Fall has always been my favorite time of year. I love the fall colors. I love the cooler weather. I love Halloween and the promise of the holidays just around the corner.

This fall has been made extra special by the fact that it is Belane's first fall with us (she came home last November, but the weather is definitely winter around here by then). Halloween is feeling extra special to me too, partly because it is Belane's first Halloween, and partly because I was stuck in Ethiopia for last Halloween and missed spending one of my favorite and one of the most fun holidays with my kids.

It has been really fun to watch Belane catch on to the idea of Halloween. She is really smart, and nothing gets past her. While she is at the age where some kids are frightened by Halloween decorations, she loves them! When we had a family night at our house recently she dove right in to drawing pumpkins and ghosts. When I asked her if she wanted her pumpkin to have a silly face, a happy face, a scary face or a sad face, she shouted out "A SCARY FACE!" with a huge grin on her own little face.

The other day I told her about trick or treating, and she was just beside herself with excitement. Although this will be Marcus' fourth Halloween and her first, she was explaining things to him all day. "Marcus, first you knock on the door, then you say Trick or Treat, then you get candy! Like that!"

She is going to wear the princess dress she got on her Make A Wish trip to Disney World, which is complete with hundreds of tiny little lights in the skirt. She is a wee bit excited.

Right after Halloween, on Nov. 5, she will have her first American birthday. She's never had a birthday cake. She's never had birthday presents. She's never had a room full of people sing Happy Birthday to her. She is really, really, really excited to have a birthday. As you can imagine, we have a lot of birthdays around here, and she has anxiously been waiting her turn for quite some time. She has known (and told us repeatedly) that her birthday is "after Shane's", and with Shane's birthday coming up on Saturday, I think Belane is as excited for it as Shane is. :)


I always tell people that adopting toddlers, preschoolers and older kids can be so much fun. We may have missed Belane's first smile, her first words and her first steps, but we have gotten to experience so many other "firsts" in this past year, and I can truly say that they are as much fun for us as they are for her.