Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Indian Baby


I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks my little boy is adorable! :) Tonight I dressed him back up in his little Kurta Pajama that he wore for his baby dedication for a quick photo opp. Of course, as soon as he sees a camera, he raises his hand and says, "cheese!"

A sweet, talented lady in our church made the quilt that Micah is sitting on and gave it to us before we left for India. She had purchased the material because she loved the colors and designs, but she had never made the quilt because she was unsure of who to give it to. A friend had told her the material did not exactly look like a baby quilt. When she found out that we were adopting a little boy from India, she got right to work and surprised us with this beautiful quilt, that is perfect for our little Indian baby! Micah was even being thought of by others before we had ever even gone to get him! I love it!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

It's Official...Adoption Final!




It's official...the adoption is final! Almost 2 years to the day of our filing our initial application with Dillon! Today Utsab became Micah David Utsav Sneed! We arrived at the courthouse early this morning, letting the girls miss a day of school! Everything went very smoothly and our adoption attorney and our judge were wonderful. Our families had the courtroom all to ourselves and our attorney let the kids sit at the witness desks. The judge made sure to include them in his discussion with us and they were very proud! It was quick and painless (aside from the TWO parking tickets our wonderful city put on my van during the adoption proceeding...one for my meter running out 5 minutes prior and one for parking backwards...are you kidding me?) My sweet husband said let's just chalk it up to an "adoption expense" and go celebrate! So, we did. We went to Cracker Barrel and had a wonderful celebration breakfast with my sister and her girls, my parents, and David's dad. It feels so good to have Micah "officially" ours. Now all we have left is to apply for his social and his US citizenship!

The last picture is from Micah's dedication at church on Sunday. My parents and David's parents were both able to be there and our dad's said a prayer of blessing at the end. We had Micah in his little Indian outfit and he was adorable! I had gotten outfits for the other kids as well and they were so proud to wear them and show them off. I'll have to post a closer up picture soon. In the meantime, we are quietly celebrating what has already been in our hearts for a long time!

Friday, September 4, 2009

Cookie Dough or God?

Yesterday afternoon I was in the kitchen fixing supper and overheard a conversation between my 3rd grade daughter and "G," a friend from her school. This young man and his family go to church with us, and he rode home with us from school to wait till his mom could pick him up. He is a little sweetheart. His mom and I have decided that since I am going to be incorporating some Indian holidays into our family, that I should consider adding in an Indian tradition as well...namely arranged marriage! Of course we would not let our kiddos know that they were betrothed until they were older so that we wouldn't embarrass them. :)

Anyway, I had just made some chocolate chip cookie dough and before I could bake the cookies, they wanted a spoonful of dough. Everyone knows the dough is the best part, so I gave them each a big spoonful and they walked into the living room. After just a minute, I heard "G" ask my daughter, "Which is better, cookie dough or God?" She just laughed and said, "God!" Then he laughed too and said, "Yeah, God is better than anything." I just had to laugh. I think my cookie dough is pretty good and they must have too since they were comparing it to God. :) I also love how children just love God with a perfect faith, trust, and acceptance. To them, "God" is the correct answer for any question and of course God IS better than anything!