Our Adoption Journey: Happy 4th Birthday, Nik!

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