Valentines Day

After all these years, all I can say is what is all the fuss about?!!  REALLY!!!  Okay, I guess I just get more practical as the years go by and start seeing things from different angles.  I decided I was NOT going to freak about this day called Valentines Day (FOR SURE)but I can enjoy it with no pressure!!

Since Valentines Day is really about our significant others, right ladies(??!!!) then I would say my focus has been on my better half!!  It is so easy to get taken up with my kids' valentine cards, candy, school parties, or those such things. 

While I have come to expect NOTHING from this day (I have learned that high expectations lead to disappointments)I can value my husband of whom I would say I love more than I did the day I met him!!  That is not to say that I am always disappointed (on V-Day), either, by the way!!  Just the other day I told Cade that after all we have been through, I am very thankful that we are close and share a wonderful, meaningful relationship.  It has not always been easy.  We have been through experiences that truly test your marriage and endurance!! I am very happy to say that the experiences only have drawn us closer now and I appreciate him and value him more because of what we have been through together.  

I could talk about our experience with our daughter, Kohlie, fighting cancer, her death, or my time grieving her loss because all of those were an extreme strain on our marriage.  Those things we did not choose.  Adoption was something we chose, though, and if it was not for prior experiences, I don't think we would have been willing for such a thing!  The fondness and love that I have felt for Cade has only deepened through our adoption journey.  Cade has been my rock, not bending to the pressures, unknowns, and money issues!!  Then, I watched him meet his new children from another country, race, and culture and stood in awe with his love for them!!  Thinking back on the day we both met Eden and Bereket, I realized he was just as much in awe and love with them as I was!!!  I watched him interact with the older kids at the orphanage and saw that he was their hero and in that moment, he was my hero too!!  The weeks after Eden was placed in our home, Cade struggled with wanting to be able to help her, for her trust, and to make everything better and he was very patient in realizing TIME would be his friend as it has been!!  In the time that we were in Ethiopia in a very far away country with everything so unfamiliar and quite uncomfortable at times, Cade was interested in everything about Ethiopia!!  In the last weeks that we have had Bereket in our home, the nights that we endured with a crying baby, Cade was by my side, taking turns to get some rest, holding his patience together when it was NOT easy to be patient!!  

                                         Going to Ethiopia for the first time in June.

                                     Cade's first time to hold the little man!!  LOVE this picture!

                                                        Getting to know each other.

                                                             Faces of happiness.

                                                  Very special moment.  Father -daughter

                                              Enjoying playing with Bereket at his orphanage.

                             Cade playing with Eden (not too may days after her being home)  - she looks like she is crying but she is laughing!!

 This picture cracks me up!!  Patiently enduring his daughters playing with his hair - with a bow in it besides!!

                                                Sunday picture with the youngest 2 girls.

 Cade watching the Christmas program with Eden on his lap!!  They both were engrossed- love it!

                           Second trip to Ethiopia and getting to hold Bereket for the first time again!!

                                                        Reading books to the littles.

  
               I thank the stars for my man!!