Orphan Sunday

Hi Everyone! Remember to say a prayer for the orphans today. Today we are doing our part to create awareness for 145 million orphans worldwide. For more info on how you can help, check out this website.

First Halloween

Nate dressed up as a football player or as he likes to say a "but-ball" player.

Seventeen Months

Our 17 month old plays hard and thankfully sleeps hard. His new favorite thing is sports. He loves watching baseball or football with daddy. He cracks up laughing when the football players tackle each other. He also claps along with the crowd at the good plays. He has even starting working on his pitching skills and will twirl around before he throws a ball now. Nate also started Mother's Day Out recently and loves it! He has made many new friends and likes to give them plenty of hugs.

Some funny things that he is doing now include:
1. Saying "Hi Dude" and "Bye Dude".
2. Making mean eyes (squinting) when you tell him no.
3. Counting "1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2".
4. Singing the mama or dada song, "mama, mama, mama, mama".
5. Imitating the dog by barking and panting.

Things Mom Has Learned:
1. Onesies should not be made in sizes greater than 12 months. They just lose all their baby cuteness on a tall toddler.
2. That it is okay to have teachable moments in public. When your child is screaming in public because you have told them no, do not give in even when you get the stares from others. I once had a sales clerk try to appease Nate from his tantrum. Seriously, does she think that she knows my child better than I do! No means no, even in public. And, it is payback from all of those times when other annoying toddlers have bothered us!
3. The embarrassment of the 'mom flash'. Ladies, you know what I am talking about. When you are out in public and your child pulls down the top of your blouse or raises up the bottom of your skirt. Usually your hands are full and it takes a while to juggle all of your things and reposition your clothing. Meanwhile countless strangers have seen things that are better left covered. With motherhood, modesty goes completely out the window.

Adopted For Life

I recently finished "Adopted for Life" by Russell Moore, and I highly recommend it to anyone. And I don't mean just families considering adoption. The subtitle of the book is "The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Children." So, as the title suggests, the author very thoughtfully lays out the theology of adoption in the Bible and carries that to its logical conclusion: that Christians have a duty to adopt or encourage adoption among fellow believers.

He writes, "I want to ask what would it mean if our churches and families were known as the people who adopt babies - and toddlers, and children, and teenagers. What if we as Christians were known once again, as the people who take in orphans and make of them beloved sons and daughters?" As has been stated here before, we Christians have been redeemed in Christ and adopted into the family of God (Romans 8:15-17). How could we receive that grace vertically, and not want to bend it out horizontally to the fatherless?

Seven Years Ago Today....

A few photos of Nate at 14 mos.

Photography by hm photos

Nate's First Time at the Beach

he LOVED it!

The Nater Tater

Nater Tater, aka Nate, is 15 months old now. Some of his favorite things to do are bathe, dance, and play fetch with our dog. His vocabulary is evolving from babble into understandable English. When asked, "What is your name?", he replies with "Nat!" He loves to give hugs and kisses, and we love to take as many as we can get! He says "muh" when he plants a kiss on you. He is 25lbs and 32.5 inches.

Things Nate has learned:

• To say words including: dog, ball, hot, yeah, no, amen, and emmit (aunt Kelle's dog)
• To run
• To climb onto couch and chairs
  
• Walk up and down stairs holding handrail
• Follow simple instructions such as "Put your toys in the toy chest"
• Messily eat with a spoon and drink from a cup
  

Things mom has learned:

• A bad haircut on your child is just as traumatic as a bad haircut on yourself. Nate had his first haircut at 14 mos old. What part of "trim" did the stylist not understand? Nate left the salon with a bald head. All of his curls were gone. Mom remained in a depressed state for a few days but thankfully as kids grow so quickly so does their hair.
• Discipline is much harder than I imagined. My parents were right when they said, "This is going to hurt us as much as it hurts you." Nate's strong will has already shown its ugly self, but the poor child has yet to understand that his mother's will is so much stronger than his own!