Just passed 9 months

Nine months ago last Monday (Nov 1st) was Judah's "Gotcha" day. We met him for the first time face to face. . .what a day that was. A lot has changed in 9 months. He changes a lot from one month to the next. One of the most common first questions from new people that we meet is, "Did he know English when you got him?" When we tell them he knew ZERO English they are shocked. He knows it so well that he communicates better then his over 2 1/2 year old brother who was born and raised in it. His hair is super long now since we haven't cut it once yet. He looks bigger and older with more hair, in my opinion. It's been tough to take care of at this length and it's not fun to "pick" out in the morning. So, I'm thinking we need to trim it but I'm nervous to try it myself. This is a picture of him from today. He was in the bath tub and after conditioning it's easy to pick out and is the biggest the fro gets.

He can write his name now which makes me proud. He's learning letters and numbers. He's doing well in school and I think he'll be ready for 1st grade next year. He's made a few friends: Ambro, Brooklyn, Giovanni. He really seems to respect his teacher and she loves him. She's great! Communicating with her is wonderful and she really listens and respects us.


This is Judah with Mrs. Payton during his first Parent/Teacher meeting.

Birth Grand Mother

Judah shared about Ethiopia a couple nights ago. He said him and his grandma ran away from a tiger and the tiger was slow. He said the police would shoot the tigers with machine guns. He said that where he lived there was poop everywhere and it was gross. This was the first time he shared about his birth grandmother. He said she made him yucky food and gave him dirty water. We encouraged him that she did her best but couldn’t get anything better. We told him that she wanted him to be well, have a mom and dad to take good care of him so he could have lots of food and a house to live in. She wanted him to be happy but when we asked if he was happy he said, “No. I’m sad cause I miss her. Can we go there to see her?” Later on that evening I told him I was sorry he was sad and missed her but he said, “It’s ok cause I will go there soon.” I told him we would go some day but he’ll be much older by then. I didn’t tell him that his grandma would most likely be gone by then.