Joyfully Overloaded

Joy-ful-ly      adverb           with great pleasure and happiness Overloaded      adjective           Loaded with too great a burden or cargo For hats sometimes I feel as though I've worn them all, in fact I've worn so many at this point I don't even care to list them.  I've found that by focusing on the simple things in life big things begin to happen.  I am finding that this new hat, the overloaded but joyful one, this hat is my favorite.  It doesn't sound like these two words are meant to be written side by side, but put together they speak my life... It's Monday morning, my eyes are blurry as my Strong Man sets a mug with the letters J-O-Y stamped across the side, the aroma of coffee begins wafting through the air as he tells me he loves me and heads to the shower.  I have enough energy to mumble it back, perhaps it's just a grunt, but I sit up knowing that if I don'...

Two of my favorite people...

This looks like your average-toddler-dressed-himself-learning-to-have-a-free-will-photo, and it kind of is, but it's so much more. This time last year my boy couldn't even roll over. We were just being put on a waiting list for physical therapy and I was sitting with some specialist learning that he was five months delayed where most kids at that age put everything in their mouths and were itching to move, he didn't even reach across his own body. All things I would have to learn to teach him... But now-this photo-lately he doesn't want to even snuggle while he feeds himself his bottle. Those boots he can put them on almost completely by himself. Sometimes when he's just doing ordinary toddler stuff I find myself staring in awe at how far we've come. I adore him, and the boy he's becoming.

While I can't stop laughing at this photo I also can't help but think of this caption: "Girl, your whole world might be upside down right now, but you are loved more then you'll ever know."

In the two weeks since our adoption my sweet babe has eaten some of Aaron's crazy putty, put his shoe in the flour, colored on my windows, gotten into the cat food, given one of his cars a bath in the toilet, had strep and refused to eat by chucking food at me, thrown some very impressive tantrums simply because I've said no, played hard in the pool, snuggled in close, laughed hard, "loved" on our chicks, covered me in kisses and hugs, learned new words... every time something new happens all I can think is, "This is my son. I get to be his Mom, forever. These are stories I'll be able to someday tell him about. I get to be the one to watch him grow into a man...That is if the two of us survive the toddler years."

A photo from before his very first belt test. On the way home he said, "Mom, I just can't put my smile away. No seriously, I'm trying to frown but I just can't because I'm so excited I passed my test!"