Happy First Forever Family Day Lukas!!!

What a special day! I can't believe that it has been a whole year since Luke was officially ours! In some ways it feels like it was only yesterday that we were in Vietnam picking him up. And then there are other days that I don't remember what it was like to not have him around. He is such a special little boy. It is amazing how much he has grown and changed this year. He has gone from a quiet baby boy that wasn't so sure of things to a confident toddler. He has blessed us so much.
Over the last month I have been reflecting a lot on our journey to become parents. I was remembering one of my lowest moments when we were doing infertility treatments. I had just found out that a friend was going to have a baby. I remember crying and crying that night - not because I was bitter that my friend was pregnant. I just wanted to be a mother to a child so badly. I was thinking about that night a few weeks ago and remembered that my friends baby was born three days before Luke. And I realized that at the same time this was happening to me there was a brave, loving woman half way around the world that could have been scared and confused as she was finding out that she was going to have a baby. I thank her so much for giving our son life and for loving our child so much to make an adoption plan for him. She is definitely a hero in my book.
Lukas has brought us so much happiness and joy. We are so thankful that God blessed us with him. He is definitely the right kid for our family.
I chose some pictures to do a Year-in-Review slide show. Enjoy! And for your viewing pleasure a little video clip. Most of you know that we were sick the night that we got Luke. Well, Daniel did a Luke documentary while we were in Vietnam. So here is Day 7's video clip. It is so funny! Note for future travelers: Please do not get scared about getting sick. We ate grapes and shouldn't have. Just make sure that you don't eat any fruit that was rinsed in the water!

Vacation Bible School and Other Stuff

This was the last night of Vacation Bible School. We had a great time. The crafts all turned out great and it was lots of fun watching the kids make them. Luke had an accident on Tuesday evening. He fell and busted his lip really bad. It bled and bled and bled. Now he has a really fat lip. He still enjoyed his first Vacation Bible School though.
Every night of Bible School the largest class got to throw water balloons at Daniel and another Daniel. The first night it was so funny because they were holding themselves. (See the slide show for a picture). They got smart and every other night put a blow up tube around their middle.
Tonight I was getting Luke's clothes changed to go play in the water. I put a swim diaper and swim shorts on him and we were walking over to the water. I felt all this water on me. I asked my mom if it was raining. Well, the swim diaper leaked and I was covered in pee. We got a kick out of that. I had on the same shirt that Luke pooped on almost a year ago! Fun times!
Dad, Mom and Jennifer came in yesterday. We aren't able to close on the house until tomorrow so we are going to try to get as much done as possible while they are still here.
In other news it was one year ago yesterday that we left for Vietnam to pick up our boy! Tuesday is our big day! Stay tuned for the blog update. I hope to have something for your viewing pleasure (if Daniel has time to do it)! Enjoy the pics from this week.

Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!

Okay, this is one of those things that I think could only happen to us. This morning I got a call from our loan place reminding us that we have a closing today. A couple hours later I got another call saying that the mortgage company our loan was going through was filing bankruptcy and we were not going to close today. The lady is locating a new lender and hopefully we will be able to close next week. So hopefully we will be home owners again next week!

The Dillon Run & A Visit to Nana & Papa's House

We went to Nana, Papa and Aunt Jen's this weekend for the Dillon Run and our monthly haircuts. When we got to mom & dad's they had gotten a slide for Luke and had it set up in the living room. His eyes lit up and that was the first place that he went. He slid and slid and slid some more. It was a hit!
On Friday we met some friends at the Dillon Run. We walked the 1K Fun Run/Walk. Daniel and Dad ran in the 5K. Dad ran the 5K in 25 minutes. Daniel ran it in 33 minutes and some seconds. He hadn't ran all summer. His face was as red as his shirt when he crossed the finished line but he did it! I was proud of them both.
In other news- We close on our house tomorrow. Mom, Dad and Jennifer are coming in to help us paint and lay tile. Before I knew we were buying a house I volunteered to do crafts at Vacation Bible School. So VBS is the following week. I am scrambling to get everything together. Some very nice ladies met at the church today and got one of the crafts all ready to go so I just have two more to go. You might pray that we stay sane through this process. I don't even have one box packed!!! I'll keep y'all informed as to how all this goes!
Oh, something else funny happened. Mom bought Luke an Elmo backpack for his birthday on Saturday. She made the mistake of showing it to Luke and couldn't get it back. So he has a new backpack that he has to take everyone. He looks pretty cute with it on his back! Pictures will come!

National Convention 2007

We are back home once again - and boy does it feel good! We've spent the last week in Little Rock for the National Free Will Baptist Convention. I've got to brag on my little guy for a minute. He is the BEST traveler. Both days we were traveling he did wonderfully. He even behaves while we are hanging out in the airport! He just had a couple not so great moments in the middle but nothing too bad at all.
We took five students with us who were competing. We had a Bible Bowl team, a monologue and a solo. The Bible Bowl made it to the semi-finals but got beat. Eryn placed second with her monologue!
We helped work a blood drive at the convention on Wed. Daniel didn't like that too much. He hates needles. He disappeared quite often.
The highlight of my week was going to a presentation for The Hanna Project. Looking at the pictures of the people that they ministered to in Africa brought tears to my eyes. There was even a 72 year old woman that went with them on that mission trip. That is amazing! It is my hope and prayer that our denomination will support this work and that it will reach many souls around the world.
It other news - We have a contract on a house to buy. We should close in a couple of weeks. Please be in prayer about that.
Our adoption agency - Dillon International has done some amazing work at Luke's orphanage. Click on this link to check out all the renovations.

Down and Out...And Elmo!!!

I thought that I would share some things that Luke is doing with you guys! Pretty much all day long I am hearing "Need Down", "Need Out", or "Need Elmo". He generally uses the down and out when we are holding him and he wants down or if he is in his booster seat and he wants out. We hear "Need Elmo" when we turn on the TV. A couple weekends ago when we were at my mom and dad's mom turned on the TV to find Luke a cartoon. He didn't approve of the cartoon and informed his Nana that he needed Elmo. He is just so cute!
Another new thing that he started a couple of weeks ago was getting in a football position. This is totally untaught by Daniel. Luke and his dad have had fun tackling each other in the living room floor. Really it is just Luke tackling Daniel. After Luke tackles Daniel he goes and helps him up. So cute!!
We caught some fireworks tonight. Luke loved them! I tried so hard to get a good picture of Luke watching them and got a whole bunch of funny ones instead. It was so dark outside and the flash was so bright we were making funny faces in all of them. I'm posting the picture of me and Luke making funny faces, but Daniel says I can't post the ones of him and Luke. They will count as bribery in the future though!Before the fireworks started there was music playing so of course our little man was dancing! That kid has rythym! Well, I guess that is all for now!

Happy Fourth of July!!!

We had a cook out and swim party tonight with our youth ministry. It started out really hot and we had a great time swimming. Luke swam for over an hour. Then the thunderstorm rolled in. The rain cut the swimming short. We didn't go watch the fireworks tonight since it was kind of nasty outside. A small town next to us is having their fireworks Sat. evening so we may go then. Luke saw some as we were leaving tonight and liked them so I think that he would really enjoy them!