Year in review sort of

I figure better late than never. We have been crazy busy since Thanksgiving. I've hardly had any time at all let alone time to reflect on this last year. I feel like I can divide 2008 into several categories. Obviously pre-Ollie and post-Ollie, but also before we got the referral and after. January through April was incredibly long. Especially January, February, and March. This time last year the holidays were over and we were thinking we would get our referral call any day. Every time the phone would ring I would hope it was our agency. Every time we spoke to anyone all they wanted to know is when we would hear. Of course, everybody had our best interests at heart. We could never get away from thinking about it.

So many times we would hear that everything happens for a reason, and although in your head you know that is true, it is so hard to believe it until you see the reason. Luckily May 6th we finally saw that reason. We were still on edge until we got our travel approval August 19th. After we got that email telling us we could travel to bring Oliver home time has been speeding past.

The three weeks in Vietnam was one of the most incredible experiences of our lives. It's very hard to put into words. Some days I wish we could go back. I still think about the food.

And since we've been home we've been having a wonderful time with Oliver, doing all the things that we dreamed about before we got him: from spending holidays with family and friends to simple things like reading him his favorite books or playing on the floor. It's been great.

For this year, we want to encourage Oliver to be a happy, silly and inquisitive boy. Hopefully, we can get him to wear socks and shoes too. I want to try to make a better record of all that Oliver is doing and record his adventures on this blog.