Our Adoption Journey: June 2013

This month has been very exciting for Nik. Its hard for me to believe it has been 8 months since he arrived home with us. As I wrote in my last entry, Nik turned 4 this month and we had a fun day of celebrations. He is still singing "Happy Birthday" to himself on a regular basis.

The other big event this month was our first family vacation as a family of five! We went to Cancun, Mexico and had a great time! Nik was not a huge fan of walking in sand, but considering he refused to take socks off his feet until about 4 months ago, that is no surprise. He did love the pools, the all inclusive resort (ie non-stop eating!) and the time together as a family. Here are a few of our favorite pictures from the trip!

Fun in the kid's pool!

Meeting a real iguana at our resort!

Tired after a long day in the sun. Poor Nik fell asleep waiting for us to get dressed for dinner!

Enjoying a fun dinner at the resort. Nik is a big fan of sushi!

Mr. Photogenic!

First time in the ocean... not a big fan!

Painting pottery by the pool...

It rained one afternoon on our trip! Here Maddie and Nik are trying to eat the rain!

Family Photo by the Beach!

June 20th also was the one year anniversary of the day that changed all of our lives forever. On June 20, 2012, we received this photo and a video of Nikita. We loved his face from the moment we saw him and knew God wanted us to be together. It is hard to believe that one year later, this same little boy is thriving in our home. We love him dearly!

Nikita's picture from Russia that we received 1 year ago. I don't know how old he is in this picture. I suspect it was taken sometime early in 2012.

Nik Bowen, age 4! Living in Plano, Texas

Nik and his family!

We celebrated Nik's birthday today. Technically, his birthday is June 10th, but today worked best for his birthday party schedule-wise, so we decided to have his party and celebration today. Nik has talked about his birthday non-stop for a week. He has even been singing "Happy Birthday" to himself for 2 days straight. Yesterday, he told me that he was most excited for cake on his birthday and blew at the air, a gesture that seemed to indicate blowing out candles. I asked him if he had ever blown out candles on his birthday before, and with a sad look on his face, he said "No".

Today was special for us because I was excited for Nik to celebrate his first birthday with us, and to celebrate his birthday for the first time! Nik was so happy all day... he kept saying "Its MY birthday!" He expressed this with a tone of joy and pride that I have not seen in him before. When he got to blow out candles on his birthday cupcake tonight, his face lit up. He paused after we sung happy birthday with a grin on his face. I think today was a dream come true for Nik.

As we celebrated today, I was reminded of a quote by one of my favorite authors, Henri Nowen:

Birthdays need to be celebrated. I think it is more important to celebrate a birthday than a successful exam, a promotion or a victory. Because to celebrate a birthday means to say to someone ‘thank you for being you’. Celebrating a birthday is exalting life and being glad for it. On a birthday we do not say ‘thanks for what you did or said or accomplished’ no, we say ‘thank you for being born and being among us’.

On birthdays we celebrate the present.

We do not complain about what happened or speculate about what will happen but we lift someone up and let everyone say ‘we love you’. Celebrating a birthday reminds us of the goodness of life and in this spirit we really need to celebrate people’s birthdays every day by showing gratitude, kindness, forgiveness, gentleness and affection.

These are ways of saying ‘it’s good that you are alive’;

‘it’s good that you are walking with me on this earth’,

let’s be glad and rejoice.

This is the day that God has made for us to be and to be together

Nikita, This time last year, we did not know that you even existed. And yet, today, we love you and cherish you and celebrate the life God gave you. You are our precious son and today was a day to celebrate the miracle of your life and the miracles of God that brought you to us. I hope you know that you are very loved by us and so many friends and family members. You are special and we cannot wait to see the person God created you to be. Happy Birthday, Nik!
Love, Mom and Dad