One Year Tuckerversary

It has been one year since we brought Tuck home from Taiwan. I can't believe that the time has moved so quickly. It seems like only last week in so many ways. In other ways, it can feel like years have passed

We were totally not expecting to have anymore children. Abbey says that she always wanted to have four, but I couldn't imagine adding another child to our already energetic brood of three.

God knew that we needed Tuck though and we tried to be obedient to
His will to bring Tuck into our lives. We cannot imagine our lives without him. He is so sweet and so cute and so not like his brothers.

Tuck definitely has a voice. He is so loud sometimes that you wouldn't believe that he is 16 months old. Unlike his other brothers, when he sleeps he really sleeps. He has been our first sleep-through-the-nighter. Well, that is when he sleeps. When he decides to have his midnight rendezvous he can stay awake for hours. That will drive you nuts!

He loves to give kisses and say "bye bye". He says "daddy" a lot but I think that he uses it interchangeably for me and Abbey. It does my heart good though.

Tuck has brought a unique light to our house that only he could bring. We love him so much and are so thankful that he is a part of our family.

Sweet Nash is 5!

It's hard to believe that our little Nash is 5 years old. I remember the day that we got our referral for him and how excited we were that God had surprised us with a toddler and a baby. I loved Nashy's sweet eyes. Sunday after church, Abbey and I took Nash out to eat to the place of his choice. Demos' Restaurant because it had spaghetti. Again, a boy after my own heart.




The waiter brought Nash a piece of cake with a candle. Nash loved all of the attention. He was very much into getting one on one attention.




We also had to go to Target so that Nash could pick out his birthday presents. He had a lot of fun going down the toy aisles, but his concept of money isn't quite refined yet. We stopped for yogurt and then had to head back home. It was a great day getting to hang out with our favorite five year old.




That first day that we met him I think that we were all scared to death. Sweet Nash only knew Chinese and we didn't know any. He was timid and reluctant to come to us at first. I remember that he had a little black car and that provided our first inroad as father and son.




Those first few months were tough as Nash learned to love and trust us. He and Reed were immediately brothers though. They still are best friends (most of the time) and love each other so much. By the time Nash turned 3, six months after we came home with him, he was fully assimilated into the LandLife. He knew English and loved his family.




Nash's fourth birthday came just before we left last year to go get Tuck. Wow! Our lives have changed, but definitely for the better. I can't imagine life without Nash. He is kind and compassionate. He is so thoughtful and loving. And he still has the cutest dimples in the world.




And now our Nash is five. His fifth birthday was special to Abbey and me because we got him on the day he turned 2.5 years old. I've never actually discussed this with other adoptive parents, but I've always kept up with when we had our kids longer than anyone else had. So, when Reed was 13 months old, it meant he had been ours the longer than he was in Taiwan. Same thing when Will and Tuck turned 9 months old. But for Nash, it has taken 2.5 years for us to be able to say he has been ours the longest!

Although he has been fully ours since the day we first knew he existed, it's special to know that we now had him longer than he was in
Taiwan! We love that boy and thank God for him.