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A first for me!

Today is my first mother's day!  It has been a lovely day.  Yesterday, Gizatu gave me a card he made for me at school as well as a beautiful butterfly.  Today, started with a wake-up call from my sweet boy.  My sister called and wished me a happy mother's day, and so did my brother.  My brother said let me talk to Gizatu.  So he and Gizatu talked for a few minutes and then I hear "Happy birthday, mommy".  Close enough for me.  We then headed for church.  Multiple happy mother's days later I decided to surprise my mother and headed to her house for mother's day.  She lives about an hour and half from us.  So we hopped in the car and headed on.

We surprised her and had lunch with my mom, dad, sister, aunt and uncle, aunt, cousin and his wife, and my grandmother.  Then we spent a few more hours hanging out.  We headed home after that.  After a full day, my sweet boy zonked out.  He barely woke up for a minute while I was laying him in his bed.  But then he was out.

I can't believe what an amazing experience it is to be a mother, to be this sweet boy's mom.  He's brought an unbelievable light to my life.  He makes me laugh, and sometimes I cry tears because his first momma doesn't get to experience all of this.  Her loss made me a mother.  She is my hero.  I hope she knows that he is safe and loved.  I know he was loved when he lived with her and I hope she knows that he is loved now that he lives with me. Posted by Melissa at 10:21 PM 
Happy First Mother's Day to you! Sounds like you had a great day.

May 9, 2011 at 7:44 AM 
I thought about you all day yesterday! Congrats on your first Mother's Day! =o)

May 9, 2011 at 8:23 AM 
Happy first Mother's Day, friend! I love that I get to see you blossom into an amazing mother! We are very thankful that you and G are in our lives!

May 9, 2011 at 6:52 PM 
Oh, Melissa, such a sweet, sweet post. Happy Mother's Day! That Gizatu gets cuter by the day! He looks so happy, and so do you. Precious!!

May 9, 2011 at 9:58 PM 
Hey Melissa,
We have a mutual friend, Daphne. I'm a single adoptive mom in Auburn and would love to connect. I'm in the process of bringing home my second (hopefully in a month or two) and he's older (2.5) than my son Caleb was when we got home (Caleb was a little over 6 mos). I'd really appreciate any pointers you might have as my new son only knows Amharic and I don't think the nannies will use English with him at all between now and then.
Looking forward to hearing from you,

June 6, 2011 at 4:24 PM 
11/5/2009---Applied to Placement Agency
12/1/2009---Accepted into Ethiopia program
12/4/2009---Applied to Homestudy Agency
2/19/2010---Homestudy approved
3/12/2010---Dossier approved; Officially waiting!!
4/1/2010---Dossier to Ethiopia
4/2/2010---Referral of beautiful 3 yo boy
5/20/2010---Court: PASSED!
8/18/2010---Left for Ethiopia
8/27/2010---Home forever with my boy!