now

OK. No more apologies or excuses. It's time to catch up. And since I'm not sure where to begin, I'm just gonna jump right in.

When we first started this blog, we were mostly interested in two things: (i) connecting with other adoptive families, and (ii) finding a way to keep friends and family informed about our adoption process without having to retell the same story 100 times - especially during those tougher times, when we didn't really even want to tell it once.

We achieved both of those things and then some. I really never imagined how much a blog could give to us - it enabled us to meet so many amazing families, learn so much from others about how the adoption process works and what to expect, and it gave us an outlet for sharing our frustrations, joys, questions and experiences.

So now that we have been home with Simon for more than a year, have fewer milestones to document, a growing desire to keep certain aspects of our lives private, and frankly a lot less time for blogging... well, I sometimes wonder whether or not to keep this blog going.

Then I reflect on the fact that guzo is the best record I have of our journey to Simon and his first year with us. It's our version of a "baby book" in many ways - a story that we will be able to share with Simon as he gets older. And it is still enabling us to meet and connect with other adoptive families. Not to mention that I expect that some day guzo will follow us on another adoption journey (DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT AN ANNOUNCEMENT. We know we will adopt again, but we have no specific plans to do so at this point - but promise, you will be among the first to know when we do!).

So our guzo continues.

And where are we now?

We are about 20.5 months old, also known as the (almost, practically, mommy is not sure she will survive them) terrible twos. Don't get me wrong - Simon is still an absolute joy 90-something percent of the time. It's just that when he's not... well, he's really, really not. Those tears can come on demand and WOW can he let out a good scream!! The Rolling Stones' You Can't Always Get What You Want is our new theme song.

Cooking is still our number one favorite pastime (and by we, I mean Simon, who takes after his father - and definitely not me, as I am generally lost in the kitchen) - i.e. the chef was not so much a Halloween costume as a glimpse into the future. We have graduated from our "play" foods to only wanting to cook with real food. Meal time is a project now - we must have several cups or bowls and spoons and forks at the table so that we can move our food back and forth from cup to cup and mix it and stir it before eating. Oh what fun (and oh what a mess)!

Simon has also discovered our wedding video and is FASCINATED (obsessed??) by it. He is constantly taking the video out of the drawer and trying to put it in the DVD player... and if you even dare to try to show him Thomas or Elmo instead, he cries and yells (see above). I've come home more than once to see him sitting with his nanny watching mommy and daddy on the TV. Oh, and for the record, we're not really big on letting Simon watch very much TV in the first place, but hey, everyone needs a little bit of time to be a couch potato.

The Black Eyed Peas is (are?) Simon's favorite band. I Gotta Feeling and Boom Boom Pow are especially cool.

There is also a lot of spinning. Yes, Simon has discovered that it is fun(?) to spin around and around and around until you can barely stand up anymore. It should be noted that this ritual is enhanced by singing.

So yeah... we've got a true toddler/little boy on our hands, who is changing and growing and developing by the second and always keeping us on our toes.

Life with Simon continues to be tons of fun, challenging, silly, hectic, draining, amusing, full of laughter, full of love, and basically just the best experience we've ever had.

sneak preview

all you need is love

I realize that we have started most of our last several posts with some form of apology or acknowledgment that "it's been a while" since the prior post. Life has been very (VERY) busy for us these days... business travel, colds, learning that it takes less than 10 minutes for an (temporarily so that Ryan could run up to our apartment and help me carry things downstairs) illegally parked car to be spotted and towed away, our one year home homestudy visit....

There is a lot to catch up on. And I want to take the time to catch guzo up on everything. But I am still trying to find the time to even digest life this past month. It's been that crazy!

So hopefully you will forgive me if I postpone a much overdue post on life in our household and Simon's latest and greatest to share something from someone else - our adoption agency, Gladney - but related to everything that is so important to us.

We had the pleasure of seeing this video (including a lot of familiar faces of children we met in Ethiopia) at a lovely event Gladney held in NYC recently, where we also had the opportunity to see Scott and Ryan Brown and others who we met during our journey to Simon (oh and also this guy, Hugh Jackman, but that's another story!). It explains better than I ever could why we are still so passionate about Ethiopia, Gladney, and doing whatever we can to give back to a country that has given us so much.




For more...

on their own

guzo: for ethiopia

gladney humanitarian aid

a year in the making

On September 14, 2008, we met Simon Alemayehu in person for the first time. I've never really written much about that day, because, really, how do you put such an amazing, surreal, emotional experience into words?

A year later, it is still hard to find the words to describe that moment - other than the obvious "life changing," but even that seems like an understatement. Our meeting was the culmination of a process that was both draining and inspiring, and the beginning of an adventure we could barely imagine.

We are still enjoying this adventure and look forward to all the joys and challenges, the laughter, the tears, the smiles and surprises in store for us. But today we are also looking back over the past year (the past two years really) and marveling at how life has changed.

remember us?

So (and I feel like I say this a lot on here these days) it's been a while since we've posted. No excuses really... we've mostly just been trying to enjoy these last days of summer and the good weather that finally came our way, and that has meant as little less time at the computer. Add a short trip to Napa to celebrate Ry's birthday and some flirting with facebook (though I still don't really think I'm a facebook sort of gal)... and, well, guzo has been neglected a bit.

And I'm not even sure anyone is checking in on us anymore (can't really blame people for giving up on us), but I do want to keep this blog alive, even if it is not quite as up-to-date and detailed as it once was. It is, after all, our "baby book" for Simon: a keepsake of sorts, a record of our journey to meet Simon and our first year (so far) together.

And to that last point, we are coming up on one year of being together. Just an amazing thing really. We have lived a lifetime in the past year and yet it also has gone by so quickly (something I've marveled about before).

But gone is the baby we brought home last September. He is all little boy now. Running around, chattering up a storm (most of which we can't really understand, but he's got a lot to say!), climbing on every piece of furniture, and entertaining us with his dancing, singing, laughing, and silliness. He is curious, determined... a little mischievous (well, maybe a lot mischievous)... sweet, energetic, funny. He LOVES to cook (he didn't get that from me) and will happily ask you to read him the same book over and over again. He's developing an obsession with Thomas the Train. And he can always make you smile.