James is 3!

Well, his birthday was actually September 18. Better late than never, right? When I first saw this sweet little boy, he was getting his long hair shaved off. A girl named Ashley was on our mission trip with us. Just so happens she is a hair stylist. She decided this boy needed to look more "boyish" and gave him a haircut.

I didn't think much of it at the time. After I returned from that trip, we decided to proceed adopting a little 2 year old girl named Jovanika. She was the perfect fit for our family. And, since we already have one little girl, we have all the clothes and girly things we need to pass down to another daughter. Plus, we know nothing about boys. And, let's be honest, Avery really wanted another sister. Not a brother, but a sister! Little did we know, God had another plan for us! I can vividly remember the moment James entered our world. We were so excited about starting the adoption process with Jovanika. As everyone going through the process knows, you are checking your email every day minute looking for an update. And since it was during the summer and I was off work, I had the time on my hands to check email more often. I remember standing in the kitchen and just quickly pushing the "send/receive" button on my phone. This time the "ding" alerting me that I had email changed our family!! The subject line read "Jovanika has a brother"..... I went on to read that if we don't want to adopt both of them, they will look for another little girl for us. I had no idea who "James" was, how old he was, what he looked like, anything. I immediately got on Facebook to see if anyone knew anything about this boy. Within an hour or so, I had the above picture sent to me. Someone had taken the picture of him getting his first haircut at 21 months old! Within a few days, after much prayer and consideration, we decided to proceed with adopting both. A few months later, we traveled to Haiti again and I formally met James for the first time. He was a timid, shy, and untrusting little guy, You could tell he wasn't used to the attention. It was clear he hadn't been held often and loved on much. It took him 4 days before he uttered any noise or sound to me. In fact, I was wondering if he could even speak. I never saw a smile. He would cry when I tried to pick him up. He didn't know who I was and wasn't quite sure about any of it. A few weeks after that trip, I had to travel again for court. My boy was a little more open. He still didn't make much noise. He didn't demand a lot of affection. The trip after that, he was a whole different child! He smiled! He laughed! He talked! He actually called me "mama"! He played with me! He came for me to pick him up and wouldn't let anyone else near me or near him. He was finally accepting attention and love from others.

I am glad we listened and followed God's path for us. I can't imagine not having Jovanika AND James. Avery is now excited about having a sister AND brother. James has no idea how much we are looking forward to him being the little man of the family. We aren't able to be there for his birthday, but we did send some toys with another adoptive mama visiting this week. We look forward to having a real birthday party for him next year when he is HOME!!!! Happy birthday James!!! We love you!!