Adoption Day Party 2008...From Daddy

We celebrated Evan's third adoption day on Sunday. It was actually six days late, but we've just sort of made it a tradition to do it on Sunday afternoons. Even though we have now expanded to five, we will never forget about the gruelling, excruciating, exciting, wonderful journey that it took for us to just get to three. The journey started in September of 2003, became real in February of '04, when we got the video referral, really picked up steam in April when we held that little 9 month old bundle of joy in our arms for a week, then dragged on for a year while we waited for our court date, before coming to a triumphant end in April of '05, when Denis Didenko became Evan Denis Hodges. Our folks are a little partial to May 6th, when they got their hands on him, but Brandi and I will always celebrate April 15th, when that judge gave us the very best news we have ever gotten, that our petition had been granted, and Evan was ours forever.

We started the adoption day by getting up, and daddy, all by myself took Evan and the babies to church while momma stayed home and finished preparing the cake. When I got to church, it was actually pretty easy, as I was bombarded by a few ladies in the church and stripped of all babysitting duties for the next 90 minutes. Evan used his time wisely, making sure that buddies Isaac, Jake, and Chandler could come to his party. When we got home, we had hamburgers and cake (Momma made a wrestling cake), and then Evan, his buddies from church, and Wes all dragged Ampa around to the front yard and got a baseball game going. We played for a while, then his friends went home, and the family went in and opened his gifts. He got three wrestlers, a butterfly catching kit, an I-pod, presidential flashcards (I know it sounds weird, but the kid is into presidents), money, and a lot of books. By the time everyone left, he was exhausted. It was a perfect day.

As a man who always dreamed of having a son, Evan will always be my dream come true. He is sweet and affectionate, and still will kiss me right on the mouth in front of his friends, although I know that won't last forever. He is rough and tough, loving baseball, wrestling, and anything else that might get him dirty or bloody. He has a devious sense of humor, and loves to chase the ladies in our family with bumble bees with white heads (the white headed ones don't sting), and while he is all boy, and sometimes tries to get out of school, he has a deep curiosity about how things work, and how they are made. If I'm beaming, excuse me, but I'm talking about my boy.