SURPRISE!!

Last week was my big Time & Again Children's Consignment sale. I was all in the throws of it for the last 2 weeks really! I love being able to have my own sale, at my own house. It's totally awesome, a lot of hard work, but totally worth it to see all the adorable baby, toddler, and kids stuff, and see all that great stuff go to good use! Saturday was the big half price day and a busy day at that.  Tracy, my high school friend, was helping me that morning. We were sitting in my garage while having a slow time, which was nice for a moment, when all of the sudden, I was totally SURPRISED at who was walking up the walk to my garage!! These sweet sweet girlies, Cindy and Ella!!!

Okay! You got me Cindy, I was totally shocked!  And the visual of my lower jaw dropping to the floor should have been your insight - Yes I was totally surprised!!  I had no idea they were coming to visit us! I proceeded to pick my jaw up from the floor and ran to them for a great big hug! With tears in my eyes of course! What a great great surprise! So great to see my friend and her sweet kiddos! Cindy and I chatted quite a bit while the kiddos played in our back yard. 

Needless to say, Aiden enjoyed himself too!  Cindy had her youngest son with her, Nolan. I think he had a great time playing too! Tay enjoyed herself! She loves to play with Ella!

I love this picture!! Ella and Tay had so much fun together on that trampoline!

I laughed so hard when this happened! Ella is so adorable and to see our Korean cuties together was so heart warming!

Every time I took a picture, Ella wanted to "see" the image on my camera. It was so adorably cute! 

Isn't Nolan a cutie!! And he loves his sister too!

Even though my brain was so involved in my sale, I couldn't help but think of their visit for the rest of the day! Cindy - you're right, there's no reason why we shouldn't get together more. Although our lives are so hectic, for the sake of our Korean cuties, it should be a must! I loved that you guys stopped by for a visit! It still feels like a "family" get together when we see you guys! I love that feeling, it lasts for a while each time, which is the way family should feel!

It was a little different this year ...

This past Sunday was my birthday. I turned 39 again! Okay, honestly, I turned 42 but I'm proud of my age. I'm growing old as gracefully as one can, or at least trying to. So I awoke that morning, just like any other morning. Aiden was still sleeping, so I just laid in bed and enjoyed the quiet for a while. I soon remembered it was my birthday, Sunday August 19th.  And for once, my first thought was, I wonder if my birth mother is thinking of me right now. Yeah, heavy statement. Did she think of me every year on my birthday? Did she think of me often, did she only think of me on my birthday??

This year was the very first time I actually thought of my birth mother first on my birthday. Where as, all my years before last year, I had only thought of myself. But something happened last year that has changed my life forever. Instead of repeating all that I wrote a year ago. You might want to read this post.

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.....

Thank you Aiden for giving me a new light on my life. He is my saving savior. He's showed me the missing link to my own life and how he has made it so much more. I don't know if I would have ever seen the other side, when all I was doing was staring at the wrong one. It took me 40 years to get past my own hurt, abandoned self, asking why all these years. Why was it not so simple to see? Because this little guy had to show me his way.

He set an example that made more sense than anything else in my life, where it finally clicked! It's weird how life works out sometimes, just as it should be....

Finally ....

It finally came! I can't believe it finally came! We've been waiting for almost 6 months for Aiden's Certificate of Citizenship to come in the mail and it showed up today.  It came certified mail no doubt! So glad I was here to sign for it! It is the.last.document we had to submit to the government to get proof that Aiden is a US citizen. This is the final "task" that had to be completed for his adoption! I can't believe it's all finally done! So, check this picture out!

From what I've heard, he'll need this to apply for college and I think to get his driver's license. Really?!? I can't even imagine Aiden going off to college OR getting his driver's license!! Hold on there cowboy, one thing at a time!!

So happy that ALL the paperwork is done. We have legally adopted Yeong-min Gim from South Korea who is now legally known as Aiden Lee Lemmons. Even though he is now legally Aiden, he will always know where he was from and every bit of information that exists of his life before us. It's all tucked away in all these books.  The three photo albums have over 300 photos of Aiden's life up until 3 days before we got him.

 The top book is my blog book, which has every detail of our journey to him. 

The second book on top is his baby book. (which I need to be doing better at filling out, bad mama!)

These two binders have all his Well Baby Check ups, medical records, background information. You name it, it's probably in there!

So there it is, Aiden's life in all these books. I'm so happy to have all these details and pictures about his life before us. So when he's ready, we'll sit down and look  at all this stuff, maybe even take a trip back to South Korea some day! Oh yeah! How could we not?!? :)