Photo Shoot – Caleb
It is hard to believe that Caleb turned 5 last Sunday! Where has that time gone? It just seems like yesterday that we got that call on the Saturday before Thanksgiving asking us if we were interested in a baby boy that had been born the previous Tuesday. The social worker told us she would call us back in 30 minutes. When, after about 4 hours, we had not heard from her, we decided to call her back.
Why had she not called back? She had been trying but the phone number they had on the computer had two numbers transposed (typo). She had mis-dialed the first time and got hold of us! After that, she had been calling the wrong number! Needless to say, we were soon out the door on our way to meet our new son!
Many times, you may hear that adoptive parents always change the name that the birthmother gives her child. That is not true! When we met Caleb’s birthmother in the hospital she told us she expected us to change Caleb’s name but we loved it so much that we did not. He has forever been Caleb Alexander. As the photographer was taking pictures of Caleb on the stile, a ladybug landed on his arm. Caleb loves bugs so was fascinated as the ladybug made its way up to his hand. The photographer took full advantage of this to capture some great pics.
You can just see how pleased Caleb is:
For those of you who have followed our lives over the years, you know we love to travel. That has not changed! Being blessed with dual citizenship (British and American) that means that not only Richard and I but ALL our children, current and future, also have that privilege. Once a new adoption finalizes (usually 6 months after placement) and we have an updated birth certificate we then proceed to obtain an American passport for the new baby/child. Once we have the American passport we then send all the documentation off to England to apply for British citizenship. This can take 2-3 mths and is not cheap but worth it. Once British citizenship has been granted we then apply for a British passport.
We were blessed to travel many, many different places with Michelle and Michael when they were young. The same has been true for Daniel, Hannah and Caleb. In their short lives, they have seen more of the USA than many folks do in a lifetime. The only states they have not been to are Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Florida and Hawaii. Yes, they have been to the rest and some, many times and we did Alaska in 2011, going up through Canada one way and back another. We plan to fix the “missing” states at some point as I really want to visit New England so that trip will take off most of them. Florida is on its own and then we would love to visit the volcanoes etc in Hawaii. Not sure when that all will happen but we can keep dreaming and planning. Of course they have all been back to England, along with Scotland and Ireland.
Last but not least here are a couple pictures from Caleb’s 5th birthday:
It actually snowed here that day so the boys had fun on the trampoline!
Hope you all have a blessed weekend,
Liz
Loved seeing all the photo shoots of your children (still at home). They are so blessed to have you for parents. I also know that you are blessed to have them, too. 😀
Thanks so much Janet 🙂 We are very blessed!
Liz