November 11, 2005 this beautiful baby boy joined our world and as you can see from the picture above we were all a bit smitten with him. My favorite memory from this day was the awe that Cayden, my crazy 22 month old, had for this tiny new creature that was his new brother. When I look at that picture above of Cayden meeting his new brother I can't believe that these two were ever this little. My babies are big people and I can hardly handle it.

Cayden still likes for us to tell him the story about how he was the first person in our family to hold Deacon. Before Mommy or Daddy held him, we propped this new bundle of joy on our big baby's lap and let him take it all in. These two have always had a special bond, and it's something that I hope they continue to have for their entire life.

The day Deacon was born we had no clue as to how our relationship with his first mom would play out. We had expressed our desire for an open adoption, but she was not interested. At the time that these pictures were taken, we didn't think we would ever met her or talk with her. It brings me so much joy to know that the day after Deacon was born I stood in her hospital room and got to meet her, and a few days later we spent hours together at the interim moms house, and now we see her when she's in town as much as possible.

We had no idea how we would love a son we didn't birth, and we had no idea what an open adoption would look like. Today I look at Deacon and forget that he isn't from my belly. We share the same color of skin (forever he thought I was black — I'll tell you that story one day!) and both love to watch football! Deacon had my heart from the first time I held him.

Love this boy!