Macy's First Time Trick-or-Treating!

This was Macy last year on Halloween.

Although we had custody of her, we were still in Ethiopia, so we weren't able to do the "Halloween-y" stuff (although dadblastit I was gonna have her looking the part in her festive dress!).

And this was her this year!!!

She LOVED trick-or-treating! And I mean LOOOOOVED it!

And honestly, we thought she would HATE it, because she hates anything with a mask. Or that looks like an animal. Or looks scary. Or weird....or ANYTHING. We figured we'd have a short night because she'd just totally lose it. But NOOOOO, this girl was skipping down the sidewalk singing "I'm off to see the wizard" and saying "Look at all my candyyyyyy!". I think this girl could do Halloween every single day of the year.

Our Wizard of Oz Crew....

So her first "American" Halloween was a huge success! Of course, it may have just been due to the sparkly shoes and the wig...but our girl had a great time!

Happy Gotcha Day, Sweet Macy!

It is surreal to believe that one year ago today our precious Macy was placed in our arms for good. She was tiny and bald and scared. 365 days later, she's a Southern, sassy, confident, growing little girl. And yes, she finally has hair. A head full of kinky, crazy, curly hair.

This time last year Macy had a year full of "firsts'' ahead of her. Of course holidays and birthdays come to everyone's mind. But she also had other firsts you may not think of...climbing stairs for the first time (for a three year old!), riding in a buckled carseat, taking a hot bath and then a shower, worshiping in church, playing on a playground, rolling in the snow, tasting sweet tea (I mentioned she's now a Southerner, right?), coordinating her squeaky shoes with her hairbows (she is SUCH a diva), been in a pillow fight, screamed through immunizations, starting preschool, playing hide-n-go-seek, outwitting her siblings, and the list goes on and on. This girl has had QUITE the busy year. And there's been firsts for us as parents too...learning to fix that head of hair has been a learning experience for me. And figuring out how to get a lodged jellybean out of her tiny little nose. And teaching her not to wash her hands in the toilet. Oh, the adventures we've had with our little priss.

Imagining life without Macy is hard. Not just because it seems she's been ours all along, but because it's honestly HARD to think of what HER life would be like if she hadn't come home to Tennessee. Some information we found out during our second trip to Ethiopia made us realize that if we hadn't come at the time we were there, she may have never been matched with a family. And then Ethiopia adoptions have all but come to a halt. (Oh how I pray for all of our friends still in the process!). And then the horrific famine. It makes me realize if we'd waited just a couple more weeks to mail in our paperwork or raise our money or ANYTHING - we would not have THIS child. OUR child. Gah....see how that's hard? See how we praise our Maker, then One that loves this sweet girl even more than we do, for orchestrating everything PERFECTLY to bring our daughter home?

We are so very blessed.

Happy Gotcha Day to our spunky, little girl. We love you more than you'll ever know.