Thankful!

Thanksgiving is coming!

I have so much to be thankful for ... and I want to remember all.

I am thankful for our family of 4.
My husband, Joel, is the love of my life. He is strong, smart, fun, sweet and romantic. He is a great dad and my best friend.
My daughter, Kiera, is compassionate, funny, sweet, full of energy, creative and my sweetheart.
My son, Silas, is strong, loving, silly, fun, loves to read, full of cuddles and my little buddy.

We had a great summer with a vacation to Idaho and are enjoying the warm fall we have had so far. Kiera is very excited for snow because "that means its Christmas" and Silas is excited about whatever his sister is doing.

Here are some of my favorite pics to recap:

Silas's Forever Day :)

Today, exactly 1 year after we got Silas's referral and saw the first sweet and sad pictures of our little guy, we can say we are officially done with his adoption process.

Look how far he has come!

Anyway ...

We went to the courthouse today at 8:15am to finalize Silas's adoption. The hearing took about 5 minutes and the judge was smiling the whole time.

Silas is now officially Silas Timothy Abay Brandt.

We celebrated this day, his "Forever Day" according to my 4 year old niece Jillian, with much of our family. What an amazing year it has been!

Silas has been home with us for just over 6 months. We feel very blessed to have our 2 kids.

Kiera's Prayer

Dear Jesus
Thank you for making us be adopted, because we were in mommy and daddy's heart for ever and ever when we were little. And thank you for the whole world and for giving us the whole world. And thank you for goofy.
In your name,
Amen

Forever Family

Hi all!

With all the business of being a new family of 4 with 2 toddlers, I finally have a chance to blog about our 1st month as a forever family. We are feeling more and more like a true family, with all the fighting of siblings, tough time getting everyone out of the house, and overall craziness ... I love it!

Kiera loves being a big sister (most of the time).
She gives him hugs and kisses and is always in his face trying to get him to play like she does.
She tackles, tickles, kisses, dances and tries to carry him everywhere.

Silas loves his sister (even when she tackles him).
I am sure it won't be long before he tackles back.
He loves hugs and kisses too and copies everything his sister does.
He has grown 1 inch in the month we have been home and we are seeing his personality more and more.

We are still working on getting Silas healthy. Our newest endeavor on this front it TB. He had a positive TB test and questionable chest x-ray last week. They re-tested the x-ray and determined that he does not have active TB, but are diagnosing him with latent TB (not contagious). We are waiting to hear from the health department about the medication that he will be on for the next 9 months. We are praying that we will be through all of this by Christmas this year :)

Even with everything, Silas is such a strong and healthy boy. We love him and Kiera so much and are very blessed to be their parents. And we look forward to celebrating Silas Baptism on March 10th and welcoming Silas into Christ's family.

Blessings,
Mandy

The First 2 Weeks ...

We have been home for two weeks, so I thought I would take some time to recap.


We left Ethiopia on 1/20/13. We had the same flights as Matt and Becca, who adopted twins at the same time. It was great to have another family to experience this with (but I am sure the other passengers on the plane that wish these three 1 year olds were not all together :)

After a 2 long flights, where Silas hardly slept, we were pucked on and pooped on, and totally exhausted, we landed in Minneapolis and got through customs fairly quickly. Silas fell asleep in the line of course so he didn't sleep on the last flight home to Wausau either.

We arrived in Wausau after the short 45 minute flight at 3:17pm ... you can see from the picture it was -5 degrees outside (quite a shock for us coming from 70 degree weather - and Joel only had a t-shirt left due to Silas on the plane).

 Many people were waiting at the airport to welcome us home. It was wonderful to see many of our friends that have prayed with us through this journey and especially this trip home.

I think Kiera was getting impatient ...

And then she saw us ...
We have her on video saying "I see daddy's glasses ... I see daddy's red shirt ... I see daddy's ears ... Hi Silas!"
I guess I knew that Daddy and baby brother would be most exciting for the daddy's girl :)

This was the moment Joel was waiting for. They even practiced this hug before we left on the plane. Kiera couldn't quite wait until we passed the "do not go beyond this point" sign.

Our Family!

Brother and Sister love at first sight! 

Kiera was so excited. She kept giving Silas kisses and then jumping up and down giggling. 

I did get my kiss too! I missed my big girl. And wow does she seem big now. She was so brave and mature with all this. I am so proud of her. 

Silas taking it all in. He was all over the airport and saying hi and smiling at everyone there. 

He had a great hug for Great Grandma!

And smiles with Grandma and Grandpa!

I love my Family!
Thank you to our friend Lisa with Bluesixteen Photography for waiting for us at the airport to take these beautiful pictures.

Silas got to meet his Oma and Opa the next weekend. And he enjoyed Max (the dog) a lot too!

The next day after coming home, Kiera and Silas enjoyed celebration cupcakes that Kiera picked out with Grandma ... Silas didn't want to give it up.

And Silas had some Christmas presents to open. We had fun playing together as a family of four. Kiera has been such a great big sister, sharing her toys and trying to teach Silas how to play with things the "right way."

It even snowed! And Silas loved watching Daddy use the snow blower. He also giggles every time he sees it snowing. They had fun sledding and playing in the snow on the warmer days.

So far we have had a lot of fun. Mommy is home for another 9 weeks, so we enjoyed finger painting, bubbles, building walls (or knocking them down), and getting into a little of everything.

Not everything is roses though. 

As we assumed, Silas has some health issues. He had a bad cold/cough while we were in Ethiopia and in the first week home. Thankfully that has been getting much better. 

We took him to Children's hospital in Milwaukee to the International Adoption Clinic for a arrival visit check up. They ran many tests and found that he has a double ear infection (no wonder the plane ride was so hard), Hepatitis A, Salmonella, and Giardia. The last 3 all affect his digestion. He is on medication for the ear infection and Giardia, but the others should pass out of his system in time. 

Right now he is a sick little guy, but still very happy. We aren't sure if he knows what it feels like to be free of these illnesses. He is going to be a handful once we get him well. 

Thank you for all your prayers and for following along on this journey. I will try to continue to update about our family on a regular basis, so please keep checking.

Blessings,
The Brandts,
Joel, Mandy, Kiera and Silas

USA ... Here We Come!

So, another night of not being able to sleep... my poor baby is not feeling well and after cleaning up puke and diarhea, I just need a little relax time before I can sleep. 

Today we will pack up to leave Ethiopia. We received all Silas' documents to get him through customs in Minneapolis, where he will become a US citizen as soon as his visa is stamped. 

Documents and passport ready to go

It will be great to get him home where we can take him to the doctor and get him on a schedule. 

I'm ready for Wisconsin

And I cannot wait to see you daughter. She has been so brave staying with Grandma and Grandpa. I guess she has been reminding them to pick us up at the airport every day. 

Saying goodbye at the airport

Kiera's story about us flying to get Silas

This is us coming through the security doors at the aiport (we told Kiera to look for us there when she picks us up). 

In Kiera's story this is me giving he a hug when we come home. 

Kiera made a rice crispy treat snowman with grandma and grandpa... looks like they are having fun :) 

Soon we will be together as our family of 4. Praise God for his gifts in the adoption of these two precious little ones. We are truly blessed!

Joel, Mandy, Kiera and Silas