Andy's 1st Birthday Party: 11yrs old

So we made it...our first official birthday party. Andy's first ever and my first as a parent.
whoohoo milestone :)
I was hoping I'd have something really funny to write...lol but I don't. The party went over great.
We rented a huge inflatable slip n slide and the rest was "baseball themed" (well except for the pinata which Andy really wanted so of course we did). It was really fun.

I will say that I don't know of any other 10yr old who worries about the state of the house and yard for their own party. It was cute and sad at the same time. I had to keep gently reminding Andy we had it covered, we would take care of it. He was really exciting. We had a countdown going on the calendar and in the kitchen.

Of course I did my 'Motherly Duty' of worrying that we wouldn't have enough kids, or that it wouldn't be fun...whatever else there is to fret over... However, I must commend myself because I kept it under control and at some point (who knows when) I just stopped. Yeah, all on my own I was calm and collected and decided whatever would happen would happen. HA no.
Between my Mom and a few friends, that happened. Either way it was really fun, we really enjoyed ourselves and got a bunch of great pics--that need to be uploaded--and Andy scored some great gifts (can I say that? Is that tacky?)

My sister got the cake and pizza and I've never seen such an awesome cake that also tasted good--seriously it seems like you can only have one or the other. But it was great.

So here we are...1 down...tons more to go. Ahhh--insert me smiling and sighing. With this birthday/milestone comes the reminder of all the birthdays Andy didn't get to celebrate and all the years we missed. However, he is here now and it just seems normal--which is good. But it did make me stop and remember (although its easy to remember) how very blessed we are to be a family. I look at him and I just want to hug him and never let him go.
Last year we celebrated his birthday at a McDonald's in Simferopool, Ukraine. It was the first time we'd seen him in almost 2yrs and we couldn't have been happier. He spoke maybe 2 words of English and already called us Mamma and Pappa. I'll never forget him sitting there smiling from ear to ear. He had never even been to McDonald's. He ordered a cheeseburger happy meal, ice cream cone, and a chocolate muffin. He saved a few bites of his cheeseburger and half of his fries for later. And neither Andrew or myself could quit smiling or hugging him. And here I sit just shy of a year from that day (bc his real bday is the 25th) blogging about his first party. We've come along way. Thanks to all of you who've been a part. I'm actually trying not to cry just thinking about our journey. I keep a journal for Andy. I've been writing in it about him, the adoption...etc since we started this process. I was reading back through it Saturday night and there was a bday card tucked inside from what we thought was his 7th birthday. I remember his birthday then. I was at Dell and Andrew was still selling real estate. I must have thought about him all day wishing he would be here. And here we are, and he's here. It felt like it would never happen. The Lord sure does work in mysterious ways.

As I've told you before I don't go back and read these....so sorry if this one was a waste of your internet time :) I'll post pics of his bday as soon as I can get them loaded.

From dreaming on his birthday, to a McDonald's party of 4.....here we are, home all together--Mom, Dad and Andy-- :)
Happy Birthday Andy
Here's to all the birthday's to come!