A long awaited birthday

So when we were in the process (doesn't the adoption process always seem to need italics??) we were introduced to our kids with the traditional email with photos, etc and brief sum up of their stats.  "Brother and sister, ages 2 and 1"  But as time went on and we kept going through the process we began to suspect that Canaan was a little older than 2, but there was no record of his birth so we were planning to give him a birthdate in February, which would put him turning 4 right after Judah since they were about the same size and developmental stage.  It would also mean that we got to celebrate Canaan birthday with him, since their homecoming was planned for December.  Then, we got the email that his birthday had to make him 4 right then (and it was already November), so we gave him a birthday in October-- mostly what this meant for us was that we had to prepare Judah that Canaan would be older--by 2 months, but still, older.  What this meant for Canaan was that when we picked him up (on Jared's birthday in December) he came home to celebrate Judah's birthday, then Elijah's the next month, then his cousin's, then a slow succession of everyone else's birthdays over the next months until, at long last, on October 20th his birthday finally arrived.  Oh how he anticipated his day.  He has been excited about it, angry about it, pouty about it, ecstatic about it, confused about it, sad about it, overjoyed, ridiculous, funny...everything he could have been over these last months...and then it arrived!!!

He enjoyed his day.  He reveled in it.  He was so overwhelmed that he would get really quiet and a little embarrassed when people would congratulate him.  He wanted to be the center of attention for almost a year and when it arrived, he didn't know what to do with all the attention...it was pretty cute.  I'll give you a lengthy line of pictures to peruse...

One other thing I wanted to say on this topic was the change I've seen in my boy since his birthday.  It's not often that we, as parents, can pin point the exact moment of development in our kids.  Most of the time it's so gradual.  But with Canaan, his birthday released something in him that he was holding on to.  I don't know if there was some reservation because he felt that we didn't love him as much as all of his birthday celebrating siblings...or that he harbored some resentment or anger--he never expressed this...but I wonder just the same because, after his birthday, he has been a different child.  He is much more expressive with his emotions.  When he falls, even just a bump or teeny scratch, he runs to me to tell me and wants me to rub it or kiss it--he never did this before.  There are a lot of other little differences that I won't list, but the gist of it all is that I don't know what was loosed in my boy, but I love it.  It's progress in a very measurable way.  It is showing me that, given time, our children will become convinced that they are ours and we are theirs...it just takes time...and birthdays...