat scan on Monday. We are scheduled to get the results for that on Sept. 8th. We are hopeful that it is a fluke in the lab or that it is caused by her new medication. Please remember her.

Tomorrow Derek, the girls, and I are heading out to Hershey for a day of back to school shopping. I am NOT looking forward to it!

SHOULD I OR SHOULDN'T I......

I am almost afraid to put this in writing but after Day 2 of success I would like to brag about the potty training with Derek. We started really getting serious about it this week. I seem to keep it under control here at home but when he goes to work with Norm all hell breaks loose. I guess Daddy needs to get tougher. Anyway we have been doing what a few other blogging parents have done...PANTSLESS!!!! IT WORKS!!! He realizes there is nothing there to catch what is coming out and he runs for the potty. We even did a short road trip today in UNDIES and he stayed DRY!!!! A big WOOHOO to Derek!!! So we are almost "Potty Trained". Derek will start daycare Tuesday and it was my goal to have this accomplished by then. We'll see.....

As I looked back through the archives of Derek's adoption process I realize that it was one year ago today that we made our decision to travel to Vietnam at the end of August 2008 regardless of whether there was a decision made by the Vietnamese government or not. We needed to be there....we needed to fight for our son!!!!!