Belated Birthday Post

Hello, all three readers! I wasn't able to post a birthday post for our Nathaniel Erickson on the actual day, and then Monday came. Is it Thursday already?? :) As with Shiloh and Cora, I went down memory lane on Nathaniel's birthday, and it was bittersweet. I actually have pictures of Nathaniel practically from birth, but these early pictures just remind me of the heartache of waiting all those months to bring him home. The pictures also remind me of how much we miss not having those early pictures of Adah's babyhood and childhood. Most of all, however, they remind me of Nathaniel's first mom. She has only the pictures we've sent to remind her of her adorable son born five years ago. I think of her on his birthday and pray that she survived the earthquake.

Here is the first picture we received of Nathaniel. He was four weeks old and his mom had just brought him to the orphanage. She named him Erickson, which is why we kept that name for his middle name. I was in tears for most of the day that I received the kids' pictures. I was so happy to see his healthy, chubby cheeks! Here is the first picture of the two kids together. My mom sent down outfits for them, and we sent down photo albums for them to attach to their cribs. When we went down to bring them home 21 months later, Adah STILL HAD HERS and had memorized her siblings' names (and we tease her now because she said "Cola" for "Cora" and "Abby-gale" for "Abigail" :) ).

The "photographers" at the orphanage were not known for their special abilities to catch the children at their best. :)

Here is Nathaniel with his sweet birthmom. We met her when we went down, and she was gracious, quiet, and sad. She stayed with Nathaniel at the orphanage until he was six months old. We have had no word of her since the earthquake.

Again with the skillz of the photographers. :) Here follows a sad commentary through pictures, since the children did not smile in any of them. I asked Adah why she never smiled, and she said, "I just had my hair done and my head hurt. Also, I didn't want to smile." Well, alrighty then. :) We had no idea just how smiley she was until a fellow adoptive mom went down and got a bunch of pictures of her smiling. Nathaniel was home with us for about a month before he smiled AT US, and it was just like that first newborn smile from our biological children.

The orphanage didn't care if the boys were in pink, or, apparently, whether their diapers were wet for pictures. :(

Here is one of the pictures that a fellow adoptive mom took on a trip down to Haiti. Although the background was depressing to see, we finally saw Adah's beautiful smile and we heard a heartwarming story from the mom: when she asked Adah if she knew who her brother was, she went straight to Nathaniel's crib, got him out and showed him to her. She was beginning to bond with him early on. :) As we studied each picture that was sent to us, we decided that this picture showed Nathaniel's eyes starting to sparkle a little.

After the hopefulness brought about by the previous picture, our hearts dropped again when we got this one. They just seemed to be saying, "Come, get us!" Adah looked like she had been crying, and Nathaniel looked...lost.

This is the last picture of the kids before we went to pick them up. Oh, were we ready!!

I couldn't wait to look into Nathaniel's big brown eyes and reassure him that we would love him forever and that he had a HOME. JOY!!!!!!!!! The Lord saw fit to bring us together, and we finally held them in our arms!!!

Here is Nathaniel's first experience with a slide...at the airport in Charlotte? Miami? Where were we? I hardly remember since we left Port-au-Prince at 4:30 the morning of December 7th and didn't get home until about 1:30 the morning of the 8th. Poor Nathaniel didn't have any shoes because we didn't have the heart to jam his feet back into the sandals that didn't actually fit him.

On one of our first days home, we took the kids to a playground. I can hardly believe how scrawny Nathaniel was back then - and how short! :)

First picture with all SIX kiddos!

I know I've put these pictures on the blog before, but he's just so darn cute. :)

And now, fast forward three years to a dramatic transformation...

This is our sweet, handsome, happy, TALL five year-old! What a blessing from God. He has stretched us, exasperated us beyond all imagining, and made us despair that we would ever see progress in some of his behaviors. And yet, there seems to be progress. And we continue to pray that the Lord will change his heart so that the progress is not merely outward. Thank you, Lord, for giving him to us. Thank for trusting us and for knowing that WE needed HIM in our family.

Shiloh made his crown, and Abigail decorated it. :)

Abigail has to add the little touch of abnormality to the whole celebration. Nathaniel had a "Curious George" birthday. He got three books, two movies, and a matching game, among other gifts. I anticipate reading the books about 123 times each.

Here Nathaniel is checking out his gift card from Oma. He thinks on the problem of what to buy with it about fifteen times a day, and I hope we draw closer to a decision sometime soon. :) (Yes, everyone is in their jammies. We had been out at Cora's last basketball game, then out to dinner, then out to ice cream, then home for celebrations. Jammies were in order. :) )

Nathaniel even had a "Curious George" cake! :)
Cora brought the cake into the strangely decorated dining room. Nathaniel asked for black and green to match his camouflaged wrapping paper. :)

Daniel's getting better at getting the "blowing out the candles" shots.

We love you, cheeky monkey! Happy 5th Birthday! May we celebrate MANY more with you.