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.

...and one more thing...

we can't celebrate a milestone without pictures!