A year ago today

A year ago today we met an amazing woman who forever changed our lives. A year ago today, Josh and I sat nervously in our adoption agency's waiting room eager to meet K. and her mom for the first time. I remember every single emotion I felt sitting there, and I don't think I'll ever forget that day. I was in awe of how she seemed to be handling everything, but my heart went out to her (and still does every single day) for what was obvious pain in her heart. K. was and still is an awesome, caring, loving woman.

After our meeting, we rushed to get to DC for the Dane Cook concert with some of our friends. It was a great concert, and it was, unbeknownst to us our last weekend of being a family of two.
Just a week after our first meeting, K. gave us the most precious and selfless gift someone can give, she gave us our son.

Adoption isn't just about the happiness the adoptive family has for receiving the wonderful joy of a child. I am always thinking about K., as she will forever and always hold one of the most special places in my heart.

Here are some photos from that DC trip, since it was an awesome trip and we used it as celebration of impending parenthood!

Here I go again on my own...

Well, last night kicked off yet another deployment for our family. Josh's 3rd in 3 years to be exact. It sucks, but I know it will go by really fast since I have so much to keep me busy. My goal for any deployment is to always set smaller monthly "fun goals" to help make the time go by faster. I have no doubt November will fly by, since we're so busy with school and Jack's party, birthday and trip to Orlando. All of which I am really excited about, but sad that Josh will miss all three. I know that's what upsets him most about having to be on this deployment instead of at his new command, is that he's missing so much of Jack's life while he's gone. We'll get through.

And since I haven't uploaded the last photo of Jack and Josh together (which is adorable... they were watching the election results together) here are three awesome ones:
1. Jack and his monkey that has his daddy saying "I love you little man, be safe and take care of mommy"
2. Jack rocking his "I voted" sticker. And an extremely adorable outfit :)
3. Jack and Riley hanging out in the crib. Josh thought it was hilarious, Jack didn't know what to think of his new bunk mate. Riley didn't seem to mind, either.

Also, I finally found a climber for Jack's birthday present! Jack seems to love playing with it already (and can even slide on his own) but has yet to master climbing up the "rock wall" to get to the top. I think he'll get it in a few months.