One Year Ago Today (in video)

One year ago today, we met our son, Elias Besufikad, for the very first time. Although the meeting wasn't exactly how we dreamed it would be, it was still a dream come true!

To read about our first meeting click here and here.

Winter 09-10

I realize my blog is officially lame and I apologize for that. Hopefully once this whole cancer business is over I will be blogging more often than just seasonally. Who knows, maybe I won't have any readers left by then.

Quick update on me: I am still doing surprisingly well with the chemotherapy. I have 2 more rounds (1 more month) of treatment and then I go in for a scan. There is a possibility I will be given the all clear at that point. If the cancer is not completely gone I will have 2 more months of chemo and then possibily radiation after the baby is born.

We've had a lot of fun this winter!!! We got some snow in the moutains and last weekend took a day trip so the Ethiopian boys could experience snow for the first time. Elias basically hated it and was really only content when someone was holding him and not making him touch the snow.

Christmas with Elias was wonderful! Here are some highlights

In mid-January we had a mini reunion for some of the kids from Hannah's Hope. We were able to use my Aunt and Uncle's beach house here in San Diego. We had such a great time getting to meet some of our blog friends in person. The kids had an absolute blast and I hope as they get older we will continue to be able to get together as the kids share a very special and unique bond.

Elias and Maleia

Elias, Maleia, and Sitina

Christian, Ashi, Elias, Maleia, Elyse, Sitina (Liam and Wes were sleeping...)

During this photo we got asked if they were quads...probably thanks to the super cure shirts Bethany made everyone!

Despite all the craziness of our lives due to my health issues this fall and winter have been really wonderful. We really look forward to Spring when Elias' baby sister will be joining us!

Fall 09 Part 2

Fall is moving right along.  Elias is 16 and 1/2 months old.  He's becoming quite the little man.  He is all personality.  Below is our sad attempt at a family photo on Thanksgiving day.  Elias desperately wanted to play with the big kids and wanted nothing to do with his mom and dad.

Here he is at the "little kid" table drinking out of his "big kid" cup.

One thing that hasn't changed is Elias' love of the outdoors.  More than anything in the world he loves to be outside.  One day he was at his Papi's house and Papi and all his uncles and auntie were outside doing yard work.  Elias was in heaven having all the big people outside with him.  He especially loved his Uncle Jake's work gloves which he put on by himself.

When Elias grows up he wants to be just like his Papi.  He is constantly grabbing the pool skimmer and dragging it around the backyard.

One morning our condo association decided to remove all the bushes outside our place.  I have no idea why but one day they were there and then the next they weren't.  Elias has figured out how to open the sliding glass and screen doors.  Luckily they need some WD40 so I could hear the door squeaking open as I was in the kitchen.  When I went outside this is what I found.  Such a boy!

"What Mom?  I'm just playing in the dirt."  He had taken a bucket from his water table and was digging in the dirt within a minute.  Although Elias is "all boy" in so many aspects, one thing he hates is having his hands dirty.  After a couple minutes of digging in the dirt Elias started whining and showing me his dirty hands.  It's very easy to be this little boy's hero when all it takes is brushing his dirty hands on my pants.

Elias has a new found love of somersaults.  Here he is in his "ready" position.

I am doing well.  I have had two rounds of chemotherapy.  It is given to me every two weeks.  Things are going well with it.  I feel sick about 2 days and then it will take me a couple more days to fully recover but it isn't as bad as I thought it would be.  We are thinking treatment will last a total of 4-6 months and we already are 1 month down.  Since we didn't know how it would be, the weekend before it started we had the uncles and aunts over for Wii game night and slumber party.  It was Alemu's first sleepover and he was extremely nervous but in the end he had a great time and said he wanted to do it again.  Elias loved having everyone in his domain.  He was dancing around and spinning in circles all night.  My guess in maybe someone slipped him some soda when Brian and I weren't looking.

Elias and Israel are the best of buds!  Here they are playing with sticks at Alemu's soccer game.

A stick and a soccer ball...life doesn't get much better!

Elias loves all things electronic.  I think he mostly like feeling like a big person.  He even knows how to scroll the mouse properly.

Elias loves ranch dressing!  And ketchup!  And anything else that he can dip himself.

Yes, that is a bottle.  Still.  My boy loves his "ba" and asks for it all the time.  He refuses to drink out of the sippy cup the majority of the time.  I know we probably should have nixed the bottle a while ago but he loves it and I love snuggling with him when he has it.  So, I'm thinking it will be our family New Year's resolution to give up the ba at the end of the year.

Just hanging with Uncle Kevin.

This cutie pie just got tooth #7 yesterday and #8 is around the corner.  He loves to smile his cheesy squinty eyed smile when you ask him to smile.

Right now Elias is in to repeating everything that is said.  It's a dangerous place to be. :)  He puts two words together.  He says thank you (dank do) occasionally on this own but most the time he has to be prompted to say please (peeees) and thank you.  He will say things like "help Mom" and "no Mom."  

Here is Dad, Brian and Alemu at Alemu's last game.  They had a great time coaching and will all be part of the All Star team in January.

Here is Elias standing in line with all the team after receiving his first medal!

He is still completely obsessed with Elmo.  I hear cries and chants for Elmo ALL day long.  He understands everything we say and will start the melt down as soon as I say "no more Elmo" or "we are all done today."

Elias is so much fun.  He is still very strong willed and smart!  His favorite thing other than being outside are dogs.  We got to be around a number of dogs when we visited Brian's family after Thanksgiving.  He loves to "woof woof" and pet the dogs.  I'm not the biggest animal fan but Brian and Elias are so it looks like there may be a dog in my future.  I'm holding out for a backyard before I give in though!

We are super excited about Christmas.  It is crazy to think back to last Christmas when I was SURE we would have our son with us and how hard it was to make it through the holiday knowing baby Besufikad was in Ethiopia.  Now we are all together and I couldn't be happier!!

Fall 2009

First of all, thank you all for your words of encouragement. We appreciate all the prayers on our behalf.

Secondly, I am very behind with the blogging so here is our Fall 2009 so far...

Getting used to spending every Saturday at Alemu's soccer games - and loving the fact that the parent's think Elias is super cute and give him candy!

He's thinks he's 11 just like the other boys. Always in the mix.

First campfire and smores :)

First goose egg :(

Enjoying Fall in San Diego...still have to learn the difference between Basketball and Soccer

Pumpkin Patch - and yes it was 85 degrees the weekend before Halloween

Alemu's Cross Country Race - he came in first!

First Halloween! We had a great plan. Elias was going to be Curious George and Brian was going to be the Man in the Yellow Hat. With all the stuff that has been going on the past few weeks Halloween was put on the very back burner and Emily and I didn't start looking for costumes until Thursday afternoon. After 3 stores I was exhausted. Everything was cleaned out. We had the choices of a girly looking cow or Elmo. Of course, right now Elmo is Elias' favorite person. When he saw this costume he grabbed it, hugged it, kissed it and wouldn't let go. We had to distract him with the Elmo I was buying him for Christmas in order to pry the costume out of his hands. This is not the cutsie costume I wanted my son to be in but it is the one he wanted. Who knew that my one year old would be opinionated enough to practically be picking out his own first halloween costume? Oh well, there's always next year for cutsie. Meanwhile, here is E-Wok Elmo Elias :)