Samson turns 3!!

Today is Samson's birthday!!

Three years ago, our hearts began to stir and we felt God telling us that we had another child. We began praying about adoption, searching our hearts and researching our options.

Little did we know that at the same time we felt our hearts being pulled towards adoption, our son was born. Three years ago today, at approxiamately 6:00 p.m., Samson was born to his birth family in a hut near Mudula, Ethiopia:

We saw Samson's face for the first time when we received his referral on May 4, 2009:

And on August 6th, our family traveled to Ethiopia to bring him home. We met him for the first time on August 7th at our agency's care center.

On August 11th, 2009, exactly, 6 months ago today, he came into our custody. This is our first family picture together at the farewell ceremony taken at the care center:

On the bus leaving the care center for the last time:

We celebrated both his first night with us and his half birthday in our guest house room that evening. There was lots of laughter and excitement for 2 straight hours of getting aquainted and playing with our new son and brother. We had balloons bouncing all over the room, bubble blowing contests and everyone taking each opportunity they could get to win Samson's attention. We were pretty sure the neighbors could hear us celebrating.

*We have much of our first few hours with him on video but not enough pictures - wish we had more=(  

He loved playing with the girls' stuffed dogs, so no surprise that his first words in English were "Woof! Woof!"

This is his first morning with us at the guest house. He is sleeping late. Do you think he could have been a  little worn out from the previous day's events?

We decided to keep today simple and celebrate with our immidiate family only.  More pictures to come soon of the much anticipated first birthday with us.

Happy Birthday Samson!!!!

We are just as crazy about you as we were 6 months ago!!