One year ago today . . .

. . . I was on a plane bound for Ethiopia . . . on my way to find our son and bring him home.

. . . more on this later.

One year ago today . . .

The rumour was confirmed and an official announcement was made . . . our adoption agency had filed for bankruptcy.

The adoption community went into shock.

The Carmody family went into shock.

But despite the shock, we managed to do what we had to do. Our focus was our son and we needed to bring him home.

(As I'm typing this, I still can't believe it all happened. It seems like such an unbelievable nightmare - almost impossible . . . almost.)

One year ago today . . .

we heard a rumour that we hoped and prayed wasn't true . . .

Woo hoo!!!!!

Congratulations Holland! What a game!

A dedicated fan:

Hup Holland Hup!

Our Beautiful Blessings

I finally got some updated pictures of the kids. As we were leaving the house for church on Sunday morning, the idea popped in my head to quickly grab my camera and try to get a shot of the kids together. And they actually agreed to it when the suggestion was made. So here's the one that turned out the best.

We even made time to take some individual photos.





It's never an easy task to get all four kids to actually look at the camera and smile at the same time and this was no exception. Here are a few of the outtakes. Guess who has the most fun when it's family photo time???

Bring on the World Cup!

Go Netherlands Go! (since Canada, China and Ethiopia don't have a team)

Movie Morning

Nothing better on a rainy day than snuggling under the covers with the family to watch a movie.

This one's for you Uncle Bryan

My older brother, Bryan, used to have a lot of heavy metal t-shirts in his closet that my parents DESPISED! He was forbidden to wear them anywhere in their sight. Well I recently discovered that Denver may be following in Uncle Bryan's footsteps because this is what I found in his closet (in a box of hand me down clothes).

I don't think Mom and Dad would've banned this one - especially if you looked this cute in it Bry!

Feeding the Baby

I'm so glad I caught this moment on camera (even though the pictures aren't the greatest quality). I love the concentration and just how serious he is when he's feeding the baby her bottle. So sweet!

One year ago (yesterday) . . .

We officially became a family of six. A judge on the other side of the world deemed us worthy to be the parents of "Baheran". Denver officially became a Carmody and life would never be the same! Here he is one year ago:

And just look at him now!

We are truly blessed!

Just because . . .

. . . I LOVE pictures of my kids sleeping.

Denver sleeps with this little bear now and asks for him right away when he wakes up. It's pretty cute. He falls asleep hugging him and then as his arms relax, the bear still stays sleeping on his chest. His official name is "Wumbly" but Denver for some reason calls him "Bucky". So we've all started to call him that - I guess it's his nickname!

Catherine and Hannah come to visit

Way back in March, during March Break (yes, I'm a little behind on blogging), we had the privilege of having some special guests at our house. Catherine and Hannah came to visit us for the day. My kids were so excited that they finally got to meet Hannah "in real life". It was a beautiful day and we even got to enjoy a nice walk in the neighbourhood while Hannah had her nap in the stroller.

Thanks for coming Catherine and Hannah. It was so fun having you at our house. Hannah sure is a beautiful girl and you are both so blessed to have each other. And we're blessed to have you as friends!

These pictures make me laugh. The first one is a look of shock, "she's not actually going to touch MY toy is she???"

Then it's "Hey you! That's mine! Leave it alone!" LOL - oh the love!!!

Homemade Pasta

Last year Mike got a pasta maker for Christmas but didn't get around to using it until yesterday. First it took a while to find the right flour and then it was a matter of finding the time to figure it out. Well, yesterday was the day. It was a bit of trial and error and at first it seemed like it wasn't working but the more he worked the dough, the better it got and voila . . . yummy pasta! The kids, especially Samara, had a lot of fun helping him. The funnest part was when it was time to cut it into spagetti - there was no shortage of helpers for turning the handle on the machine. Needless to say, we had a delicious dinner last night.

Sprained Ankle

So yesterday our little guy sprained his ankle. Yep, that's right, Denver sprained his ankle. Just before lunch, he tripped and was crying. I picked him up to comfort him and then when he was okay, I just put him in his highchair for lunch. He was so tired and started falling asleep as he was eating his lunch. When he was done, I carried him upstairs and put him down for his nap. He didn't sleep for very long and he was crying when he woke up. After a little bit, he seemed okay in my arms and I didn't even remember about the fall before lunch. I proceeded to put his shoes on to go outside and he kind of curled up his toes on the one foot. When I set him down outside to walk, he started crying. (I just assumed he was still tired since he didn't sleep very long). But then I noticed he was holding onto something and holding his one leg up. He wouldn't even put weight on it. When I carried him around, he was fine but as soon as he wiggled out of my arms and wanted down to walk, he would cry.

So off to the clinic we went to get it looked at. By that point he was putting a bit of pressure on it already but still really limping. He was examined and we were told it was just a sprain - most likely not the bone. Phew! Today he's a lot better and can walk on it. I can tell he's still favouring the other leg but it's not slowing him down at all anymore.

These pictures are from yesterday. He's playing with his current favourite toy - the garage and little cars. He was still able to crawl around at that point.

Sleepy Boy

So Denver is at that stage where he's going from two naps a day down to just one. Some days he just needs one and other days he still needs two. Yesterday he had a really long morning nap and so I assumed he didn't need another one and he could just go to bed on time at night. He was happily playing all afternoon and didn't seem tired at all.

At suppertime, for a special treat, we let the kids eat in the family room instead of around the kitchen table. All of a sudden we looked over and Denver was fast asleep in his high chair! I guess maybe he did need a second nap. So guess who was well rested and up partying late into the night???