The end of a beautiful chapter

Well hello blog! It's been a while!!

I am finally all packed and feeling pretty ready for tomorrow so I figured now was a good time to sit down and write my last update for our family of four and fill you all in a little on what we have been up to.

For those of you who don't know, Ryan and I made two trips to our new kiddos country in June. It was a crazy month and we even managed to squeeze a wedding into there! Ryan's youngest brother tied the knot and we couldn't of been more thrilled to celebrate with them! My brothers wedding was right before we left for our first trip so our Summer pretty much went, wedding, travel, come home, wedding, travel, come home... and now I leave with a friend tomorrow to go snatch our babies out of the orphanage forever, spend some time waiting in country for passports and visas, and then we are HOME ward bound baby!!

Since coming home this last time we have been trying to squeeze every once of quality family time into our days as possible. I can honestly say, this has been the craziest, but best Summer we have ever had as a family. It's hard to believe that a year ago I truthfully wondered if we would ever be able to enjoy family outings again since Ivan's anxiety was so high and he would get overstimulated so easily.

This summer has really proven just how far he has come. Not only has he handled us being away for close to 3 weeks like an absolute champ, but he's been in a wedding, gone to all of the 4th of July festivities, enjoyed many weekends at the lake, and he now looks forward to going to Sunday school and is anticipating starting school in the fall (which is coming up WAY to soon!!)

We can't even describe how proud we are of our boy. He has grown in every area imaginable and continues to astound us every day!!

Landon is taking his role as a three-nager very seriously and constantly keeps us on our toes and on our knees! He talks constantly about just about everything and has a huge imagination for someone so young. He has an opinion about everything and gets his thoughts across with a fiery passion. He has had a harder time with us being away and is not looking forward to mama leaving again. I know all will be forgotten and all the tears will be worth it once he has his brother and sister home though. He still is NOT a fan of the water, but is content playing with his cars on the beach. His best friend is Kota our dog and he insists that he must go everywhere with him. I can't believe my baby is getting so big, but it is a great joy watching him grow up.

Now for some pictures of what's been going on at the Maxwell house this Summer!!

My brothers wedding

Silly boy!

spending time with my boys before bedtime the night before we left for our first trip

Last pic before the boys went to MN with grandpa and grandma

We were so exhausted after our long trip home, but it was so good to see the boys again!

I missed my boys like crazy!!

We took the boys to a car show

playing together in sissy's room

Since getting back, this munchkin has started napping in daddy and mama's bed and sneaking in during the night. He doesn't want to let mama out of his sight.

Second wedding of the Summer and all 4 of us were in the wedding party. Aren't my boys handsome!!

I really couldn't be any prouder of them :')

Ivan was long overdue for botox injections and for the first time mama handled a surgery without daddy being there!!

but he visited us in post op over his lunch break :)

We've spent countless hours playing outside!! Ivan loves scooping rocks and pretending he's baking with them.

Ryan and I got to dress up and go on a date before leaving for trip #2 in the morning

A kitten wandered into our yard one day and we gave it a snack before going to find it's owners. Landon named it "itty bitty kitty" and was very sad that we couldn't keep it.

Our new favorite place to go.

He was throwing sand at daddy and he thought it was pretty hilarious.

Looking concerned...

Daddy attempting to put him in the water. He finally went in, but only long enough to run right back out. Just. not. a. fan.

soaking up the sun with dad

taking selfies with mom

went out for dinner after a long day at the beach

Saturday in the Park!!

Ivan going down the biggest slide with daddy. He LOVED it!!

Saturday in the Park must of worn him out! Ryan sent me this pic while I was at work. He had fallen asleep while playing on the floor.

Daddy buried Ivan in all of baby sisters clothes!! People have been so kind and donated more than enough for our little princess!!

Such an exciting day!! Ivan was able to do his first real OT assessment test. Have I said before that he's come a long ways!!

So excited for the parade to begin!!

They kinda love each other ;)

Ivan's favorite was the marching band

He just SANG and CLAPPED!!!

Waiting for the fireworks to start. Ivan loved the orchestra. He sang and clapped along to a lot of the patriotic songs since he knows them from his America cd (his very favorite thing to listen to)

He loved the fireworks!!

Landon not so much. He started screaming and then went and snuggled into Ryan till they were over.

The other day I had to run to Target to pick up some stuff for gotcha trip.  I had Landon in theTula, basket in one hand, and pushed Ivan with the other. We're kind of like a train when we go out and yes, people stare :) I don't care I just love being with my crew!

The other day Landon came in and said he wanted Ivan to come outside and play with him. Ivan didn't really want to go, but Landon convinced him that he could play with rocks. He said he would go if he got a cookie sheet so I got him this and they played together for a long time. Landon would get him rocks, Ivan would put them in the muffin tin and then tell Landon to put them in the oven and when to take them out (always in "15 minutes"). I always just stand back in awe when they communicate and play together. God has truly done miracles for this little boy who didn't know what playing was when we brought him home.

Well there's our Summer in a nutshell. I haven't been blogging or even on fb much because we've just been having so much fun together. Tomorrow marks the end of a very beautiful chapter for our family. When we brought Ivan home and became a family of four it was a challenging transition to say the least, but it's changed us. Adding him to our family stripped us down and slowly God has built us back up into something new. Something so much more beautiful than I ever could of dreamed. We don't see Ivan as "our adopted son" anymore, he's just our son.

We are family.

It's taken us a long time to get to this point as a family where we can effortlessly just... be.

We know that transition and growing pains are coming again soon, but we're ready to go through them together, knowing we'll be even stronger and closer a year down the road.

My next post will be introducing the two newest Maxwells and I can't wait!!

You're prayers are so appreciated as we finish this last stretch of our adoption race. The finish line is in view!!!

Soon we will all be together as a new family of 6!!