Our first week as a Party of Five!

The ride home as a family of five....SO COOL!!..(with MeMe in the back) CT is probably thinking...'What happened to standing in mommies lap in the car with my head out the window???'...first time in a car seat.

Well...I think he got over it!! Pretty much the moment he got in the car, he felt free to be himself...he totally remembers his brother and sister..

So neat to see Charles Tucker walk into our house for the first time...It all really became real at that moment for me...he is really in our family..

About an hour later..they were all passed out.

The next morning we got up and celebrated Christmas as a family of five....meaning we opened the big pile of gifts in our living room...Charles Tucker got a firetruck from Nana...

Mary Taylor got this dress up set from her Aunt Leslie...

And a baby doll from our friends at church...

Henry also got this cool mac truck with about 50 box cars inside of it from our friends at church...

I was so glad "MeMe" got to spend our first day as a family with us...she makes everything more fun!!

This day was such a special time to enjoy one another...it was definitely one of the best days of my life. I realized how desperately I missed my husband and children and such an honor to see Charles Tucker enjoying all of these blessings for himself. I will definitely tuck this day down in my memory bucket and remember this blissful day when life gets real again. Thank you Lord for little blessings such as these.

The next couple of days were filled with learning how to be a family of five....two doctor visits and lots of playtime at home. We had a visit from three special girls who knew Charles Tucker way before I meet him. Rachel, Sharon, and Rose all meet CT at Loving Hearts Baby Home this past summer when they ventured to Uganda on a summer missions trip. In August...I was doing one of my searches on the internet to see if I could find any pictures of my little Ugandan baby when I came across Sharon's blog...Low and behold, there were pictures of the babies from CT's baby home. I emailed her and the rest is history. Rachel and Sharon sent me many pictures of Charles Tucker, along with information about his personality. What a blessing these girls are too me!! The Lord sent them to love on our baby boy way before we knew who he was...How cool is that? And now I finally get to meet these girls face to face. It is amazing how small our world is...or maybe I should say, how great our God is!! Thank you girls!!

On our way to one of our doctor visits...

Charles Tucker is adjusting quite well to his new life. He is sleeping through the night very easily, even though he wakes up earlier than our other two. Naps are another story. He is eating well...but actually he is pretty picky...who would have thought?? But, he is slowing getting use to our food...ice cream is still too cold for him....we'll have to work on this one! As far as getting along with his brother and sister...well he is doing great! When they are having fun together it usually consists of jumping on the bed together and tackling each other. He loves it, as long as we are in the room! He gets a little nervous in uncontrolled environments. Sometimes Henry and Mary Taylor drive him crazy...I don't blame him..they drive me crazy too, sometimes. Yes, he is a typical two year old...so we are experiencing lots of fits if he doesn't get his way...but he is doing much better than he did a month ago when we first met him. Dee and I are learning he probably does not understand English as well as we thought he did. I think we just assumed he understood us, because he could say or repeat any word we ask him to say and he knows several phrases of English. But we have to remember he has heard his native language for the past two years of his life with some English intertwined...so many of the fits could be contributed to the language and his lack of understanding what is really going on. And besides...the little guy has been through a lot his first two years of his life. So overall he really is doing really really well!!! He has the most precious laugh I have ever heard and his voice is too cute for words. In new situations he gets really quiet and clingy, which is to be expected of any child who has experienced his world changing....constantly...I am sure this will change with time. If you see us out and about, know that he might be shy meeting you for the first time. So anyway....life is good for just adding a new child to your family!!! Better than I expected and......harder than I expected...will explain more in another post!! Let's just say I am learning a lot about God's love for me through this little boy.