Beckett Webb {3 Years Old}

Beckett, you turned three years old last week!! I can't believe it's been three years since God gave you to us to love, and I became a mama of two. Two little boys to love. Two little boys to hold my heart. (Boy, if I only knew what was coming, huh?!)

I don't even know where to begin. You are an amazing little boy, and you absolutely have us in the palm of your little hand.

You are a BIG eater! And there isn't much you don't like! Everything is your "favorite" and you are constantly asking me "Whatcha cookin' me, Mama?".

You wear 3T clothes, size 9 shoe, and weigh about 32 lbs.

You sleep by yourself (well...with Mr Tiger) in yours and Brody's queen size bed. He started sleeping in the extra bed in Levi's nursery a few weeks ago because he says you won't let him go to sleep. You like to sing and talk and wiggle and flop yourself to sleep, and your brother decided you just needed your space ;) You sleep all night and usually wake up around 7. So glad you finally sleep past 5:30am!

I am LOVING having more alone time with you while Brody is at Kindergarten. We miss him terribly, but I'm so glad we let you stay home this year and didn't send you to Mothers Day Out or preschool or anything. There's plenty of time for that! I love being home with you! You make me laugh and keep me hopping. You bring so much joy to my day! And you melt me with your "I love you"s and your "hold you"s.

You are such a great big brother to Levi. He loves you so much and I can tell you two are getting so much closer. I love watching you play together. You sometimes get a little too rough with him, but we are working on it :)

Beckett, I always want you to know that we praise God every day for healing you. You were a very sick little baby when you were just 2 weeks old. I'll never forget the fear and helplessness I felt. And to honest, in the darkest hours of your hospital stay, we wondered if we'd ever get to see you turn three. There's not a day that goes by that I don't look at you and remember. Remember how blessed we are to have you.

We love you to the moon and back, Beckett Man!!!! Happy 3rd birthday!!!!!

County Fair 2012

We love this time of year! And one thing we look forward to in the fall is the fair! The kids love seeing the animals, and this year, they all three enjoyed riding! Brody rode everything he was tall enough for, Beckett's favorite was the motorcycles and the little roller coaster, and Levi loved the cars and the carousel! I was really nervous putting Levi on the car ride, but he LOVED it! And he had Brody right beside him to keep him safe ;) Eden and Beckett were in the backseat, and they all looked so cute riding together! On the carousel, he kept saying, "Wow! Cool!" Ha. Love that cutie. Brody has no fear on rides, and I'm afraid is going to give me heart attack as he gets older.

Brooke showed her goat Dodge in the livestock show, and did great...and looked beautiful! She placed third with her goat, won Grand Champion with her chicken, and Grand Champion reserve with her rabbit!! We love our little 4-H girl!!!!!

Pictures below!

Waiting {One Month}

One month. Today we celebrate one month of "officially waiting" to be matched with our sweet baby! It was a crazy hectic day, and to be honest, this is the first time I've actually sat down and gathered my thoughts about it. Brody had a birthday party to attend this morning, Beckett had a birthday party to attend at noon, we ate a late lunch and watched the Razorback game at my dad's, and Eden was in (and won!) her very first pageant this evening. While we were at the pageant, Brody and Brent took my grandparents to a La Tech football game. We are all finally home and kids are sound asleep. I want to start recognizing this special day each month as we wait with a letter to our child.

Dear Baby L,
We are so excited that today marks our one month anniversary of waiting to see you for the first time! Although we know it could still be a long time, we are so thankful that we are one month closer to YOU! Please know, Little One, how very loved you are. You already hold a huge place in our lives, in our hearts, and in our prayers. We long for the day we see your sweet picture, find out who you are, and can start working on getting you home! We pray that you always know how incredibly special you are. That God has a plan for you and a purpose for your life, and we can't wait to watch those plans unfold. We are counting down the days! We love you MUCH, Little One.
Mommy

We've had a bit of excitement the last couple weeks as we began our USCIS paperwork and sent in our 1-600A. I know this means nothing to most people, but to us it's a few more steps in the right direction! We also received our fingerprint appointment notices in the mail on Friday! We have to be in Jackson, MS in a couple weeks to be fingerprinted...will feel good to be doing something productive!

Here's to one month on the wait list! Cheers!

A night with the Big Boys

Last night we decided to take our big boys out to do something fun for the evening. Levi is at the age where he wants down...and when gets down he takes off on a mission. So it's gotten kind of hard to do some things with him in tow. I know it's just a stage and that he will get easier again, but I really wanted to be able to give our big boys my undivided attention and do something fun with them. We had Memaw come get him as she got off work, and she took him to play at their house. He enjoyed the one on one time with them as well, I am sure! We took Brody and Beckett out to eat at AppleBees, then surprised them with a trip to the bowling alley! Brody's favorite! Beckett had not been since he was a baby, so he was super pumped about getting to try his hand at it too! They were so much fun!

Sidenote: I can't figure out why Blogger on my iPhone mixes all the pics up. Sorry they are out of order...

The small things...

So many times I get caught up in trying to capture those big events. The first day of school, the trip to the zoo, birthday parties, the church programs. And while it is so great to have pictures of those memorable times in our lives, I know that one day I will look back and wish that I could remember the small things. The way Beckett props his little feet up on the chair while he eats breakfast, the way Levi looks up at his daddy with that little grin, the way my living room floor is always scattered with Brody's gloves and balls, the way it feels to walk into my baby's nursery and see his little blanket with his name on it. I want to quit worrying so much about making sure they are always smiling at the camera, and making sure that the room is picked up before I get a picture. Because these small things are what define our lives right now. These are the things I will miss one day. This is us.

Thoughts...

My computer died this week. Like, died for good. I'm really hoping we can get all of my pictures and videos off of it. I'm kicking myself for not moving everything to external storage sooner. I knew this would happen. I will be blogging from my iphone for a while I guess, so please excuse the typos and lack of pictures!

Next week we will celebrate one month on the wait list! I'm so glad this part of our wait falls during our busy season. With Brody starting school, Beck's birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc...I just know this last half of the year will fly by. We will be seeing our child's face for the first time before I know it. They've told us 4-6 months, so we hope to have gotten that anticipated phone call and email by Brody's birthday in February. Although I am praying that God allows us to see that sweet picture much sooner than that.

It's amazing for me to think that our child is most likely already born. Living in the baby room at Eastern Social Welfare Society in Seoul, waiting to be placed with a foster family. Right now our child is considered an orphan, but oh how I wish he knew of the family he already has waiting on him and praying for him! My mama heart has already kicked in, and it hurts to think about our babe laying there without a mommy or daddy to hold him. I do have faith that he is being well taken care of though.

Lately, I have been reading articles and following adoption forums, and I've become increasingly aware of the grief and sadness these babies go through when they come home. They are taken from everything and everyone that they know. They grieve their foster parents, because they are the only mommy and daddy they've ever known. And from what I can tell, these foster mamas in Korea love our babies fiercely until we can get there to bring them home. Our baby won't understand that he would eventually be placed in a group home if he's not adopted by a certain age. That his foster parents weren't meant to be his forever parents. He will be surrounded by strange people, strange smells, strange voices. We will have to work very hard to gain his trust and help him understand that we are his mommy and daddy. All children handle this part differently. Some grieve very hard, while some adjust with very minimal problem. Whatever the case may be with our child, we are willing to do whatever we can to help our child adjust and settle into our family. I want to be as prepared as possible. I have two books ordered that were recommended to me, and I can't wait to delve in and see what I can learn. There's also a conference in Chicago in April that Brent and I are really hoping we can attend. The author of one of the above books is speaking at a weekend seminar called Empowered to Connect, and from what I can tell, she is tremendous at this aspect of adoption. I think it would be great for us.

But amidst this fear and unknown, I have a huge peace about it all. It will work out just how it's supposed to. And it will be so worth it. I also have found peace in this stage of waiting we are in. I know we've done our part - the paperwork and home study and applications - its all complete. We've endured the hurry and wait, hurry and wait, hurry and wait cycle. And now we will just wait. I want to enjoy this season of life with my boys, and know that we will see our child's picture when God says its time.

One exciting little thing we did recently was mail off the beginning stages of paperwork to begin application for our baby's citizenship! We should receive appointments within the next few weeks to go get fingerprinted! Who would have ever though I'd be so giddy over fingerprints?! But any little thing we can do to inch our way forward in this process is to be celebrated!

Levi Hudson {Fourteen Months}

Mr. Levi, you are 14 months old! What have you been up to?

You wear 12-18 month clothes, size 3 diaper, and a size 4 shoe.

I don't have a clue about your height/weight because I haven't taken you to the dr in a while. You have a yucky cold now, but I'm hoping we can avoid a trip to the dr.

You are quite the little talker. Most of the time you jabber in your own little language, but you have many words that you can say. A few of your favorites right now are dog, byebye, bite, no no no, yeah, "tank" you, love you, stinky, night night mama, Bubba, good...and lots more! You will repeat almost anything we say.

You have learned how to throw a tantrum. It almost always occurs when one of your brothers tries to take something from you. And I'm talking all out tantrum. Flinging yourself to the floor, writhing around, screaming...fun stuff. You do get over it quickly though.

You love to be outside, but since you still aren't walking full time, it's kind of hard. You scoot around everywhere and are FILTHY within minutes.

Speaking of walking, I think you are very close! You stand alone a lot now and are taking several steps (up to 10 or 12)! Just yesterday you stood yourself up all by yourself in the middle of the floor without pulling up on anything. I know you will be a walker very soon! I'm really excited about you getting to walk around outside this fall.

You are still very attached to mama, but you are getting better and better at being left in the nursery or with sitters. I love that you love me, but I'm thankful I don't have to leave you screaming as often!

You have 6 teeth, and really no signs of more coming in other than chewing on everything. But I don't know if that's a sign of you teething or just the fact that EVERYTHING goes in your mouth. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't swiped more Legos than I care to count out of your mouth.

You are a major cuddler. You love to snuggle up in our laps and read books. We love it too.

You take no more formula...whole milk only. But you still take a bottle every morning, before every nap, and before bedtime. I'm in no hurry to take it away. You eat and love practically everything. Bananas, turkey, cheese, pancakes, peas, and corn on the cob are your current favorites.

You wake up around 7 every morning, nap from 11 to 2ish, and go to bed around 8 at night. You are a really good sleeper...and I'm so grateful for that!

Happy 14 months sweet Levi!