We are the TRUTH

Today is Adoption Blogger Day – part of the Joint Council on International Children's Services Call to Action – We Are the Truth. We are the PROUD and BLESSED parents of a BEAUTIFUL adopted child from Russia. We have been following the horrible story in the news lately of the Tennessean woman who returned her adopted son to Russia with a note stating she no longer wanted to parent him. I cannot begin to explain the range of emotions from anger to sadness that we have felt over the past week. I think the biggest emotion is sadness for the boy. This woman is not representing adoptive parents in a positive light (OBVIOUSLY) and unfortunately, is affecting TONS of families who are waiting for referrals. Now, because of this woman's senseless act, many children may not be adopted and will miss out on the gift of having a loving family, just like Logan (and many other children) have received if it weren't for international adoption. We continue to pray (and ask that you do the same) for all of the adoptive families who are somewhere along their journey to their child and are being affected by this event.

On a more positive note, we have been having a blast with Logan over the past month. I know we start most posts with "It's been awhile since our last blog entry...", but as many parents know - parenting keeps you busy!!! So, my time to "blog" is few and far between these days!!! Here's a TOP 10 list to re-cap what we have been up to:

1)Logan is now 18 months old and changing every day (he now has 12 teeth, his hair is still growing, he is saying the "ba", "ma", "da", and "na" sounds, is still very ACTIVE, and so much more!!! You just have to see it for yourself!)
2) Logan had a small surgical procedure done at the end of March. He came through it wonderfully with no side effects and was back to his normal self the following day.
3) We have FINALLY gotten rid of the bottle!!! This was a HUGE step for us because we wanted to keep him on it for attachment purposes and we had tried once before to stop it, with no luck. So, we just said it was no big deal and we'll try again later. But on Logan's 18th monthday we decided to try it again and had SUCCESS!!! So, we have been bottle free for 1 week now - PROGRESS :)
4) We celebrated Easter with our family. Logan had 2 Easter Egg hunts and was great at finding the eggs, but wanted to hold them all once he found them. It was quite a sight to watch him try to figure out how he was going to keep them all in his hands. But, in the end, he walked away with many cute toys, goldfish & animal crackers, fruit snacks and marshmallows.
5) Logan loves animals (especially his dog, Maggie). We have taken him on some "trips" to the pet store, Bass Pro Shop, Blue Bird Gap Farm and the Norfolk Zoo. He absolutely loves watching/petting the animals.
6) Logan has started his weekly speech therapy sessions. We have only had 2 so far, so not too much change, but we know progress will come with time.
7) We had our first family photo taken (professionally)by a local photographer. Stay tuned to for the pics!
8) Logan is going to have a new babysitter during the day for May & June. Our neighbors (who watch Logan during the day) are moving and due to health challenges are not going to be able to watch Logan. Please pray for our neighbor, Gary, as he begins his chemo/radiation treatments. They have been such a blessing to our family and have loved Logan like their own grandchild. They have been our "family" down here and we will greatly miss them when we move.
9)Logan loves to laugh and what a beautiful sound it is! He is a pretty funny kid and he tends to think that the littlest things are HILARIOUS!!! So, we do what we can to make him laugh because it makes us laugh! And laughter is good for the soul!!!
10) We are still looking for tenants to rent our house. We still have time and know we will find someone before we move in June. 9 more weeks and we are moving!!!

So, I guess that sums it up! We are just living life and loving being parents to the most awesome little boy! We hope you are all doing well and we will talk to/see you all soon!