Yabsera Then and Now

Here is Yabsera around the time of his referral- Last March. We liked how he was holding his own sign. What we did not notice was his little extra pinky finger- we saw it later in another photo. He was holding a purple rattle and I was studying the photo late one night and saw something extra with the rattle...and then I looked back and sure enough- there is was.

My friend Maureen was visiting with him when she went to get her kids- - even she did not notice this extra finger- and she is holding his hands. I love this picture because Maureen is in it- we are very close and yet we have never met in person- but she has met my youngest two kids and our kids shared a home and nannies. Our 7 year olds share a birthday and our 9-year-old son's share a name and our oldest daughters were born within a month of each other. We were pregnant at the same time for all of our pregnancies, we were at the same St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Savannah GA in 1992, and we met through CWA- our adoption agency- because we were sending our dossiers in at the same time- we got our referrals on the same day. Our court dates were 4 days apart and our sons share the same given name. But we have never met- but these are her hands holding my youngest child's hands.

Here is Mark- this is when we first met Yabsera- our relationship is just minutes old in this photo- we were in the bedroom of our guest house just the 4 of us- Mark and I and Maren and Yabsera. It was very nice. And also a bit strange. :)
This is how Yabsera looked the day we got to keep him forever- the embassy day. May 30, 2006. Sitting up with the help of a few pillows. Later at the embassy I would forget he needed pillows and sit him up and then while trying to catch Maren who was running around - Yabsera would fall and cry so loud and everyone in the room would wonder who on earth would ever give me a home study that said I could adopt anyone!
Here he is in his favorite room- the bathroom- he loves the bath, the faucets, the TOILET!!! He stuck his hand in the toilet just 24 hours after he had his hand surgery- not pretty. I have cropped out his cute behind for privacy sake! :)
This is Yabsera's big brother, Cal. He is 9 years older than Yabsera- that is how much older my sister Jill is than me. I love my sister so much and we are very close- I know that Cal and Yabsera will always be close- because Cal can Make Yabsera smile no matter what! Cal likes to wrestle Yabsera and this freaks me out- but Yabsera loves it. This is the day that Yabsera had his hand surgery- he had general and was asleep and did very well- all the nurses and doctors remarked at how "good" and "sweet" he was the whole morning. Then he was loopy on the medicine for the rest of the day- which made us giggle.

Here he is just the other day. He and Maren were finger painting. I wanted to get hand and foot prints for their memory boxes. It was messy and I probably shouldn't have tried it alone- there was paint everywhere. And I couldn't contain one child while I cleaned up the other. But they had fun and I got my footprint and hand prints!


Yabsera is starting to take steps! He finds this fun- but since he can crawl so fast- he is not that interested in walking to get from point A to point B yet- he likes it only for show right now- but it won't be long.

Yabsera's birthday is very soon. He will be 1. We think he is probably already one and will try and change his birthdate when we readopt him to reflect this. Sometimes we wonder if he is 1, or 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, or 42.

Soon it will be easier for me to answer when people ask how old he is- I will say he is 1...I will try hard not to correct myself and over explain why he may not be what I am saying he is. That has been hard for me- I think when he turns 1 - then he is 1...and that will be that.