Last night we celebrated Ethan's 1st birthday. It feels a little strange to have a child for just 3 days, yet he is already a year old. So much has happened in his life that we know nothing about and he knows little about us as well. From looking at his memory book from the orphanage (which was made by a Half the Sky nanny definitely), we could see he had a happy life. We appreciate that Ethan has opened his heart to our family after only a few days. That is a big change for a child and we must seem so strange to him. Yesterday, he started to cry if we left the room, especially when I would leave. I took Nyla swimming for a little while and Patrick said he cried the entire time. He also started taking a few spoonfuls of rice cereal from me without crying or fighting me. A big accomplishment for a child who will not put anything in his mouth other than his index fingers and the bottle. I think he is starting to trust us.
So we had a great little party last night and the kids had fun playing together. Everyone has spent the last few days bonding with their children, so we haven't spent a lot of time together. It was nice to just let them play and interact. Here are some pictures, Lillian and Lauren are the 2 other girls who were adopted in our group.
