Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a wonderful day giving thanks with your loved ones! Last year, Bennett was an exciting dream. Now he is an exciting reality!

I have to laugh at this photo. We look so peaceful! That wasn't reality when the photo was taken. I had to merge two to get one of all of us looking good! It probably didn't help that I had Ben's shirt on backward because I wanted it plain yellow with no print. PhotoShop is wonderful.

You've come a long way, baby!

One year ago we saw Ben's face for the first time. We asked for more information about Su Shugu from the Child of Promise list and got to see these photos. We found out we were matched right before Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful holiday season waiting for our son! We did not get to meet him until March 4 of this year.

This is an amazing wall at the orphanage Ben was based out of. He was most likely in foster care for some of the time because of the two surgeries the first six months of life.

His paperwork was filled out in July 2007. He would have been 18 months old at that time these photos were taken.

Conversations

Daddy might be surprised but between the "What?" and the "Why" and "Sing it Again" Mommy's run out of words!

The other day we stopped at a light that was red. I hear a "Why?" from the back seat of the car.

I bring him some vegetable soup. Bennett sweetly says "No, thank you!"

Or when I tell him it's time to play with boats (bath time) he'll say very nicely "I wait"

Favorite

Ben loves this YouTube video. Join him in laughing at this amazing chess game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXM3wrIhcwY

Changes!

It was Ben's last language development class today and we celebrated this milestone!

He drank his cup of tea and kept saying "whooo-eee" after each swig. You would have thought something much more exciting than tea was in the cup!

His teacher Miss Robin is the best and we will miss her antics!
Ben is enrolled in a preschool and will go two days a week starting in January.

The crib is now empty as Ben wants to sleep in his big boy bed. Bye bye crib!

New "word"

Ben's new word is a sophisticated air brake sound. Very important in all his play with trains and the like! Yes, he is saying other new words, too. He is also saying more names. We wish progression was faster, but his vocabularry is inching along!