First Birthday

Happy 1st Birthday!!!
It is so hard to believe our little boy is already one. Time always
seems to go fast. It seems faster when we missed the first 7 months of
his life. When Kobe came home at 7 months, he was very delayed
developmentally. Yet within a few weeks of being in a forever family,
he was caught right up to where he should be. So doing everything from
rolling over to sitting up in weeks makes time seem to go so much
faster.

I have many emotions today. As any mom, it is hard to accept your baby
is one. You are happy they are getting bigger, but know how fast time
goes. We never like the thought of losing our "baby". Since it is an
adopted child celebrating his first birthday, there are so many
thoughts and feelings. My heart is heavy thinking of Kobe's birth mom.
How is she doing today? Is her heart aching for the child she gave up?
Or is she content knowing he is so loved and taken care of? If only
she knew what a blessing this little boy has been in our lives. Today
I sit back and think about the last years of our lives. We never
thought we would adopt, but God had other plans. The whole process has
been filled with many ups and downs. Adoption is not an easy road, yet
the rewards are countless!! Kobe brings so much joy to other people's
lives just by flashing one of his contagious smiles. I can't imagine
our lives without him. He truly is the perfect fit into our family. It
is my prayer that his birth mother be comforted and have peace that he
is truly loved. What a hard decision to have to make. She loved him so
much she was willing to do what was best for him. What a selfless act!

Our agency made us aware of the fact that there will be days in our
child's life where they will not be themselves due to a "trama
anniversary." The child may be unconsolable or just out of sorts
around the anniversary of something in their lives. This amazes me
since they are so little when some of these events happen to them.
Research shows that the trama part of your brain has great memory.
Some possible tramatic events could include a hospital stay, date they
left their parents, date brought into the orphanage, etc...Kobe has
been out of sorts the past few days and I'm thinking this could be the
case. We tried to take pictures on Sunday and our little smiling boy
wouldn't smile. The other night things were really bad. He was extremely
crabby.  He is fine at daycare, but that doesn't surprise me. Kids usually act up
more for their families where it is more comfortable.

We had a great night celebrating! Kobe loved his cake. He also loved the simple things such as the balloons. It wasn't fancy by any means, but still very special to us.

Medical update

It sure is nice that I haven't had to have a medical update for a long time. Now I have two of them. First of all, we took Kobe in for allergy testing. We knew he couldn't drink milk, but we weren't sure if it was b/c he had a milk allergy or if he had lactose intolerance. Before dealing with this, I thought the two were the same. ;) Thankfully he doesn't have an allergy which means we are hopeful he will outgrow it. Being intolerant means his body has trouble breaking down the protein that is in milk. He will be drinking almond milk once we decide to switch. I wasn't sure when we should switch from formula to milk. I was waiting to see the cost difference b/c the two. Well..they are almost the exact same price so that doesn't help to make the decision. Almond milk does come in "shelf safe" cartons which is great b/c that means it doesn't have to be cold until it is opened. After much searching, we were able to find the single serve almond milk. We can get it at HyVee and it is almost double the cost of the bigger containers. We will see how this plays out since we don't have access to a HyVee. I just hate the thought of having to tote around a small cooler thing for his milk. Time will tell. We will go back to the allergy doctor in January to see if he can tolerate things cooked with milk. Until then...no milk and milk products. (If you look at labels at all...EVERYTHING has milk in it)

On another note, there has always been concern over Kobe's high liver enzymes. Even after being home for 5 months, they still haven't ever been within normal range. The Infectious Disease doctor is referring us on to a GI doctor. She just wants to make sure she isn't missing anything. We will be getting a call from that office and will make an appointment once we hear from them. This means another trip to Sioux Falls. So it goes. I just hope we get an answer.

Even with all of this going on, Kobe continues to be such a happy little boy that brings joy to every person he comes in contact with. We are so blessed!