Adoption party!

(Finn eating spinach)

Recently we had the wonderful blessing of going to an adoption party for my cousin's new little boy, Drew. It was one of those things that you are just glad to be a part of, which is why we happily drove seven hours round trip for a two hour party.

(Finn in plaid pants)

The story started about a year ago (disclaimer: I am chronologically challenged, which means I have no idea how long ago anything happened. If you want dates, ask somebody else.). My mom was having lunch with her friend Leslie, who out of the blue asked Mom:
"You wouldn't happen to know somebody who wants to adopt a little boy, would you?"

My mom said as a matter of fact, she did. My cousin Val and her husband Rob have two sweet little girls, but really wanted a third child and were considering adoption. They hadn't had much luck so far, but Mom knew they would be interested.

Leslie told Mom where the little boy was. "That's where Rob and Val live," Mom said.

The little boy was living with his grandma, PJ, who is a friend of Leslie's. Leslie told Mom the name of the company where PJ worked. "You're kidding me, right?" Mom said. "That's where Val works."

(Did you just get chills? I kind of did, just typing that.)

"PJ wants an open adoption," Leslie said. "She wants to still be his grandma."

Mom laughed, and Leslie knew why. Our family has a tendency to fling the doors open and take in all the strays, so to speak. (Have you met my sort-of-adopted sister Ashlyn?) At Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner, you never know who is going to show up. One additional grandparent is nooo problem.

So PJ and Val met each other, and after working their way together through the legal system for several months (again: don't hold me to any chronological details) Rob and Val finally, finally, finally, got to adopt Drew. Woo hoo!! So we had a big PARTY!

Here's Drew's five generation photo, with his new great-great grandma holding him.

Here's Drew with his parents, siblings & ALL his grandparents!

Here's Drew & his new family.

I love this picture because both Drew and Emily have goofy expressions, which is SO them.

Here's Drew and his sister Emily about to get into trouble for playing the drum set. You could probably use that caption a lot, as in, "Here's Drew and his sister Emily about to get into trouble for... (insert phrase here)."

Here's my dad, Proud Papa Jim, with two of his grandsons, Gage and Finn.

Alex is off playing with the bigger kids, I bet.

Here's Val's sister Dani and her family. They're Drew's new aunt, uncle & cousins. I couldn't get them to sit any closer together for a photo, but they are really nice people nevertheless.

Here's the birthday boy, Drew!

Here's my brother David holding Gage, and my dad. They are trying to look cool.

Here's my mom and her mom. And Finn!

This is Finn and his great-grandpa Stan.

And THIS is Finn and his great-great grandma, MawMaw.

Pretty special, huh? I think I'm gonna get prints of this one made (after I photoshop out those people with the caps in the background).

This is my precious nephew Gage. Is he the cutest thing EVER?

I feel bad about not getting any good pics of my other nephew, Alex (even though I have 8,000 photos of Alex already) but he really was having fun playing with the other kiddos, especially Drew, who is the same age. All the pics I have of Alex from this party are just a blur of motion.

So that's a little glimpse into our family, and the amazing thing that God orchestrated in our lives. Gianni and Finn and I were blessed to be a part of it.