Asher's First Haircut

We all know that Asher has lovely curls, and everyone just wants to tousle his hair.  Well, we finally decided to give them a little trim.  It wasn't because we necessarily wanted to, (why would you want to cut cute curls??) but there were a couple of things that started happening that nudged us into getting the haircut.

1.  Asher started to resemble Krusty the Clown:

2.  Albanians are notorious for their lack of dressing children in gender specific outfits, and hearing the question, "Is it a boy or a girl?" is just normal.  I didn't bother me when Asher was a baby.  But have you seen Asher lately?  He is a very male looking child!  Even when he was born, he was all boy.  Even then, it didn't bother me too much when we were in Albania.

This past month though, we were back in the States.  I have to say there was one too many people who made the comment "Oh!  She is such a cutie" or something of the like...  The kicker was when we were in the airport going to Salt Lake City, Sean and I were having the discussion about whether or not to cut his hair.  Sean was against it, I was for it.  One of my arguments was that people were calling him a girl.  Sean denied it, saying that it really didn't happen as much as I was implying.  Not two minutes later, a lady was walking by us and while looking at Asher said, "She is so precious!"  After laughing for about 5 minutes, Sean relented and we decided that we were going to give Asher a haircut.

Here are a few pictures, that MAYBE I can see what they were talking about :)

He is starting to look a little bit like his cousin, Andelyne ;)

On Christmas day it was time to trim the curls!  Sean was on board, but just to show him one last time why we needed to cute his hair, we (my sisters-in-law and myself) tried one last thing :)

He was not amused.  And Asher didn't like it much either ;)

Before Pictures (I cut the sides while he was taking a bath)

Sean came by as I was about to post this blog and let me know that he was very proud of his son's ability to take Nick Nolte-esque mug shots.  One quick Google image search later and I can say that he was definitely on to something, Asher is much cuter and happier, but they were both a little disheveled and beat up (Nick as the result of a bar room brawl, and Asher because his parents let his aunt watch him and she thought that it would be entertaining to spin him around and watch him walk on the sidewalk - we love you, Shannon).   

 

  

And the after...

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Whalens!

This may be a little late, but we have been in the States for the past month, and are just now getting back to the blog.  Also, we have Christmas cards, but not very many addresses.  Everyone has been moving this past year!  Maybe I'll just post the letter on here :)

Dear Family & Friends,

This year has been filled with lots of changes for us!  After finalizing Asher’s adoption, we packed up and moved out of the country.  It was off to Albania!  We finally began the overseas portion of Sean’s career.  We settled down in “Little America” in the middle Tirana, Albania, and found ourselves surrounded by wonderful people.

Sean has been busy at work. He enjoys what he does, and is very happy with his career and all that it brings to him and to our family.  He finds himself using the word “No” a lot.  We joke that he has finally found his calling in life!

Shauna has settled down in life; she has become accustomed to being a stay at home mom.  While she is currently suffering from a severe case of “Mommy Brain” as a result, she loves being able to spend time with Asher and watch him grow and develop.  And he has done just that!

Asher has had quite the year!! A week after we moved to Albania, he started sleeping through the night – Hooray! We just figured he was always on an Albanian schedule.  Since we’ve arrived, he hasn’t stopped moving.  We bounced him all the way to 9 months when he started crawling, then he started walking at the end of 10 months, then started jumping at the beginning of 11 months, and has been climbing and getting into anything and everything since!  Life has been on the move for everyone involved in his world.

In fact, we are currently beginning the process of adopting another child.  We feel that Asher needs a sibling and are looking at several options (international and domestic) for child #2.  We would greatly appreciate your help in keeping your eyes and ears open for a special birth mother who is considering placing her child with a family.  Feel free to drop us a line if something materializes: swhalen@gmail.com.

As a family, even with all the changes that have taken place, we have tried to embrace it all and make our time here count.  We have traveled to several countries this year; seeing the incredible sites of Istanbul, Budapest, and driving our way to lesser known places like Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia and Kosovo.  Getting to know the people in Albania has been fun, and we are excited to continue our time here.  We will be in Albania until mid 2013 and are excited to get our next list of possible assignments, which should be out in the next month or so.

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Fantastic New Year!  If you happen to be in or near Albania before March 2013, you have an open invitation to drop by and stay with us!

Love,

Sean, Shauna, and Asher Whalen

We also wanted to give you a taste of the Albania New Year's firework display.  It was incredible!  The fireworks started in the early afternoon on New Years Eve, and continued for the next three days :)  The view was phenomenal!  Pretty much every household in the city was setting off fireworks.  Absolutely incredible!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftH1pL8h3sU&feature=share

We hope everyone is doing well!  We were so happy to see everyone in the States that we met up with, and hope that we get to see those we missed on our next visit.  Thank you all for being such incredible friends.  We feel so blessed by you all!