February 1, 2016 By 4 Comments

Solomon {Seven}

I have been incredibly weepy about Solomon’s birthday this year.  First, I’m kind of an emotional train wreck lately.  When I saw Josh Kelley was drawing BB8 for his birthday door…I cried.  When our sweet photographer Cheyenne sent me a little preview of the pictures she took yesterday…I cried.  When we watched Kung Foo Panda 3 yesterday…I cried.  As I was making two pans of brownies for the birthday boy late last night…I cried.  Seriously, I’m a total lost cause.  Second, he’s freakin seven.  What on earth??!?!?!?

(photos by : Shots by Cheyenne)

He makes me weepy because I feel so dang lucky to be his momma.  I tell him all the time, I’m the luckiest momma on the planet and I stand by that 🙂  I also grieve for the missing parts.  I grieve for his loss and I thank God for his birthparents who chose life for him, but it’s all a mix of big emotions.  I’m simultaneously insanely thankful and honored to be his momma and also really sad on his behalf for the loss which has occurred in his life.  Adoption is beautiful, but also hard.  Celebrating our kids birthdays is so special and important to us, but for Sol it seems even more.  We don’t need big parties or elaborate set ups and decorations…just giving him the reigns to plan his special day and saying 1000 times over “We’re the lucky ones to have you.” seems to do the trick.

Solomon has always been a planner.  He thinks about all the details and mulls them over before committing.  He also is crazy into dessert choices.  Every celebration he comes up with a new concoction.  This year we celebrated early on Sunday since he has school today.  He nailed down all the details:

Sunday:  Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch.  Kung Foo Panda 3 right afterwards.  Skittles.

Monday:  Fun cereal for breakfast.  Lunch with mom at school.  Homemade brownies with mini M&Ms to share with his classmates.  Star Wars Rebels after school.  Pizza for dinner.  Brownie and mint chocolate chip icecream sandwiches with homemade chocolate sauce and whip cream.  Do you think we’re food people??!?!?!

This morning he was all smiles.  It’s his day.  Pretty sure he’s relishing in all the love and extra attention.  I mean, we even got to eat on the stage in the cafeteria at the big table with the fancy plastic table cloth.  Hudson and two friends of Sol’s choice joined us.  It was the sweetest.  All his friends gushed over his M&M brownie choice and one little girl said, “Is Solomon really nine today?”  He’s a tricky one too 🙂

Solomon Kelley you are a gift.  Being your mom is a highlight in my life.  I pray prayer after prayer over your heart and the life you will choose to lead.  I beg God to be everything you need…to be the answer to all of your questions.  I hope you truly know how big and deep and wide His love is for you and that His plan for you is perfect.  Dad and I are crazy about you.  You are fun and kind and hardworking and quick witted and smart as a whip and always ready to help and strong willed and determined.  We think you’re pretty grand.  We look forward to seeing how God uses you to change this world.  We love you more than brownies & ice-cream!!!!

Happy 7th birthday Solomon!

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February 2, 2015 By 3 Comments

Six…Again

Hudson and Solomon are only 4 months apart almost to the day.  Yesterday was Sol’s birthday and they’re back to being the same age again.  So we celebrated turning 6 again.

Sol is a planner and he knows what he likes.  Hudson will change his mind 5,000 times, but Sol is pretty dead set on his decisions…once his mind is made up, there’s usually not much wavering.  He cracks me up because when faced with choices like what he would like for breakfast or his choice of dessert I can read his little mind.  Donuts for breakfast for the rest of his life.  I laughed because as he’s eating his birthday breakfast donuts he said, “Next year I’m probably going to choose…donuts.”

Amharic is the main language of Ethiopia, so this year I went with an Amharic numeral 6 for his birthday topper.

Every year we decorate the birthday kid’s door.  This has been quite the fun tradition in the Kelley household.  We have had so many fun doors.  Every birthday is different and year after year Josh Kelley brings his A-game birthday eve night.  This year was nothing short of the same.  Solomon and Hudson were both thrilled with the Star Wars Rebels themed door.

His day was pretty easy going and low key with a fun day at home just hanging out and then super bowl watching at Josh’s parents house last night.  He did request a brownie icecream cake which I doubted if I could pull off.  I’d like to thank my cheesecake pan for making his request come true. (details later)  He was thrilled.

Being this kid’s parents is an honor.  Adoption is hard and messy and full of grief and brokenness.  I hate we don’t know what all took place on the day this magnificent little boy entered the world, but I know how magnificent he has made our lives and our family.  We’re still learning everyday how to parent him best through his loss.  The not knowing and not having all the answers is just flat out hard and I beg God to be what he needs…to be his answers…to be his assurance.

What I do know is we love him madly and wholly and nothing will ever change that.  He is a gift.  We are blessed and honored.  We are humbled to be his Mom and Dad.

Solomon Kelley you are a gem.  We love being your parents.  We love your heart.  God has a mighty plan for your fierce little soul.  You’re going to change the world and we cannot wait to watch and cheer you on.  Happy 6th birthday!

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June 30, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Celebrating Solomon {Early}

Solomon’s Gotcha Day is coming up in a few weeks and sadly our family won’t be all together in the same place for the two weeks surrounding his special day.  We decided we would need to do some early celebrating while were all together.  Each year on his Gotcha Day we let Sol pick something special for us to all do together as a family.  Since he was old enough to pick, age 3, he’s chosen the Chattanooga Aquarium, then an Atlanta Braves game and this year he wanted to do another baseball game.  This is the last year our local Nashville Sounds will be in the old Greer Stadium so we decided to spend Friday night together celebrating Sol and celebrating our family at the ballpark.  It was perfect.

Sol chose pizza for dinner…eating in the actual pizza place…we got fancy.  Then we headed off to the ballpark and enjoyed sunflower seeds, M&Ms and ice cream in baseball hats.  Solomon was in heaven.  He is absolutely in love with baseball…he plays every single day…so being at a big ballpark and watching the big guys play made his heart happy.

There were even fireworks afterwards, the kids got to run the bases (those 3 little blurs our Kelley kids running super fast) and Harper was given two foul balls which she kindly gave to Sol and Huddy.  She’s a good sister.

Amon hung with us for the whole game, but while we waited for the kids to run the bases he gave into his tiredness.

We were some of the very last people in the stadium which was really cool and special for our family.  Everyone was exhausted, but we all agreed Sol’s choice for celebrating an amazing day in our family’s history was just perfectly perfect.

And what a special kid Solomon is…what an important role he plays in our family as son, little brother and big brother.  He’s simply amazing.

Happy Monday!

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February 5, 2014 By 3 Comments

Ninja Birthday Love

 Sol’s birthday was Saturday.  He is a super funny kid…totally love being his mom.  He had been anticipating his birthday for a while now.  We had a count down going on our chalkboard so he could cross off all the remaining days until the big 5-years-old.

He’s really into legos.  Loves them.  And he totally digs the whole Ninjago ones, so he requested ninjas for his birthday “theme”.  Even though he picked out Star Wars plates and Ninja Turtle napkins.  He’s an eclectic fellow as well.

Birthdays at our house are big deals because the day is totally the birthday person’s day.  They get to pick anything they want for breakfast and they get to choose something for us to do together as a family and they get to pick desserts and favorite meals.  Pretty much anything goes on your birthday at our house…within reason 🙂

One of our long standing birthday traditions is the birthday door.  After the kids go to bed we decorate the birthday kid’s door.  We have done so many fun doors.  It started with Josh and me doing it together and then some where along the way, it’s kind of became Josh’s thing.  Which I love.  We collaborate on ideas and then he totally makes it happen while I put up other birthday decorations.  I kind of like him.

The ninja had some really cool ninja stars too, but unfortunately a small toddler child got his mischievous little hands on them before I was able to snap my picture.

Last year Sol requested ice-cream sundaes for breakfast…done…this year he went with donuts.  He loves a good chocolate donut.

He wanted us to to all play games at Chuck E Cheese and eat lunch at McDonalds.  We typically love Chuck E Cheese, but going on a Saturday may have deterred our love a bit.  We’re use to going on a week night or weekday afternoon.  Holy moly.  Saturdays apparently are a total different story.  We even went early, close to when they opened and it was still mad chaos.  Amon added to the craziness.  He decided to only run everywhere and bolt in different directions when our eyes wandered through the sea of people trying to spot any of our other three children.  He was a full time job.  But ski ball and racing games of all types were played and enjoyed.  And then we had to get the heck out of that place and onto McDonalds.

We ran into some friends at McDonalds who were there eating with their girls and a bunch of their girls’ friends.  They all gathered around Sol and sang him happy birthday.  I teared up because A) It was like the sweetest, kindness thing and B) Sol was so shy about all that attention from all those older cute girls.  It was really sweet and special.  Thank you so much Tara for being so kind to our boy!

Sol requested regular brownies, but with chocolate chip cookie dough frosting.  Hold up, wait a minute.  I had never made anything like this so I had to do a little looking around for a recipe and sure enough there are lots of chocolate chip cookie dough frosting recipes out there.  I ended up using THIS FROSTING RECIPE.  I have to say I was super skeptical as I was making it.  It’s like no frosting I have ever made…flavor, ingredients and all.  When I finished, I was shocked.  It’s truly straight up delicious.  You could even ditch the brownie or cupcake or whatever and just use the frosting as a dessert dip.  So so good.  I highly recommend it.  I think it would be awesome on a chocolate cupcake too.

Harper and I found these really cool little ninja guys are Party City.  And then we found the ninja swords in their appetizer section.  Hudson and Solomon love them.

And Sol also got to share a special birthday treat with his class.  He went with candy.  I tried to sway him in the direction of a cookie or cupcake or ice cream cup, but no way.  Dude wanted straight up candy.  So I let him pick out some of his favorites and he and Huddy helped put together some little candy bags for their classmates.

Why yes, those are Swedish Fish you see.  Sol loves a good crappy candy.  I felt bad for the kids who ended up with a yellow and green Swedish Fish.

We ended his birthday night with visits from cousins, lego assembly, spicy garlic chicken pasta (one of Sol’s favorites) and more brownies and ice cream.  He said it was his best birthday ever.  He told us thank you a million times for his presents (yet another lego kit) and he gave out big hugs.  It was perfectly perfect.

Solomon, you are a crazy incredible kid.  And we are thankful beyond thankful to be your mom and dad!  We love you fiercely.  We think 5 is going to fit you very well.

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January 31, 2014 By 5 Comments

Before His Birthday Thoughts

I love birthdays.  I love a reason to celebrate the special people in my life and our family.  I love carefully selecting just the right gift, hanging decorations and preparing yummy treats.  I love an entire day devoted to that special person.  Solomon is always the most detailed of our bunch.  In fact, he’s the most detailed kid I know.  He notices everything and remembers where everything is located.  When I’ve lost something, he’s my go-to guy.  I think this is why he loves legos and puzzles so much.  He works big Lego kits entirely alone and nails them.  Give him a 200 piece puzzle and he’s as happy as a clown.  He is just so very detailed oriented.  He loves books and magazines and sits crossed legged like a little old man studying each page so very carefully.

 

When it came time to chat about planning his birthday day, he had all the details in his little head.  Chocolate donuts with sprinkles and some without.  Chocolate milk to drink.  Chuck E Cheese to play games and cheese pizza for lunch.  Brownies, but cupcake shaped, with chocolate chip cookie dough frosting topped with ninjas.  I let him pick out fun plates and napkins and wrapping paper…he chose Star Wars plates, Ninja Turtle napkins and Cars wrapping paper…who knew.  I didn’t even know he liked Cars.

Today we’re preparing to celebrate his little life tomorrow.  We did some Krogering before 8am this morning for birthday supplies…we were all looking awesome.

I can’t believe he’s 5.  I miss his baby days just a little, like I miss all their baby days just a little, but I wouldn’t go back for all the money in the world.  I love who Solomon is becoming.  I love who all my kids are becoming and I’m so excited to watch them change and grow and I want to enjoy these days.  They were precious baby people and Sol was the happiest baby, but I adore the big kids they are changing in to.  I like seeing glimpses of who they are becoming.  It’s an honor.

His birthday is always a little hard on my heart, as there are always questions and we don’t have all the answers for him.  I received the sweetest text this morning that was a prayer for Sol and his birthday.  It made me weepy.  The things my incredible friend thought to pray over him was just amazingly good for this momma’s heart.  Adoption can be the most joyful thing and then turn right around and be the hardest thing…joy and grief intertwined together.  Gain and loss.  Whys and why nots.  Hows and how comes.  It’s just hard sometimes.  As Sol’s mom I want to take away every bit of pain and grief and loss and protect him and hide him away from the world, but that’s not what God called me to do as his mom.  God has called Josh and I to smother his heart in prayer and love and be there when the loss and grief sets in.  To listen to him.  To whether the storm with him.  Begging God to be all the answers to all of Solomon’s questions and future questions.  Begging God to be his comfort and healing.  Begging God to be his Father and to hold him the tightest and love him the hardest in those moments of grief which are sure to come.

We want more than anything to be the parents God has called us to be.  Ultimately we make lots of mistakes…lots…but God will always be perfect and righteous and just what both Josh and I need and what Solomon needs.  I pray so hard Sol will realize early on how God designed him so perfectly perfect in His image and how He loves him more than anyone else in the entire world.  How God makes no mistakes and how every thing has filtered through His hands in this world.  How after God’s love, our love is the biggest for him.  And how he has made our family even more amazing…how we’re honored and humbled to be apart of his life, how no matter what we will always love and cherish him as our son and how incredibly, incredibly thankful we are for his birth mom.

 I have questioned a million times over how on earth God thought Josh and I were even remotely good enough to be his parents.  Why us?  And every time, I just end up abandoning the question with genuinely deep gratitude towards God for taking a chance on us, for stitching our family together so uniquely perfect and for trusting us, even when He knows we’re going to screw up.  Today as we prepare to celebrate Solomon’s amazing life, I’m deeply thankful to be his Momma and to watch as his beautiful life unfolds.

Happy Friday!

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