How come you never hear father-in-law jokes?

So, in the interest of updating my blog with my oh-so-not-interesting life, I will post some oh-so-adorable pictures.

Seth, Taylor, and I attended our local library's costume party with our friends Nichole, Heath, and Brock. Funny enough, Nichole and I picked out the same costumes for Heath and Seth this year (who are only a month apart in age).















Are they adorable or what?

Seth had a blast! He is an avid people-watcher (like his parents) and there were plenty of interesting people to watch. Seth got so excited at one point, his face was turning red while he laughed and pointed furiously. As you can see, he partied a little too hard:




















(No, I am not a bad mom. I threw the candy there AFTER he fell asleep :) )

Something I have been thinking about lately is how can people ever even entertain the idea that they cannot love an adopted child as much as a biological child? I am telling you this now: you may have to be more intentional about it at first, but the result is the same - you love them so much it hurts.

Oh, and I registered for classes today for the Winter/Spring semester. I am only taking three classes (two online), but I am SO excited to get my brain working again... It's a sickness, really.

What is the speed of dark?

I had a really funny "duh!" moment this morning that I thought I would share.

Since I was having peanut butter toast, I got to thinking that since Seth is almost a year old he was old enough to have peanut butter. I got online and went to a medical site that addressed the question "When is your child old enough to have peanut butter?" According so the website, if you and your family have no known peanut allergies, a year old is perfectly fine to try giving peanut butter. I carefully thought through our family history and determined, "nope, no peanut allergies", then I gave him some peanut butter toast.

It took me a minute to slap my forehead on that one! :-)

See how quickly they become your own?

You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is 'never try'. -Homer Simpson

Yesterday, Seth was dedicated in our church. Dedication is like 'baptism-lite', if you are not familiar. James and I decided before we got married that our children would be dedicated to God as infants and when they were ready to be baptized at the age of accountability, they could be baptized. Basically, we stand in front of the church as witness to the fact that we will raise him in a Christian home. It was a nice ceremony with all our family present. The pastor used this passage during the dedication:

"But then the right time came. God sent his Son. A woman gave birth to him. He was born under the authority of the law. He came to set free those who were under the law. He wanted us to be adopted as children with all the rights children have.
Because you are his children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. He is the Holy Spirit. By his power we call God "[Abba.]" Abba means Father. So you aren't slaves any longer. You are God's children. Because you are his children, he gives you what he promised to give his people." - Galatians 4:4-7

Well, I am tired and keeping this short. I will share all my profound wisdom with you on another day. Until then, know that I am praying for all the families who have (or had) court dates this week.

Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway. - Anonymous

A good friend of mine recently mentioned that she did not need to use quotes because she can come up with her own words. I say that it has all been said anyway, so why waste the brain cells? The quote I used for my subject line is a perfect example.

Anyway, I digress. I am taking just a moment to hammer a few words out while Seth is taking his afternoon nap.

He is doing so wonderful. In just two weeks he will be one year old! Amazing! This time last year we had just begun the adoption process, which meant that we had just begun to pray for our baby and his biological parents. It is awe inspiring to think that while Seth was in his biological mother's womb, we were praying for both of them. I remember saying to a friend, "It is possible that he or she is being born right now." I wish that I had written down the date that I had said that. It is possible that Seth was born today or yesterday or a week from now... Since the Ethiopian country choose his birthdate, it is almost impossible to know what the actual day was that he was born - and it doesn't really matter. We don't really celebrate Christmas or Easter on the actual day, why should a date make that big of a difference? Wow, I am rambling now!

Here are some milestones that Seth has reached since we have been home:

• He is saying a few words - Mom, Dadda, more, and all done.
• He is actively requesting things like his favorite book (Moo, Baa, La La La) and will moo on command.
• He will walk around with the assistance of anything he can push across the room.
• He is sleeping through the night and taking at least one good nap in the afternoon.
• He eats EVERYTHING (with the exception of green olives and white mushrooms).
• He has acquired the taste of a pacifier, which leads to the next milestone...
• He will sit in his car seat, awake and without screaming, for a reasonable amount of time.
• He dances like a crazy man and LOVES music (this comes in handy since we go to a lot of band performances.

He is doing well and I am even starting to adjust :) I will not lie - it has been fairly difficult to go from having all my freedom during the days to being attached, but we have worked out a pretty good little routine. And he is so much fun, who could not love spending the day with the little guy?

Well, I need to go. The long afternoon nap has ended.

If at first you don't succeed, then don't take up sky diving!

First, I would like to invite you to visit the Full House and Full Hearts blog. This is the story of a family who is in the process of adopting their 11th child, Solomon, who is HIV+ and from Ethiopia. They have an amazing story of faith and I hope that you will visit the blog, and if you feel lead to do so, give to their worthy cause.

Second, I want to share some great pictures of my kids all dressed up and heading to the homecoming dance. Okay, only one of my kids is dressed up. Oh, alright, only one went to the homecoming dance, too.

I think Seth thinks his sister is pretty, what do you think?


Here is Taylor and her friend, Renida.

Seth and I spent a quiet evening at home as everyone headed out to the dance (James is chaperoning). Well, okay, the truth is that they left and Seth went to bed...

While Renida was here, we had an interesting development. Seth was extremely tired by the time she arrived and everyone was ready to go. So, for about 30 minutes prior to and as they left, Seth was glued to my hip. For those that have not spent anytime around Seth, you should know that in general he does not go to strangers. He prefers Mom or Dad and will go to you once he gets to know you. There really has never been an exception until tonight: his first reaction when he met Renida was to go towards her and away from me. They left almost as soon as Renida arrived, so I never really had a chance to see where he was going with this, but it did get me thinking.

He has been around few black people since we have been home (we live in a rural area that has just recently started becoming more diverse), but in hindsight, they have all been men or children. None of them have been girls close to the age of the nanny that he was so attached to in Ethiopia. Was Seth drawn to Renida because she reminded him of his nanny? I suppose it is possible, but that isn't really what is bothering me tonight. I feel guilty.

Whenever asked, I am constantly telling people that Seth has adjusted so well that "it is as if he has always been here." And for us, this is true. In the last few weeks I have given hardly any thought to the people he left behind and how his memories are probably fading. He has attached to us so well that I have never even considered that he still misses his nanny and would like to be near her again. This is painful for me to type because there is a very small selfish part of me wants him to ONLY love me and ONLY miss me when I leave. That is not easy to admit, but it is true. It is so conflicting to selfishly wish your child had only loved you, yet at the same time pray that they never truly lose all the memories of the people that he loved before he met you. I really do wish that he would never lose those memories, but he will. That is sad for me, and it will be for him someday, too.

I debated with myself on whether or not I should post this. It is so tempting to only post the happy stuff when you are home with this beautiful child that you have been waiting and waiting for so long. But you know what? You will be sad sometimes after you are home... That is normal.

If at first you don't succeed, shouldn't you try doing it like your wife told you to do it?

Okay, so my friend April and I were just talking about the weird keywords that can lead people to your blog. I have had my fair share of interesting ones, but this one takes the cake:

I need to give a shout out to the person from Ontario, Canada who found my blog by searching for "touch his butt" in Google.

If you have no clue how I know this, my Statcounter at the bottom of the page will tell me what keywords (if any) someone searched for that lead them to this blog. It will also give me an idea of their general location and approximately how long they stayed to read my blog. This person stayed less than a second. That is a pretty short time to realize I am not what you're looking for...Why bother even clicking the link?

Anyway, in the interest of drawing more weird people searching for odd words and sayings, I leave you with this: boogers.

Have a good night, everyone!

Why do banks charge a fee on "insufficient funds" when they know there is not enough?

First, I want to congratulate all the families that have recently received court dates! The next couple weeks will be a whirlwind of congratulations as each court date is completed.

I have nothing of interest to anyone (other than me) to post. So, please feel free to stop reading here...

I hate gloomy weather. My mood firmly depends on sun and warmth, so expect this post to be anything but. However, I realized that I have not posted anything in a few days, so I should write about something.

Seth is doing good. Actually, he said Mom today while looking at me and then firmly presented a Dadda in the direction of his daddy. That was a good feeling.

He is also sleeping through the night, so that is beyond awesome.

That is it. I got nothin' else. Somebody give me a topic, I feel brain dead! I refuse to be one of those people that have nothing to talk about but their kids :)

Photos of Seth...

They all turned out so beautiful, I am not sure which ones to have printed!

Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are getting weak?

It is becoming increasingly hard to post these days. Man, I cannot wait until football season is over. Between band events (because the Taylor does color guard and plays the flute in the non-marching season), Varsity football games (because the Taylor does color guard) and Junior Varsity football games (because Taylor cheers), and chasing a fast little crawler around, I have decided that I am much too young to feel this dang old! (that, was a little salute to country music for all you fans out there!)

Our high school band is doing great though. At the last band competition, they took first in their division and brought home all but one award. Not bad for a small town band. Here is Taylor in her color-guard costume:

As of Monday, we will have been home from Ethiopia a whole month, but it feels much longer. We have settled in, for the most part. I am still relearning how to do things with a baby on my hip. I had forgotten that normal activities (like showering) really can become quite the chore...

Seth is definitely saying a few words. We weren't sure at first, but he makes it perfectly clear when he is "ALL DONE." It is so cute! Maybe it won't be when he is two years old and we are trying to get him to eat his broccoli, but for now it cracks us up.

I promised to share some of Seth's outings since he has been home. He loves being out and about, although lately we have noticed that he gets his fill of all the attention fairly quickly. Last night at our football game he turned his head whenever anyone tried to talk to him. Eventually, he started screaming and made it very clear he was sick to death of people being in his face. We brought him home and he was fine. This is kind of a new development, but to be honest I don't blame him... I would get sick of it too! At least he knows that when he is tired, he just needs to let us know and we will give him a much needed break.

Last week we visited a local zoo with Marissa and her kids. I think Seth had a good time, I know we did!



Here he is working out with his daddy:



This week we had a great opportunity to get together with some other moms (all adopting or have adopted from Ethiopia) and chat. I had a really nice time and Seth was reunited with his old buddy, Mikias, from his orphanage.


They did not go running into each other's arms (as I had planned), but it was very nice to see Joanna and Mikias. This was the first of many get-togethers for these two! Soon they will be playing together, rather then in the same vicinity of one another :)

It was also really nice to talk to all the other moms. I can't wait until we can all get together with ALL our children. So many of the moms will be traveling soon to get their little ones, so please pray for them.

Yesterday we went to my friend Amy's studio and had Seth's first photos taken. They turned out BEAUTIFUL! I will share them as soon as I get the go-ahead from the photographer. By the way, she is awesome and you can check out her blog here: Behind the Lens.
She would have a website right now, but her friend had to go get a beautiful little boy from Ethiopia in the middle of designing it... So, in the meantime, check out her blog :)

And just for kicks, check Seth out with his buddy Heath. Aren't they adorable?



I guess if I posted more often I wouldn't have so much to share in one post. I will try to do better about that!

Why don't psychics predict the winning lottery numbers and retire?

Apparently I have been tagged, which means that I now need to tell you eight things about myself that you do not already know about me. Thank you, Marissa :) Of course, this may be difficult because since I have started writing this blog I have been pretty much 'no holds barred' on randomly talking about myself. I will give it a shot...

1. I am a psychology student. That isn't the part that you don't know about me, however. The truth is, I am interested in psychology because I am just a teensy bit crazy. Okay, some of you may know this.

2. I have an aversion to all things nail (toe and finger) related. Do not show me your injured fingernail, I may pass out. Just finding a loose nail clipping on the floor will gross me out for weeks. I would rather deal with a deep, bleeding wound then a broken nail. Told ya I was a little crazy.

3. I love to try weird food. Anything odd and I will eat it. I have not found anything yet that I will not try. I do prefer that it be cooked, but the only steadfast requirement I have to date is that the item I am about to eat be dead.

4. I finally finished Harry Potter #7 the other day. Phew! That is the longest it has ever taken me to read a Harry Potter book.

5. I do not like to fly. I do fly, but it usually requires some sort of medication so I can either be asleep or distracted. That is an unfortunate fear for a missionary, huh?

6. I have a tattoo of a scorpion on my back. Yup, I am cool like that :)

7. I am going to bounce off of Marissa's post for this one: I HATE SNOW. If it did not snow all winter long I would be happy. It isn't even the cold that bothers me, I just hate that fluffy, wet, white stuff lying all over the place. I know, I know, I am the Grinch.

8. Until recently I had forgotten a few things about parenting a baby: you do not sleep, you cannot be sick, your house is always a mess, and you (in general) look like crap 99.9% of the time. For some of you this may not be true (God Bless ya!), but it certainly is for me. BUT...I am not complaining. I love having the little guy at home, he is a lot of fun. I am just going to have to learn to function with a baby a little better. It will come, right???

***

By the way, I am going to tag some people to do the same thing I just did in their own blog (so you will all FINALLY post something):
April , Jen, Cori, and Amy

Here are some gratuitous cute kid pics:

Seth being Saint-like (Hey, Kidus does mean Saint)


And here is the picture we decided to use for Taylor's school picture. I think it turned out really nice. She is so photogenic.




The next post I will fill you all in on Seth's various outings since he has been home and also how awesome Taylor's band is doing. Until then...