Celebrating the Firsts: Birthdays!

A recent comment on our facebook page, referring to a picture of Henry at his birthday party, said, "I think watching newly arrived kiddos celebrate their birthdays are one of the most poignant photos you all take. How much his little heart will be altered by his next birthday!"

Well, we thought that this was inspiring, and so we're going to take a little walk down memory lane...

This is William's first birthday at NDFH - also his first birthday!

...and his second...

...his third...

... his fourth...

and, most recently, his fifth.

Wow. Pardon us as we wipe the 'proud parent' tears from our eyes. He's grown so much, both in size and in personality (hehe) and the best part about this whole series of photos is that his next birthday will probably be celebrated with his forever family. If that doesn't make you tear up and want to jump for joy, I don't know what else does.

This month - August - we celebrated not one, not two, not three... but nine birthdays. That's right 9. That's a lot of candles, ya'll. 34 all together. (You can check out the pictures from this party in our most recent scrapbook!)

A lot of the birthdays this month were "first" birthdays. Little ones turned one year old, and others celebrated their first birthday party at New Day.

It seems like just yesterday that Calvin was little enough to play baby in our Christmas play. Now he's a year old? Really? Where did the time go!?

And then Joseph. His one-year anniversary at NDFH is coming up, and we remember when he was a tiny, blue, fighting-for-every-breath baby. He scared us... but Amazing Things happened in this little guy's life and now look - he's a year old! He's not a baby anymore.

Henry arrived at New Day just last week. This handsome little guy is still figuring out how things work around here, but he's liking it already. We're so happy that he came in time to celebrate his third birthday, and though we certainly hope that his fourth will be spent with a forever family... we know that a huge transformation is going to go on in this little guy's life this next year.

You're special and you're loved, Henry, and we sure hope that you get enough sleep at night, what with the twins being your roommates.

Happy birthday, sweet kids.