Week in Review

I figured I better recount the past week+ since I've been slacking... man, you 'real' bloggers, I don't know how you do it!

Last Friday night, we had friends over for dinner. These friends are special friends as they have adopted their daughter (domestic) and are now on the waiting list for another domestic adoption! Adoptive families have an instant bond ... especially Christian adoptive families because of the call of God on their lives. We could not get Silas and Kate to get a great pose together....

The best picture I could get of Silas and Kate! I think Kate's mom and dad have a better one so we'll have to get it from them.

This pretty much tells the tale of trying to get a picture of them together ... each going in their own direction :)

The mommies lovin' on each others' babies

Saturday Amber and I took Silas to the park. Our road dead-ends into the park which is so fun and convenient for us. It's so easy to walk down there and watch a little league game or play on the playgrounds. Silas loves watching the other kids play ... that's our observant boy!

Having fun in the tunnel

Lovin' the slide

Behind the 'window' of the play area ... at least there was no glass for him to streak there :) ... the boy loves rubbing his hand on our windows and making them squeak.

We then went to church that evening ... our church does Saturday night service as well to make room for folks on Sunday morning ... we actually like going Saturday night now ... it took a little while to adjust but we know that if our seats our open on Sunday morning, that's 2 more people that can know Jesus and turn their lives over to him!

Right before leaving for church.

We had nothing planned for the day on Sunday ... which was real nice. We hung out around the house, I mowed, and we got a few cute pics of Silas.

Hanging out with his monkey ... this is the monkey we sent to him in Ethiopia ... he LOVES it. I'm not sure if it's something that is a security for him or not ... but anytime he sees it, he's gotta love on it.

One of his favorite positions .... upside down!

Chow Time!

Bath Time!

I also took pictures on Sunday of things we don't have stored away from our shopping day in Ethiopia and totally forgot to post them on the Shopping Day post ... so here they are :)

Amber's purse

Salad utensils

Giraffes for his room

His Ethiopian outfit that he's wearing tonight for his Baby Dedication!

One of his hats

Another one of his hats

Sunday late afternoon we had a meeting for Silas' baby dedication at church. We decided to put him into nursery for the first time ... they said he cried some but they got him calmed down. Not that we want to know he cried but it is good to know that he is/has bonded with us and he's sad when we're not around. We're excited for this opportunity to go before God and publicly declare our intentions of raising Silas to know Jesus. We want him to know Him very early in life so he can make the decision to follow Him and understand the plan Jesus has for his life.

On Monday, Amber's mom (aka, Mammaw) came down for the night as she was flying out Tuesday to Texas to visit her son (Amber's brother) and daughter-in-law. It's funny how her flights seem to always leave from Nashville now. Some little Ethiopian has something to do with that, I think :)

Silas and Mammaw

On Tuesday Amber had him hanging out in his room. Since he is still sleeping in our room, he's not up in his room much yet, especially since it's on the 2nd floor. We plan to transition him to his room next weekend so hopefully he likes his digs, his crib and actually sleeping on a mattress rather than in his pack 'n play.

Happy boy in his room

Still not sure what to think about the monkey bean bag!

Peek-a-boo!

Being a 'big boy' on the bed we have in his room for when we sleep in there with him (I'm sure we'll need to be in there more than he needs us in there)

On Wednesday night, Amber's dad (aka Pappaw) came down to visit. He had seen Silas only for about an hour on July 4th, so it was great for him to spend a few days with him!

Pappaw and Silas

SQUEEEEEZE!!!!

On Friday, we had a friend in town that wanted to meet Silas (oh, and see us too! :) ... we totally get that we are backseaters now ... Silas is the star of the show now ... we know, we think he is too! :)

Meghann and Silas

Saturday consisted of play time in the morning and then we went to Long Hunter State Park. We had never been there before but knew Silas would love seeing the water. We did a 2 mile walk around the Couchville Lake and then headed back home for a nap and church. This was the first 'real' time of putting him in the nursery for service. Our church has little screens to show your child's number if they need a parent to come to the room. We never saw our number pop up ... not for not staring at the screen enough :) They said he cried off and on which we figured he would do. We went and grabbed a bite to eat and finished it off with some ice cream ... Silas loved my nutter butter peanut butter cup ice cream :)

Pappaw and Silas getting some play time in before his nap and going to the park

"I love playing with Pappaw!"

Pappaw, Silas, and Mommy after our walk in the park

Today we got up, had breakfast ... Silas is a fan of pancakes which is a good thing in this house :) We said goodbye to Pappaw, had some playtime, naptime, lunch, and then went for a walk in the park.

Saying goodbye to Papaw.

THE STARE-DOWN! I think Silas won...

An afternoon nap (wish all these naps included me!) before our Baby Dedication at church. Wow. Thirty-nine babies were brought to the LORD tonight. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. We love our church and the focus and resources they (we) put on the children of the church. They are not the church of the future ... they are the church NOW! It was great ... we met a couple other adopted families dedicating their kiddos. The Lord has laid it on our hearts to start an adoption small group at our church so we're hoping to start it in September. A few families we've talked to about it have been excited so that is just confirmation of God's invitation ... I can't wait to see what God will do through that group.

The three of us at church ... with Silas in his Ethiopian outfit!

Introduction of Silas on the big screen

Pastor Jim annointed Silas and prayed over him. We LOVE Pastor Jim ... he is head over all the children ministries and his heart for children is second to none. Every week he sees us, he asks us how 'his boy' is doing ... when we went up on stage, he said he was hoping to get to pray over Silas (Jim and our Senior Pastor were both praying over the babies) ... we were happy too ... he is a great man of God.

Silas wasn't into the prayer much ... he enjoyed just looking out at the congregation. He was very good though for the service ... especially since it was supper time for the boy.

Right after the Dedication, we drove to the airport to pick up Amber's mom/Mamaw from her visit in Texas. She's staying the night tonight to get more Silas time before heading back to Indiana tomorrow.

Silas is doing so great ... there is no one except our LORD that we can thank for that. Silas is bonding great ... his bottom two teeth seem to be pushing further up each passing day ... he's eating everything we give him ... we haven't found anything he doesn't like :) ... he's taking less of his bottle which is great too ... means he's getting more full on food. He's slept through the night the past 2 nights ... that may have been from playing hard ... but hopefully said food is staying with him longer. He's getting quicker with his commando crawl. He's getting up more and more on hands and knees (thanks to his therapy sessions with his mommy). He can actually pull himself up kinda on our coffee table ... this has led to a couple 'falls' and head bumps which have scared him but not really hurt him. A minute of crying and he's ready to try again :). Thank you LORD JESUS for our son!

Whew, ok ... think I'm caught up ... at least for a minute! I can't believe August will be here this week ... crazy! Where did July go!?!?