1 Year Old or 12 Months

Today is Benson's 1st Birthday!

We can't believe that a year ago yesterday we were anxiously awaiting word from our birth-mom that Benson was on his way. With the original due date being the 18th we thought we wouldn't hear anything until the weekend was over. We had just purchased a house but the A/C was getting replaced so were spending a couple days at a friends house. The house was a mess but we had painted the nursery and set up the crib.

On Friday, the 14th, at around 9pm I got a text from our birth-mom telling us that she was having contractions but would wait to go into the hospital until the next morning. We didn't sleep that night and at 8am I texted her to see how she was doing and was told she was being admitted to the hospital; that he was definitely on his way! At 4pm we received a text, with some pictures, telling us that he was here, beautiful and healthy! We drove 4 hours the next morning to see him. It was definitely love at first site. It was amazing! It was a very emotional and spiritual experience for Anthony and me. Just 7 months previous we had lost our little William and here we were being blessed with this perfect little Benson. We all knew he was supposed to be apart of our family! We've felt that confirmation everyday since.

We can't express our appreciation enough, to our incredibly wonderful birth-mom!! She made an amazing, difficult and selfless decision. She will always be apart of our lives and we love her dearly.

It's been wonderful to watch Benson grow and change over these last 12 months, we've loved them!!

-He is now walking and has the bruises to prove it
-Trying to talk (words we can understand - duck, dog, bottle, no, yes, mom, dad, hi and bye-bye. And lots of other words we don't.)
-Going up and down stairs
-Favorite foods - beets, black beans, cheese and fruit
-Climbing up on anything he can
-Loves hide'n seek/where's Benson
-Loves being outside, preferably eating the leaves and dirt from our yard
-Loves to go get the mail
-Loves to play with other children, which is expressed by poking their eyes or pulling their hair (we are working on this)
-Has started throwing tantrums (didn't know 1 year olds did this)
-Learning to throw a ball
-Loves to read and has started bringing us books to read to him over and over

Here are some of our favorite pictures of Benson throughout this past year...
(Blogger was being difficult so they are all over the place, enjoy!)

Happy Birthday Benson!!!