CELEBRATIONS

January 15th was a magical day. It was Jaiden's and our official court date. We celebrated with close friends and family. A special thanks to my Aunt Micki and Uncle Larry who traveled all the way from New Jersey, my sister Jordana who traveled from Colorado, friends who took off work and some traveled by car for hours. We were allowed to have people join us in court. Once everyone was inside the clerk advised that everyone who wanted to take pictures needed to stand along one wall. That was mostly everyone. The Judge talked for a little bit, our attorney answered any questions, and then Jess and I were asked to raise our right hands and solemnly swear that we will love and take care of our child Jaiden always.

It was very emotional for me/us. It was a year ago that we were blessed with Jaiden and this day signified so much. I could breath freely and shout from the rooftops with joy. It gave us permission to completely put the difficult past behind us, to embrace our good fortune, to celebrate our family, to acknowledge the power of the Universe, and so much more. We celebrated all day long and into the night. Jess and I pinched ourselves until we feel asleep.

The following day we celebrated Jaiden's 1st birthday with 130 people. It was marvelous. Hot Dogs and Hot Rods. The color theme was red, white and black. We had big clusters of balloons which looked great, and cute car centerpieces for the tables. His cake was the most awesome cake I have ever seen. It was a convertible red hot rod car. The kids could not wait to put there fingers in it. We had face painting, a jumper, and an arts and craft table where kids decorated a picture frame we had for each of them. Jesse made a big banner of a hot rod car with a hole cut out so that kids could put there face in and it would look like they were driving. I was going to take a Polaroid of the kids to put in their picture frame but the camera did not work. Bummer. However Jesse decided to take pictures of all the adults with their head in the banner which was a scream. We partied all day long.

Thank you all for celebrating these tremendously special days with us.