J.D. is growing up!! Happy 7th Birthday Little Bud!

It's hard to believe that my sweet little boy is so big. Many times over the last several months.....well I guess maybe mainly the last two (since he has started thinking it's warm enough to wear shorts), I look at his cute little legs and realize they are much longer than they used to be. I still think of him as one of my babies so sometimes it's a real shocker when I catch a glimpse of him and realize he's not so much a baby anymore. Since he was little he has had this cute little scratchy voice. I know one day he will probably grow of that too but for now I relish in it as it's one little thing about him that isn't quite so grown up.

J.D. is a smart, funny, compassionate, loving, and most of all happy, smiling child. I think he has a smile on his face 99% of the day. Even when I wake him up, before he is even coherent, he starts smiling. I LOVE that about him. It is definitely one of my favorite things about him. That smile is a million dollar smile and lights up his whole face.

One thing I have noticed this year that has made me so proud is the way he handled the entire adoption process. He was definitely the baby of the family and lots of attention was focused on him. I worried about him and how he would handle things once we finally got to bring our little princess home. He of course was so excited and just couldn't wait for the day that his baby sister would arrive but I still worried that once the attention shifted a little, he might have some set backs. I remember a few weeks after we had gotten home from China and the chaos had settled slightly (and I mean slightly.......it's still chaos every day), one night after all the kids were in bed, I started thinking about J.D. and had a moment where I was reminded of how much time I used to spend with him, etc. He was also starting 1st grade so that didn't help things. I really started to worry about how he was adjusting to everything and wondering what was going through his little mind. So I quietly went downstairs and knelt by his bed. He was still awake and I gave him some hugs and kisses and started asking him how everything was going. How was school? How were his friends, etc. I then started asking him about Meili and how things were going with her being home and if he was feeling okay about everything and he just looked at me and said mom, I love her soooo much, she is so cute, I'm so glad she is finally home. I knew at that moment that he had felt the blessing of her in our life and was so grateful for her.....there was no room in his heart to be thinking about himself. Many times after that day, I checked in with him to make sure he was still doing well and there never was a time that he wasn't. He has a huge heart and to this day still dotes on his new baby sister.....sometimes to the point of aggravation.....but we all know it's purely out of love....and we know he has plenty of that.

Over the years, J.D. has said some pretty funny things......I mentioned a few things in one of my posts when we first started the adoption process that he had said about Meili. I thought it might be fun to list a few from years past.....

1. This one cracks me up since at the time he said this, we weren't even talking about adopting from China. It must have been a few years ago. The one thing I wish I had done was write down the dates.....I wrote down what he said but not the dates. Anyway, one day he looked at me and said "Why didn't Jesus make my eyes like this?" And then he took his fingers and made it so his eyes were slanted.

2. One of my best friends, Stephanie, from high school had just had her first baby and she had brought her over to my parents' house so we could meet her. She was absolutely adorable!!! J.D. was there and was just instantly in love with her. He said "if we pick the highest number, can we take her home?"

3. At Christmas as we were planning out the nativity, we asked J.D. "who do you want to be?" J.D. "Harrod, the mean one." When we explained to him that Harrod wouldn't be in the story, he said "I promise I won't take the baby Jesus, I'll be nice."

4. I started singing "Grandma got ran over by a reindeer..." and J.D. very stressed said "stop singing that or I'm calling Grandpa."

5. J.D. had some Cheetos and I ate a few.....then a little while later, I had a few more. He looked me and said "do you have ears?" And confused I said "yes." Then he said "I told you to stop taking my Cheetos."

6. When Russel and I were heading to Hawaii, we dropped the kids off at Grandma's and Russel asked Nick to say a prayer. Nick blessed us all to be safe. At the end J.D. said "you forgot to bless that mom and dad wouldn't get eaten by a shark."

7. I guess one time I hadn't been paying close enough attention to whatever J.D. was saying because all of a sudden he said "Knock Knock......" and I looked at him....then he said "you're not listening!!!!"

8. When told to line up tallest to shortest.....he asked "am I short?"

9. Kids were all drinking root beer and he said to me "mom can you go grab me a beer?"

10. We were picking up some water for our 72 hour kits and he asked why. I told him that if there was a disaster or earthquake or something we would die if we didn't have any water to drink for 3 days. He then said "well Jesus did for 40 days!!!! why could he?"

There is never a dull moment with J.D. We love his spunk and love to see how big his heart is. He is such a sweet boy and it's hard to see him grow up but we know he is choosing the right and making good choices in his life. We are proud of him and the person he is. We love him dearly and are so glad he is part of our family. He can brighten the entire room with that ear-to-ear grin. He is an amazing part of our family. We love you J.D.!!

Here are some pics of J.D. on his birthday. Since it's not a "big birthday party" year, he had a few friends over for a late night with pizza, games, and movies. We even kicked the big boys out of the basement for as long as we could....but somehow they snuck their way back in when the pizza came.





Here is a picture of J.D. with his cake during the dual birthday bash with his dad! (I know a few of the pictures in recent posts haven't had the greatest lighting.....that's what happens when your husband gives you a new camera and you don't know what you are doing with it......which is why I should just leave the photo department to Russel and his camera).