I prayed that Marcelo would recieve all the love and excitement for him on his Birthday. This is his first birthday with us and I wanted him to feel loved and special.

Since, we were on our way back from vacation we were in a hotel the morning of his birthday. I decorated a poster for him and the girls blew up balloons for him. (Rich and I had to get two rooms for our family) In the morning we girls went to the boys room and threw balloons up and sang happy birthday to him.

We got home in time to fix his cake. He wanted yellow cake with chocolate icing. We fixed chicken, rice(which did not turn out), and french fries. His favorites.

While we ate I told him it is a family tradition to tell how the birthday person came into our family. I told of how Heavenly Father guided us to him and then I told how Rich and I came on a plane, we were so excited to see and meet him. I told of the first day we got to see him and all the things we did........and how we all

felt.

As I told the story, so many of the emotions came back from that time. It was such a high and low of feelings. I felt a rush of emotions, but I was able to hold it in while I told the story.

My little Marcelo has been with us for 8 months. It is hard to imagine how far we have come. He is such a different boy and I am a different kind of Mom.

Marcelo is such a good boy. His heart is kind. He is funny. He is smart. He notices so many things even small things. He asks so many questions of what I am doing and why I'm doing it, where am I going and why,......He loves music, loves to be sang to, loves food, loves swimming, loves playing with cars and loves his new leapster. He doesn't like getting his picture takin when he is the center of the attention, he doesn't like quiet time, and he doesn't really like watching tv.

All in all I think he had a great birthday. I love my little Marceo.