Happy Birthday Dada!

Today is Michael's birthday. Typically we would have maybe gone away for a long weekend or at least gone out to a nice dinner...but having a little one around makes celebrating birthdays a little more low-key. We spent the day at the zoo and then went out for a quick dinner before we had to put the Little Man to bed.

Oh, and then wife of the year here, spent the next two hours skyping with her friend Mary who just got back from Ethiopia visiting her three kids.

Someday we'll be back to long weekends away and nice dinners, but for now...moments like this make it all worth while!

Happy Birthday, to the best dada on the planet! I love you more and more every single day!

Melkam Gana

Today is January 7th, with is the date that Ethiopians observe "Gana" or Christmas. Yes, it is celebrating the exact same thing as traditional Christmas...the birth of Christ...its just observed on a different day.

What I love about Gana, is that it truly is a religious holiday. The entire day is spent celebrating at church and worshiping the true miracle of the virgin birth of Christ. Everyone wears white robes or traditional clothing, symbolizing the purity that comes with our new birth in the Lord, and after church they spend time feasting with their familiy and friends.

We're so blessed that our family is so deeply intertwined with the Ethiopian culture and community, and we will be celebrating Gana each and every year.

This year, our adoption play group in the midwest had a huge Gana celebration. Since our house sold in Indiana and closing just happens to be the first week of January, Kad and I were able to make the trip to Ohio to attend.

This was the first time I was able to introduce Kad to the group of families who have supported us and prayed for us as we journeyed through the adoption process together. It was such a sweet time of celebration for so many reasons!

Kad is his traditional Ethiopian outfit (a gift from his Aunt Birtukan):

All of the Ethiopian kiddos (this was a tough group to photograph!):

Melkam Gana (Merry Christmas) to all of our friends and family in Ethiopia!

Christmas

I cringe a little when people say that this is Kad's first Christmas. I know its well meaning, but this is actually Kad's second Christmas. He did have a life and a history that did not include us, and I always want to honor and respect that. But, this is Kad's first Christmas with us, and we were so blessed to get to fly back to Indiana for two weeks to celebrate with our family!

We had a great time visiting, laughing, eating (a lot!)and making memories with our sweet little boy. Oh...he did get spoiled rotten with gifts too!

Here are a few of our favorite Christmas pictures:

In the airport...ready to fly!

First Elliott Family Christmas Breakfast:

The best gift under the tree:

His first 4-wheeler from Grandpa and Meme:

Kad LOVED the Elmo hat he got from his great Aunt Rossi & Uncle Richard:

I couldn't get a good picture, but my parents got Kad some monster feet slippers that he REFUSED to take off. Seriously...he wore them everywhere!

We couldn't have asked for a better first Chrismas with our Little Monster Man, and we're looking forward to many more to come!

First Haircut

Since we're back in Indiana for Christmas, we decided it was time for Kad's first haircut. His very talented Aunt Meg volunteered to help tame Kad's crazy curls, and we were so grateful! We were nervous that our squirmy little boy would make this a traumatic expereince for all of us, but he did SO GOOD!

He sat on Mike's lap, and he was eating up all the attention he was getting from everyone else in the salon. He smiled and giggled and before we knew it, our curly haired baby looked like a stylish little toddler!

In the chair:

Being such a brave boy:

Loving his new look:

Happy Thanksgiving

Its so fitting that our first official holiday with Kad home and in our family is Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for, and our sweet Little Man is near the top of our list!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have a walker!

Its official....Kad is walking! I can't believe how much our Little Man is growing. Just four months ago, he could barely hold his head up and now he's taking steps!

Here's a short video of Kad's walking debut:




I'm sure it won't be long until we're chasing him around the house!

Twin Falls

I never thought I would trade my heels for hiking boots, but with hundreds of thousands of miles of incredible hiking tails in Washington, its becoming our new favorite hobby!

I can't believe how beautiful it is here, and Mike and I say at least once on our hikes, "We actually live here!" Twin Falls was no exception. It was an easy hike, but it was absolutely amazing!

I have a feeling there will be a lot more Washington state hiking in our future!