Remembering One Year Ago

It is July 30th, and one year ago today our lives changed forever. On this day, we met our son and became his Mommy and Daddy. It is a date that will always be in our memories as the day we brought Michael into our family and into our hearts.

We have not posted in so long to the blog (for which I am so sorry, especially to our family and friends who live so far away from us). Time just seems to pass by so quickly, and that is so evident today as we celebrate the one year anniversary of "Gotcha Day".

So let me give you a quick recap of our last 7 months since we last posted. Our winter was long and cold, but that is normal for Chicago. Michael enjoyed getting out in the snow, although it took him a few visits outside to start liking it. Unfortunately, a good part of our winter was spent dealing with colds and ear infections. It seemed as though Michael had a cold every other week, but I guess that is what comes along with being in daycare three days a week. Colds, sniffles and the flu. We figure that by the time Michael goes to kindergarten, his immune system will be good and strong! Needless to say, we are very well known at the doctor's office. Luckily, Michael loves his doctor. She is wonderful. He is not so in love with the nurses, though, as they are the ones that always do the shots! Ouch!!

Along with his colds, we had a scare in early March, and then again in early June, as Michael suffered two febrile seizures. This type of seizure is caused by a very high fever. In Michael's case, the March occurrance happened as a result of fever caused by the flu (he went up to 104), and in June, it was an ear infection (which pushed him up to 103). Many tests have been done on him since then, and we have ruled out any other causes. So we now know what to do, and watch him closely at the first sign of fever. Other blood tests and lab work that we had done all came back negative, so he is otherwise in very good health. Now if we can just keep those cold and flu germs away......

And on March 31, Michael turned 2 years old. We had a very big party for him, and I am not sure he understood what all of the commotion was about. But he really enjoyed it, got lots of wonderful presents, and really enjoyed his cake! I'm not sure if any got into his mouth!

We sailed into Spring, and in late April Michael was baptized. That was a very special day for all of us. The priest who did the baptism knows our family well, and we were honored that he did this for us. Michael looked so grown up, and actually enjoyed getting the holy water poured on his head. The priest even gave him a little extra! Extra blessings can't hurt!

In May we celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary, and went to an indoor water park for a couple of days with friends. Michael was a fish in the water, loving every minute of it.

We have enjoyed alot of "first holidays" with Michael, including Easter and Fourth of July. And the most special for us being Mother's Day and Father's Day. It had been a long time for us waiting to be able to celebrate those days in our home. Michael made us wonderful hand-made gifts at daycare, which I am sure we will hold on to until he is old enough to drive!

The summer is upon us and Michael loves being outside whenever he can, loves playing in the water, and loves his new sandbox in the backyard. We look forward to our first family vacation in a couple of weeks when we head to the beach. We think Michael is going to love the sand and ocean just as much as we do.

And so today we reflect and look back over the past year and are amazed at how much Michael has grown and how well he has adjusted to his life. He loves going to daycare, has lots of friends there, and his vocabularly is getting bigger and bigger everyday. We have been through so much already with him and it honestly seems like we have had him his whole life. There have been great challenges thrown our way, and we have learned very quickly how hard being a parent really is. But greater than those challenges has been the joy and love that Michael has brought to our lives and to the lives of our entire family. We are so blessed and cannot imagine life without him.

Thank you all for patiently waiting for an update, and we hope we have given you a good recap. Oh, but one more thing....pictures! Here are pics that capture Michael over these past months.

Happy Chinese New Year

Awesome! I'm 2!

YUMMY!

My first official haircut

Baptism Day

I love my Daddy!