Joseph's Birthday and a video

Its been a hard couple of weeks.  We've been busy adjusting to life with our new little one but I've also been watching the calendar.  You see, each day kept getting closer and closer to an important yet heartbreaking day for us.  Joseph's birthday was coming up.  He would be turning 3 years old.  Birthdays are supposed to be special days spent with your family who loves you and who are oh so thankful that you were born.

 But our little birthday boy would be sitting in his orphanage and we would be here.  As each day got closer to his birthday, I got more upset.  I just couldn't stand the idea of him sitting in his crib all day long and no one acknowledging the blessing of his birth and how much he is loved.  I just felt so helpless.  I needed to DO SOMETHING.  Acknowledging here at home that WE loved him and that WE were thinking about him on his birthday and counting down the days till he would finally be home with us.

We had a little cake with the kids in celebration of Joseph's birthday.  As a family, we always go around and say what we like most about the birthday girl/boy.  It gives us a chance to say out loud what we love about them.  It gives us the chance to stop and make sure that that family member knows how important they are to all of us.  So I asked the kids what they think they'll like most about Joseph.  They each had something to say about their brother, Joseph.  I can't wait for next year.  Having met our little man, I know that we are all going to have lots of things to share that we love about him next year around the table on his birthday...

For now, we pray and we wait for the day we can bring him home.  His birthday gave us the incentive to finally get a video put together of our pictures from our first trip.  We spent time on his birthday putting it together as a way to spend time focusing on him on that day.

We are so incredibly thankful for our future son and for the opportunity to serve our Lord in this way.

And we are gratefull for all those that have prayed and donated to help get us to this point.  We are so blessed and thankful!

Make sure you put the video up on full screen...otherwise you won't be able to see the captions/words in the video at the bottom of the slides.