Where has the time gone...

I never thought I would say that while we waited. Wow! So much has happened since our last update that I don’t even know where to begin. I’ll try to do a short update to get everyone up to speed.

Evan got very sick in January with pneumonia. We were doing 8 breathing treatments a day. He was on very strong antibiotics and had to have two very painful shots of Rochephron shots. The nurse said that those are the most painful shots for anyone to receive because it is a powder that is mixed up with saline. Ouch! After the first shot, Evan started yelling at the Nurse, “No! No! Lady!” It is so hard to see your baby struggle for every single breath. It was so scary. We ended up taking him to Egleston...maybe a bit over the top but I am still glad that we went. The doctor there recommended we have Evan seen by an ENT doctor; we finally have an appointment for that on May 1. Hopefully, they can help. His breathing is always very labored so when he gets sick it gets much worse.

In February, we were like a bunch of crazy people. We took Evan and Wes to see the Monster Trucks and the very next weekend took them to the Motorcross bike races. Evan is all about trains, trucks and motorcycles…anything ALL BOY!! He gets so excited when we see a motorcycle while driving down the road. He calls it "A Mo" but it is so funny to hear him say it. He uses this very deep growly voice to yell, "A Mo!" and he drags out the word. It is so funny! If it weren't for the deep voice you might think it was Elmo or Am-Ma (Grandma).

God laid it heavily on my heart to be baptized again. I was baptized as a young child but felt called to publicly state my belief as an adult. It was a wonderful experience and one that I am very proud of. Evan thought it was funny that “got wet” at church. One day shortly after his clothes got wet while we were in the bathroom and he said, “Hey, my like Mommy at church.”

Clay left Newton Federal which has been hard for everyone to believe…even us. He was at Newton Federal for 7 years and loved his job but God had different plans for our family and he was called to Community Capital Bank. He is currently working mostly from home and drives to Jonesboro once a week for loan committee meetings. He still basically has the same job, Commercial and Construction lending but no longer will do home loans. He is getting used to working from home and so are we. He gets up early before we do and heads upstairs and I tell Evan that Daddy is at work just like normal.

Evan is so intuitive. He once saw Clay’s keys lying on the kitchen counter and said, “Daddy, no go work…Daddy’s keys right dare.” One day Clay came down stairs and opened and closed the front door as to “trick” Evan into thinking he had just come inside. Evan said, “Daddy no go work like dat”…because Clay had on his pajama pants. Yesterday, we drove past Newton Federal and Evan said, “Daddy work gone gone dare, no work dare anymore…Daddy work upstairs!” Boy, did we really have him fooled. Ha ha

March....On March 4th Evan said bye-bye to his baby bed and is now sleeping in his big boy twin bed. He was so excited to get to sleep in a "big boy bed" and still loves it. He also loves he step stool which he calls "his ladder" which makes him feel even bigger becuase he can use a ladder. He loves the fact that he has said bye bye to both his bed and his high chair and is very quick to tell you that he is a big boy now. In also went back to the aquarium again. What fun! Evan loves it. We have been twice now. We also celebrated my birthday. I used to tease Clay about “pushing 30” and now he is getting me back. It was so wonderful to finally celebrate my birthday as a Mommy with my child home with me! The last two birthdays that I have had I was a Mommy but my child was in Russia. Thank you Lord for the most precious gift ever!

My baby boy is getting so big! The little bit of baby that we had when we first got home is now gone. He is a busy, busy boy! He loves to run and play outside and would swing for hours. He loves to play baseball with his Daddy. Thanks to our dear friends, Ken and Cindi Malcolm he has his own baseball tee and is pretty good for a 2 ½ year old.

Here are some of my latest favorite Evan Moments…
I was getting him dressed to go to church one day in February. I was putting the cutest little Bailey Boys jumper on him, when he said, “Arrrrrr, My not wear dis, my wear my Man shirt.” I was determined that he was going to wear it so he did and was fine with it. After church we came home and put him down fro his nap, when he woke up we asked him if he wanted to go see Grandpa…Evan’s reply was, “My not wear dis!” as he tugged on his jumper.

We were shopping a Stride Rite when he told me that the shoes that I was trying on him were girls shoes…he wanted man shoes. By the way, they weren’t girl shoes…they were navy leather sandals…which we did buy. J

Evan is beginning to talk about God a lot which is the sweetest thing in the world. One day we were driving down the road listening to one of his kid cds. The song said, “There’s a little dog a barkin’ in heart, in my heart, woof woof.” And out of the blue Evan said, “There not a dog in my heart, God in my heart.” Of course, you know me…I started to cry. He tells me every night as we says his prayers that God keeps him safe. In fact tonight as Clay was putting him down, they noticed that the bulb in his airplane lamp had blown, Evan said “God keep me safe” like he was saying that’s okay…I’m not scared. He talks about God being “high in the sky” and watching him. He knows that God made everything and sometimes out the blue will say, “God made Eden (Evan), Mommy, Daddy, dogs, trees, light, tractor, etc.” Naming whatever he can think of at the time. Sometimes he will name our whole family.

We rejoiced on his “Forever Day” on April 7th…The day that God forever reunited us together. As I sit here now it is now his Adoption day! I can’t sleep and it is 4 am so it is 5 pm in Irkutsk. This time last year we were celebrating our victory at the German Restaurant with our facilitators and with the director of the baby home. We could not wait to get back to the apartment to see Evan…he was now officially Evan Denis Hodges. Hearing the judge say those words in her thick Russian accent was priceless. We finally made it back to the apartment around 6pm and we started calling our family to tell them the good news. I have to stop typing now to cry a bit and to think God for what he has down for us. We know that it wasn’t the judge who granted the adoption of Evan but it was our precious father above. Thank you Lord!

We have a special weekend ahead of us as we hunt eggs, celebrate Easter and celebrate Evan’s adoption. I will post about it next week so please check back

Thanks for reading…we would love to hear from you.
Brandi