Tomorrow is our Forever Family Day!

One year ago tomorrow, we adopted Zeke. It was also the first time we got to see him in person, the first time we held him, the first time we saw him smile...so many firsts were bundled up in that one day. I love thinking about how Zeke nestled onto my chest and fell asleep in the van on our way back to Hanoi. It was so comforting to know he felt comfortable enough to do that. It also gave me a feeling of immense peace after what was probably the most emotional experience of my life (meeting my child for the first time and meeting his birth mother). When we first met him at the orphanage, he came right to me. He definitely gave us a look like he was "inspecting" us. The only time he cried at that first meeting was when I tried to set him on the floor to see if he would crawl--the nanny told us he loved to crawl. I love to remember how Zeke acted the first night in our hotel room. We put him on the big, white, fluffy comforter on our bed. He put his face against it and just rubbed his hand over the soft surface. It was like he had never felt anything like it before. That thought made me sad because babies should just be enveloped in softness. Since then, we have done our best to overcome those first 11 months he spent in the orphanage (though it was clear his nanny loved him very much and had spent time working with him on his development). After a year, I think we can safely say that Zeke is absolutely thriving on all levels. He's moved up several percentiles with his weight. He's putting words together more and more and he's getting more articulate when he talks. He's very nimble on his feet, running and climbing and monkeying around as much as (maybe more than) any child his age.

We will be celebrating tomorrow by taking Zeke to the zoo. Zeke loves animals and we hope he enjoys our little excursion. He certainly enjoyed the zoo we visited in Pennsylvania with TT! So, it will be a fun, low key day...but our hearts will be full as we reflect on all those events that happened a year ago on our Forever Family Day.