We have a court date!
On December 10th, 2009 Manu will officially become our son!

Manu's Halloween Haunts
Manu began the Halloween holiday season by "helping" to clean and carve his first pumpkin. Actually he was insistent on putting the seeds and goop BACK into the pumpkin. After it was finished he was in awe of the glowing eyes, nose and not-so-scary mouth. Being the first pumpkin I have carved in years, I was kind of proud of the results, though it was far from the most interesting that we would see while trick-or-treating.We didn't know what to expect from Manu as his first Halloween approached. He has never shown any signs of being frightened by much of anything, except a scary life-sized ghoul on display at a local store. With that in mind we had originally plann

Fall fun
We are entering an exciting time for our family. Last week we had an interview with Manu's court-appointed attorney, to ensure that this adoption is truly in his best interest; mostly a legal formality. That went very well, and now we are awaiting a court date for finalization. All signs indicate that it should happen sometime mid November. Finally, almost two years to the date of our first home study, we'll be officially done with the process, and Manu will legally be our son! Funny thing, he will be issued a Kentucky birth certificate indicating that he was born to us on 4/13/2008.Manu has fully recovered from surgery with no problems at

Mommy and Manu, sporting new 'dos
hairdo

Surgery update
Just a quick note to let everyone know that Manu's surgery went well with no complications. He was in surgery for about 3 hours, and released shortly afterward. He was very hungry after the proceedure, and at a small box of cheerios, 2 small boxes of raisins, and a few handfuls of goldfish, all that on the way home! We had a rough night last night, as he was inconsolable and awoke 3-4 times throughout the night screaming. We called the hospital help line, and the doctor on call upped his dose of Tylenol and Advil. This morning he is a completely new baby, happy and energetic, with no signs of surgical pain. Of course, now mommy and daddy are fussy from lack of sleep! We have a follow-up app