Today is this one’s 9th birthday:

What can I write about this boy that I haven’t already written about?
He certainly keeps us on our toes.
Well, at least me. I’m the sucker. I’m the one that gets outsmarted by him here and there — which makes me question my intelligence.

Early on, he didn’t like meat— outside of chicken.
I considered that a good thing, because even at 3.5 years of age, he ate a lot.
We’d always try to give him a piece of steak or what not, but he’d just chew that piece of meat like it was chewing tobacco taking forever to swallow it.
Oh, how I long for those days. Now he loves all kinds of meat.
He loves Korean BBQ and wants “grilled meat” all the time.
On top of that — he knows when things are “fancy” and loves “fancy” things.

Mom was out of town and he wanted “grill meat” (funnily enough, he once asked my wife, “I like grill meat. Mommy, I am a boy. Are you a grill?”)
There was no way we were gonna drive to H-Mart to get some meat, but we went to HEB, picked up a piece of flank, brought out the portable stove, and well — just look at how happy he is:

When this post goes live, it’ll be his 9th birthday.
I can’t believe this boy is 9 today.
Which only means that I’m getting older.
But we’ve come a long way from when he sashayed up to us in clothes too big 5 years or so ago in a group home.

Now, we have:
A kid fully embracing everything Houston — from the Rockets to the Astros (except, because of Mom, he likes the Cowboys. But every time he sees a football game he asks, “Where’s JJ Watts?”);
A kid who is outgrowing his clothes faster than we can afford them, haha;
A kid who loves Korean food from the jjigaes to the bbq’s to drinking leftover kimchi juice like it’s honey;
A kid who’s becoming shrewder and funnier all at once;
A kid who is growing and learning;

Hopefully, he’ll always know just how loved he is by the people in his life.

So here’s to the sweetest boy with the brightest smile!
May you continue to bring joy and light to the world!
May you continue to be God’s gift to the people you encounter!

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