Happy Gotcha Day - 1 YEAR!!!!

Happy Gotcha Day!!

Kyle has been lighting up rooms with us for an entire year!
Our memories of China and last Christmas are still so vivid that it hardly seems that it's been that long.

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I would try to post more frequently...little did I know how difficult that would be. Life happens so fast. We've captured a huge library of photos and memories since our last post, but have had trouble finding the time to post and share them.

Anyway, here I sit on Christmas Eve, 2007. One year ago tonight we were watching little Kyle sleep and wondering what incredible memories we would be making as a family. No matter what we imagined, Kyle has brought us so much more.

Since our last postings, so many things have happened. Some important and momentous - and some just fun. Lisa and I were wondering how the other families in our travel group were making out with their new additions...we hope as well as we have? Thanks for the Christmas Cards and photos - we really appreciate it. To have shared such an experience with such a great group of folks just made it that much more special. It is almost unreal that we were sharing our Christmas LAST YEAR with all of you in China.

Right now, Lisa Kyle and I and Murphy (our dog), Mocha & Misty our cats are in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, visiting Poppa and Grandma Wedder, Great Grandma Woodruff, Aunt Avery, Uncle Mark and Kyle cousins Paityn, Logan & Luke. We arrived on Saturday afternoon just before the storm hit and since we arrived we've gotten about 5" of fresh new snow. (We left on Friday evening and made it to near the Ohio border.)

Lisa and I have made this trip quite a number of times but never with another real (though little) person. Kyle was a champ the entire trip. No tantrums, no meltdowns, and no real traumas! He enjoyed videos, toys and the scenery for most of the 12 hour trip. He (and his mom) napped a good part of Saturday afternoon, which made the drive really easy - we have XM radio, so dad could listen to whatever he wanted!

Lisa's family has always made me feel like family, even before I was officially was. We usually spend Thanksgiving at the Lockheads (in Philadelphia) and Christmas with the Wedders (in MIchigan). I'll post more details shortly with photos as well.

We just got home from a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner at Uncle Mark & Aunt Avery's. I actually just wanted to get on record and to record a post to recognize (before the day slipped by again...) this day.

I'll hopefully have a little more time over the next couple of days to post all of the photos that we want to, but for tonight...

I can't leave without a photo...

Here is Kyle enjoying the Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia with his cousins Justin and Alyx.





Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.