Reid's First Halloween

I can't even describe the added joy and fun that kids bring to holidays like Halloween - we had an absolute blast with our little guy yesterday!

As you can see below, Reider was a Dallas Cowboy - and a very cute one, I might add!  (Can you tell that his Dad picked out his costume? ha!)

Here's Reid doing his best Eli Manning impression...

Reider and I before his very first costume party

With his Dad =)

We had 3 different Halloween stops yesterday - busy, busy!  Our first, was sweet Adalyn Love's 1st birthday party.  We all had a blast!  It was a costume party for all of the kids - and Candace and Josiah did a fabulous job putting it all together.  There was a professional photographer taking pictures, incredible food, fun, and even more incredible cake.  

Here's a pick of Reid with Cade and the birthday pumpkin, Adalyn:

Hanging outside with Mom...

Reid & I, Adalyn & Candace, Isabella & Jayme - such special friends!!!

Our little family...Reid was definitely more into his football than smiling for the camera =)

Myself & Reider, Tiffany & Brielle, Jayme & Isabella - love you all!

And, yes...we did attempt some group pictures with all of the kids...that was quite a task!  I don't think we got a single picture with them all looking the same direction...=)

The funniest part was watching all of the parents trying to make their kid smile...

Such a happy boy! (I think this was when Candace pulled out the puffs...puffs = crack for babies)

The AMAZING Halloween cupcakes!  (I only had a few...haha)

After all of the costume party fun...we ran Reid home so that he could take a quick nap, then we were off to the Harwood Terrace Fall Festival with Grandma and Grandpa:

And Uncle Jeff who came home from Baylor for the weekend!

Reid had a great time meeting all of Grandma and Grandpa's friends...and then he found the leggos...

And the cars... (the boy LOVES anything with wheels!)

And for our final stop of the day, we headed over to Doc & KK's where Aunt Neely and Uncle Craig were having a party.  Here's a pic of Reider with his Doc and KK (so sad I didn't get one with Aunt Neely & Uncle Craig!)... As you can see, he had one of his cars and was not at all interested in anything else...

It was such a great Halloween!  We made so many fun family memories and are already looking forward to taking Reid trick-or-treating with all of his little buddies for the first time next year!

In other news... A lot of you read my tweet about our sweet friends whose adoption of baby Isaac fell through about two weeks ago.  (He was taken from them after several days because the birthparents changed their minds.)  Thank you so much for all of your prayers - I know they were truly felt.  In what seemed like a hopeless situation, God once again has made beauty from ashes... why does that never cease to amaze me??  Yesterday morning, Dave and Bethany got the best call of their life... the birthparents changed their minds (again) for the final time!  They had the great honor of brining Isaac David home FOREVER last night!  Praise the Lord!  It truly is a miraculous story and one that they are excited to share!  You can check out their blog for more details (http://www.teamrinntx.blogspot.com/).

URGENT NEED - Real Choices Crisis Pregnancy Center

I know, I know... I've been a bad blogger lately.  A VERY active almost 9-month old (who is definitely trying to walk) is keeping me just *a little* busy these days - he is so much fun!!  But I promise to post lots of pictures after all of our Halloween fun this weekend. =)

In the mean time, here is what Reid and I will be doing tomorrow...I thought some of you might want to help...

We are so blessed and thankful that Reid's birth mom made the best choice for him in choosing life.  Real Choices is a WONDERFUL place that helps young moms make the right choice with unplanned pregnancies.  It offers incredible hope and help to hurting young women, and uses the message of Christ as the center and purpose for their ministry.  Please read below to see their immediate needs.  Thanks for helping if you are able!

Ok, ok...so I couldn't resist!  Here's a few pics of my not-so-little guy...

One of Reid's new favorite things is rocking in his chair (this was my rocking chair from when I was little).  The picture is so blurry because I couldn't get him to stop rocking long enough to take it. 

(And, yes... that is his signature way of sitting these days...one leg hiked up just like his Dad.  And, no...I do not fight the child to make him wear pants when we are at the house.  He has figured out how to get them off.  It's a loosing battle for me, I'm afraid.)

And a fun pic of Reider and I playing in his bounce house before the Gotcha Day party...

My favorite little helper...

This is Reid's favorite new pass-time... unloading the dishwasher.  Exciting, I know. =)  Every morning before breakfast he crawls as fast as he can to the dishwasher and just waits for me to open it up... what a cutie (even though he refused to smile for the camera this morning)!

Reid's Gotcha Day Party!

For some reason, blogger is having problems uploading the massive amounts of pictures we took at Reid's Gotcha Day party this past Saturday...  but at least I got two of my favorites on here!  (To view the rest, you can look in my Facebook pics.)

Here's the little man-of-the day in his customized tee... it says, "Forever A Peterson, October 5, 2009"...

...and a family pic in front of the bounce house...Reider LOVES the camera, if you can't tell. =)  And, I think he looks so much like his Dad in this pic...

We all had a GREAT time celebrating Michael Reid last Saturday...we had over 80 friends and family join us for his party despite the cold weather!  Only I could have picked to have it on the only cold day we've had in TX all year. =)  There was a bounce house for all of the kids, tons of cake, ice cream, football, etc... Thank you to everyone who came out and who has prayerfully supported us throughout our entire adoption process.  It means the world and we will be forever grateful.

I will try again later this weekend to get some more pics up of all our fun friends and family from the party - we love you guys!

GOTCHA DAY PICTURES

This past Monday, October 5th, we had the great blessing of welcoming Michael Reid into our "forever" family on GOTCHA DAY!  For those not involved with adoption, "Gotcha Day" is the term a lot of people use to describe the court hearing which finalizes a child's adoption - this hearing allows you to legally change their birth name, have a new birth certificate issued, etc.  It's a HUGE day... and one that we never want to forget.  

Our finalization hearing was scheduled at the Bexar County Courthouse in San Antonio, so we headed down that direction on Sunday.  We got there just in time to meet Rex, Jen, Maddox and Lincoln for a little "adventure" along the riverwalk... 

Here we all are... it was just a little hot and humid down in San Antonio =)

Despite the heat, we had one happy boy!

Here's a pic of our hotel... definitely not the nicest in the world, but it was right across the street from the courthouse which was good on two fronts: 1) we didn't have to worry about extremely hard-to-find parking downtown, and 2) we had to be in court at 7:45am, so we wanted to be as close as possible!

The Bexar County Courthouse

Here's our little family of 3 walking in to the courthouse... it was so early that the sun wasn't even fully up yet...=)

Here we are meeting up with our attorney, Melissa Hines...

We were very blessed that both sets of our parents got to join us for Reid's Gotcha Day - what great memories!

While we were waiting for our court hearing we were just taking pictures =)

Me and the little man of the hour...

Love these two with all my heart...

This was even an early morning for Reider...sleepy boy...

Here we go!

There were four other adoption hearings that morning that we got to sit through...we were fourth to go out of 5... All of the other families used our same attorneys - two others from TX, one from California, and the last family from New York.  I think we started crying at the start of the very first hearing and didn't stop for most of the morning.  Such a special time for each family!  It's amazing the bond that adoption gives you with people that you have just met.  Even the judge was teary eyed through the hearings... he said the adoption hearings were the best part of his day.  After they are over, his cases go increasingly down hill with child abuse, custody battles, etc.  I can't even imagine doing his job... he truly was wonderful.

The start of Michael Reid's finalization...

...and the tears were flowing...

The judge signing Reid's official adoption decree!

He was so great and asked if we wanted to take pictures in his chair...uhhh, yes please! =)

Tear-stained faces from many happy tears...our first "official" family picture...

Talking with Reider...

Leaving the courtroom

Listening to our attorney explain one last (and final) round of paperwork...yay!!!

...sleepy boy...

...finally got his second wind!

With Michael Reid's adoption decree!

Telling our attorney goodbye and a HUGE THANK YOU... We seriously had the most amazing attorney's...our entire adoption process could not have gone more smoothly!  If anyone is looking for a referral, please let me know...I am more than happy to pass along their info.

Our clan in front of the courthouse...

Our "official" family of three!

Our road to (and through) Michael Reid's adoption has seemed incredibly long...  Anyone who has been through the adoption process will testify to the emotional ups and downs...the "unknowns" that keep you up at night... the scary thoughts that go through your head...  But every last part of the process has been so worth it.  Looking back now - almost a year to the day that we began our entire process - our adoption has seemed to FLY by... all of those little details that we worried so much about, worked out more perfectly than we could have ever imagined.  God is so good!  And we feel so blessed by a Creator who is passionate about every little detail of our lives - who loves us unconditionally.  After all, we were adopted into His family through Jesus Christ.  What a perfect example He has laid out before us - a perfect example of infinite, unselfish love.  We know that we are truly blessed!   Our little family has now grown to three with the most amazing baby boy (if I do say so myself)!  Your Mom and Dad love you so very much, Michael Reid!  We look so forward to our lives ahead...  and to the GOTCHA DAY PAR-TAY this Saturday!  (I will be posting pics, of course!)

Be sure to stay tuned... I will continue updating the blog with stories of Reider each week as he grows... but I have a sneaky feeling that adoption #2 will be making an appearance on here as well...eventually. (Hopefully sooner than later!)