Post Adoption Update

I can't believe that it has been over 6 months since Tegegn has been in our lives. We continue to love being parents and the joy that he brings to us is unreal. We have had quite a bit of adoption things to do recently. We went to Indianapolis to register his adoption with the state of Indiana. This allows us to get birth certificates for hime through the department of health. It was a fairly easy process and by doing it ourselves, we saved a lot of money. It only took 20 minutes in the City Council building to get everything approved. I am proud to be a Hoosier when it comes to the ease of adoption. We haven't had any issues with Tegegn's adoption.

Our family picture outside of the City Council Building after seeing the judge and him approving the adoption.

On Saturday, we had our second post adoption meeting with our social worker. It was nice to meet with her and catch up. Her and her husband have also adopted a little boy from Ethiopia so we enjoy comparing stories. My parents had never been to an Ethiopian restaurant so it was a fun experience. I think they were pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed the food.

We are planning to apply for Tegegn's US Citizenship as soon as we receive his birth certificates from Indiana. We hope to do this at the end of July. We have one more post adoption report with social worker next January (required by Ethiopia) and then one report done by ourselves until Tegegn reaches 18.

Other than that....nothing else is required. We can just enjoy the time with our son.

Summertime Fun

What a summer! It continues to amaze me how much love I have for our little guy. He fills our world with laughter, kisses and incredible moments that I find myself putting off other things to spend a few more minutes with him. We recently took him to his 18th month well child appointment and he is growing!!!! He is now almost 25 pounds and 31 inches tall. He is still in the 25th - 30th percentile for his height and weight, but his head is still in the 95th percentile. Poor kid....he will grow into it someday.

This summer we have been so busy that we actually decided that we are not going to open our pool this year. We have been gone every weekend and decided that it was one thing that would have to wait until next year since our swimming season is almost half over. It needs a new liner and would be a lot of work, so we will be on top of it next year and we will just enjoy other pools for the time being.

Tegegn is a daddy's boy. He loves being with him at all times. Chris actually has a hard time stepping 5 feet away from him because Tegegn loves him so much and gets really sad if he is not right there at all times. Tegegn continues to understand more and more each week. He continues to dance and shake his head "no" quite often. He is still learning sign language with his most recent one being "love you." However, when he signs you, he points to himself. Cute.

Tegegn loves shoes. Here he is with both of his feet in Chris's shoe. He is to the point where if we ask him to get something, he will bring it to us. He really likes to bring us shoes.

The weekend of Father's Day, we went to Ohio with Chris's side of the family to go to King's Island. On Saturday, we went to the aquarium in Kentucky. It was fun. Tegegn did great. His favorite part was when he could splash in the water.

On Sunday, we went to King's Island. Tegegn rode a couple of rides, went to the water park and rode the train. He loved riding the train and would often say "choo-choo." Aunt Kristy and Grandma Gerry watched him for a bit while we rode a couple of roller-coasters. It is so funny how your priorities change with kids. I was totally content riding his rides instead of the adult ones. The smiles and flapping arms totally make it exciting.

We had to capture this moment. He loves playing with the hose and it was so cool how the water beaded up on his hair. This was close to his bed time so you can imagine how easy it was for him to go to sleep that night.

Our good friends, Syd and Katie, were married this weekend. We forgot our camera, so I don't have any pictures, but the wedding and reception were beautiful. It was a great time to hang out with friends. I really enjoyed catching up with Todd and Micah Nicholson. I went to high school with Todd and he is currently a pastor in Maryland. He officiated the wedding ceremony and did a great job.

Chris and I took a week off for vacation. Originally, we were going to go to Boston to visit some of my family, but we decided to stick around Indiana and Ohio instead. It has been nice. We have throughly enjoyed our time. On Sunday we went to Ohio to hang out with my aunt and cousins. Tegegn loves it there. He is always so busy and loved on so much.

On Tuesday, we decided it would be fun to go to Indianapolis and spend the night in a hotel (one of my favorite things). So we packed up and headed downtown for a miniature trip. Our original plan was to bike the monon trail and then go to the zoo. Instead we had lunch with Chris's sister, Angie, and then walked the canal. It was an overcast day and the zoo was sold out. After we walked the canal we went to the hotel to swim. Tegegn had a great time and has absolutely no fear when it comes to water. After a quick nap, Tegegn was ready to go so we had dinner at Rock Bottom and then headed to an Indians game. He was so busy on the lawn so we put him in his stroller and were actually able to watch a couple of innings. We headed back to the hotel and crashed.

On Wednesday, we decided to get up early and go to the zoo. Tegegn liked it. I think he will love it next year. He was more interested in watching other kids than the animals. He did great though. He was excited about our train ride in the zoo.

We also went to the butterfly observatory and the outside gardens. There were so many different kinds of butterflies. They are really beautiful. It amazes me that they start as a caterpillar. It was cool to see.

So far it has been a great summer. We are busy. We really thought that our life would slow down a bit with Tegegn, but we are on the go all of the time. We love it. It is fun. Until next time....