For the record, I cried.

I cried this morning.  Not as Tedi kissed our cheeks (and gave us raspberry kisses), told us he was going to learn Chinese, excitedly jumped out of the car and ran into school.  Not as I watched Chernet have a stage 4 meltdown in the back of the car after Tedi jumped out.  Not as we hugged a now happy Chernet goodbye and left Lincoln.  I even SMILED as I walked into our silent condo with a tall Cafe Miele from Sunergos thinking about shopping for an interview shirt and new book and lunch with Heather.  I thought I would happily sit down and post the typical "First Day of Kindergarten" pics to the blog and facebook and head on out to Heather's. 

Then I sat down and loaded the pictures from the camera.  The first picture was this one of Tedi:

It did not help I was listening to "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri.  I stared at this picture as tears stream streamed down my cheeks.  Not a messy, chest heaving, my heart hurts cry but one that pours out of you with both gratitude and love.  Tears I rarely achieve.  This face, this boy has taught me so much and made me want to the best version of myself.  He has shown SOOO many people how to love people of all colors, of all backgrounds with complete disregard for what they previously thought.  I am convinced that because of him, many children have been adopted.  Many churches have started thinking about orphans because of him.  This kid, this big KINDERGARTEN-er, he just loves life and everyone and because of that, everyone is changed because of him.  I doubt we would have had the faith to adopt a second son with HIV had it not been for the love of this boy.  He is no longer an orphan...he is MY SON.  And seeing him so big is about more than my heart can handle.  I do not know what he looked like at 6 months (though I wish I did) or as a small toddler...but I do know this, I am excited to watch this 5 year old become a man a change the hearts of many more people....

Now look at these.... do you see why I am crying cried.  This scared little boy is growing and changing and it looks good on him...

First Day of Pre-School

First Day of Pre-K

I am a lucky mom... like so many others.  Seeing my son grow is tough...yet so rewarding.  I am just blessed to be a mom to these boys...to be able to confuse teachers with how my son can be "ESL" but I speak English (that was fun today).  I am blessed to have a husband walk my children in with me because I saw so many moms doing it alone.   

So yes, I cried.  Tedi did it!  Blame him!  Here are a couple more from the typical

First Day of Kindergarten (x2)




Blurry because the kid CAN'T stand still