One month home...plus a few days

One month home with this sweet boy. Mati is a happy guy for the most part unless he's not feeling well and then nobody's happy! Unfortunately he's not been feeling great lately, but hopefully we're on the upswing. We had a follow-up appointment at the International Adoption Clinic this week and went over all the labwork we had done when we first got home. Nothing too interesting to report other then the fact that Mati did indeed have chicken pox. We thought he must have because he has several scars on his face and back, but we were assured that he didn't. His bloodwork proves otherwise. One less vaccination to get! Once again, we were so pleased with the care we've received at the IAC and would highly recommend them to anyone adopting.

We've learned a lot about Mati in the last month. Here's just a few things...

Loves: bananas, applesauce, cheese, milk, goldfish, peas, waving hi, "talking" to Cale on the phone,
Dislikes: cantaloupe, getting told "no", when Haven walks away after playing with him,

And guess who started walking??!!! He took his first steps last Saturday and has taken a few more each day. Definitely not proficient, but it's amazing how far he's come in just one month. Our boy is growing up!

Officially official

Yesterday we headed out early to go to our local county courthouse to re-adopt Mathios. It turns out that this is probably the simplest thing we've had to do for our entire adoption! We filled out a few forms, wrote them a check and a few signatures, stamps and seals later it was done. Mati's legal name is now Mathios Jon Kumalo Zeune and it was accomplished exactly one month from when we first met!



Unfortunately this is just the first part of a long succession of paperwork that awaits us. We still need birth certificates, citizenship paperwork and a social security number. But one thing at a time! And we'll take this small victory and celebrate that he is ours (again!)!

Three weeks home

I have thoroughly enjoyed following along with other adoptive families and their journey to bring their kids home. From the paper pregnancy, referral, court dates and travel...especially the travel and hearing about meeting their kids for the first time. But then people come home and they quit updating. I never understood that! Don't they know that I'm still interested and want to know how their doing?!



And then I adopted a little boy and came home and quit updating. I fear that the lack of updating makes it appear that we are not doing well; that our adjustment has been rough and we're frazzled and crazy. None of that is really the case! Is life busier? You bet it is, but in the best possible way! We have adjusted very well to being a family of four and Haven is pretty much the best big sister their is. She loves Mati like nobody's business. The other day he was fussing about something and she came up to him and said, "You miss your other mommy, don't you buddy? It's okay. You've got the Zeunes now and we'll be your family forever! We love you!" She is too much!



Mathios is just a great baby. He's been sick the last week or so and has not been his usual good natured self, but even not feeling good, he is a sweet boy! He continues to eat like a champ and in his first three weeks home has gained 1.5 lbs. He loves fruits and vegetables and will cry if someone is eating a banana and not sharing with him! He loves the pool, walks in the stroller and climbing up the stairs. He calls Kate mama and is picking up sign language quickly. He is also a big "talker" and sits in his high chair jabbering away during the entire meal. I think he's trying to keep up with his equally talkative sister!



We hope to put some new pictures up soon. We've had a camera malfunction and hope to get that taken care of this week sometime. We do have some up on another site so if you're interested in seeing them comment on this post and we'll send you the link.