happy birthday temesgen

I love calling my little boy by his given name.  I'm so glad it will be part of who he is forever.  Temesgen means, "Thanks be to you God."  It was given for a special reason.  One that we'll share with "Mr T." one day soon.  I do thank God for him, I remind myself to do that a lot.  Especially when his temperament is sending me into the 43rd "tizzy" of the day.  By tizzy I mean internal meltdown.

I'm not sure who needs to grow up more, him or me.  He's got the obvious challenges of a NOW two-year old in front of him.  Finish getting teeth.  Learn more words.  Control that temper.  (In other words figure out a way to deal with anger that doesn't involve hitting the nearest person, beast, or thing.) Go potty on the toilet.  etc, etc.  My challenges are a little more involved.  Trust God to raise Tate through my feeble attempts.  Ask God to equip me daily with the patience and consistency I need to convey.  Tell myself I'm getting better at this every day, when it's all too easy to listen to Satan's lies.  (Low self-esteem just plain sucks.)

Anyway, back to Tate.  It was his 2nd birthday today.  A day I cherished and celebrated his life, while being utterly thankful and mindful of Christ's death.  It's so interesting that Tate's first birthday with us is on Good Friday.  It was a good Friday.  It's good because of the many blessings in our lives, material AND spiritual.  It's good because I live in a country where I can go to my place of worship and encounter a Holy God that allowed my sin to be placed on His Son's back.  (Whew, that's REALLY good.)  And, it's so good that we're together.  Family is good.  Family is important. Family is redemptive.  I'm proud of our little family.  Proud in the most humblest of ways. We've almost been home together for a year.  We're still alive.  We're growing in love, and it's beautiful.

Enjoy the pictures!

Tate's 1st birthday without him...

Tate just after coming home...

Tate at his birthday party last weekend...