Happy 1st Birthday, Henry!!

Yesterday was Henry's first birthday. It was a tough day for me, but the girls were very excited over his birthday -- mostly because there was cake involved. The girls got to make the cake. Since it was a mix they really did everything. All I did was get the ingredients out and they did the measuring, egg cracking and turning on the mixer. I did pour the batter into the pans, but then the girls did what was the most important part of the cake -- licking the beater and bowl. :)

On his birthday, yesterday, we had planned to celebrate quietly at home. I had iced the cake and then I heard a knock at my front door. When I opened the door there was Chelle, my closest friend since around kindergarten, standing there with her hands full of balloons and flavored milk. She knew I was having a rough time and so she brought over balloons (one for Lydia, Trixie, and Henry) and our favorite special milk in glass bottles -- chocolate and strawberry for us to enjoy at our party. As if that wasn't enough she stood there and let me cry on her shoulder. I think if you looked up the word "friend" in the dictionary you would see a picture of Chelle. So, in the evening we had our clebration. We had Korean Teriyaki chicken, clementines and cauliflower. This is the usual amount of food that I usually make for dinner, but since the girls got to drink flavored milk instead of white milk and have cake for dessert they declared it a "birthday feast" and ate more food than I have seen them eat in a long time.

After supper we watched the video that Brent made of Henry's first year a couple times. Of course Lydia and Trixie blew out the candles on the cake and we all wished to get Henry as soon as possible. We ate a lot of cake and then at bedtime we all said a special prayer for Henry and his foster family. It's good that the girls were so excited over Henry's birthday because it made act less sad. I will say, though, that a couple times when they were laughing and being so very happy I wanted to shout at them, "Don't be so happy! We're sad that Henry isn't here!"

Our celebration was extra exciting because we wrapped a gift for Henry to open when he's home and we have our real party for him. They loved playing with the Leap Frog birthday cake toy. And, of course, Birthday Elmo showed up to add to the excitement. Birthday Elmo first appeared on Lydia's 2nd birthday, and he has visited us at every family member's birthday ever since. The girls were happy to see him and told me that Elmo is so smart that he knew Henry was part of our family and having a birthday even though he isn't here yet. Yep, that Elmo's a smart one!

I would like to add one final word to all of you that called or posted birthday wishes for Henry. That really, really did help me through the day a lot. As I said earlier I had a bit of a rough go of it, but I found myself checking the computer and each new message helped me through. Not sure why I kept checking the computer -- I think I was secretly hoping I'd get a phone call or email telling me to come pick Henry up. Now that's logical thinking!!