One of the kids said this week, “It’s the first birthday for Theodore that we got to spend every day of this year with him.” I am realizing more all the time the things I took for granted with our other children that I birthed. What a pleasure it has been to us all to have Theodore his ENTIRE 3rd year of life!

His language skills have sky rocketed in the past month. He is able to replace a word that I may not understand with a synonym.

How about that for critical thinking?

He loves his toys and asks to spend his days playing with them. His attention span blows me away- he can sit and paint a craft or mold his play dough into 100 “cookies” while I do our “morning time” to begin each school day. (As a side note, our Morning time is the crux of our schooling since the very beginning. I will post a follow up on what our morning time is looking like these days.)

We did our usual birthday breakfast in bed for Theodore- complete with siblings surrounding him with lots of love!

We also pulled off a family dinner at Pei Wei to eat Theodore’s favorite foods!

“Inkle” is requested each nap and bed time. I have never sung “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” more in all my life put together than this past year.

He lost his first tooth a few weeks ago- thanks to a swing that whacked him in the mouth/ it may have been more traumatic for me than him– but he sure looks adorable with a tooth missing.

On a personal note, as I reflect on the things that have most surprised me with our adoption of Theodore there is one thing that stands out the most. I never could have dreamed that Theodore’ s back ground would touch places in my soul I didn’t know existed. His pain is something I carry too. I don’t mean that it consumes me but it does affect me at times.

For example, we were looking over his scrapbook from our trip to China that a precious and dear friend made me after we returned. We got to the page where it was Blake, me, Theodore, and the orphanage director. As a complete surprise to me, Theodore pointed to Blake and said, “Me stay my daddy.” Then he took that tiny finger and pointed to me as he spoke, “Me stay my mommy. Here. Not to stay there.”

The tears came flooding- from me. What does he remember I wondered?

I may never know, but I do know that our son feels loved and cherished at this season. Even amidst the discipline and training for tantrums and other normal toddler behavior.

Back to the story- so at this point I am still crying, Theodore looked at me, smiled, and said , “Happy tears?!?!” I managed to say, “Yes. Happy that God gave you to us.”

Happy birthday, son! We all love you to the moon and back!

And a very Happy Thanksgiving to each of you!

“May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. ” Ephesians 3:19