TOO OLD!

Before I get into the meat of the post, I want to give a quick update on our baby girl.  We just got our official number yesterday and we are #40 for our girl.  I was really hoping to be in the 30s for the New Year but we’re close, right?  There are ALOT of families who are waiting to travel (either first or second trip) so we’re hoping in the next couple months to see some good movement.  Once those families bring their kiddos forever home, it will open up more spaces in our transition home.

I think we’re going to go this weekend to pick out some color swatches for her room.  We still need to talk about what we really want to do in there (to see how much work I have to do :)  It will be a good amount of work no matter what as that room is a American-themed dark red room so it’ll take at least one coat of Kilz primer to block that color.  That should be a good late winter/early spring project.

Also, today was Christmas in Ethiopia.  Amber and Silas spent today making Ethiopian spiced honey bread and a stew for supper.  Silas tried a couple bites which is normal on anything new with him.  Hopefully, he’ll come to love his Ethiopian food.  We had fun celebrating tonight!  Tomorrow night will continue the celebrating as we’re going to an Ethiopian restaurant with a couple other families.

Silas helping his mama make the bread

The end result … well, part of it as the rest was in our bellies.

OK, so over the past couple days, I’ve really tried to figure out where the past 18 months have gone.  Silas has gone from a tiny baby who was not able to roll over to a boy who is the epitome of a ball full of energy.  His personality is so evident now.  His wanting to have me play with him when I get home from work - “Daddy, Silas, play blocks.”  “Hide and seek, daddy”, “Play chase, daddy”  I know there will be a day when that won’t be the case so I’m trying to remember that this season will be gone in a blink of an eye.

Before Christmas, Amber and I discussed that we would convert Silas’ bed after the new year.  The boy really doesn’t climb out of it (I say that even though he did this morning).  But we wanted to get prepared for potty training and for him to not have too many things introduced at the same time.  I can’t believe this day came today.  We hyped it up with him about his “big boy” bed.  And he seemed to really take to it.  But the real question remains … when did my little boy get old enough for this!?!?!

 

The before picture

One last picture of our big boy in his crib

The front is off … Silas is reliving all the memories of singing and playing in his crib when he was ‘trapped’

OK, Daddy, let’s get this thing on!

The conversion is complete.  Silas eyeing his new digs.

 

Seeing if he’s as comfortable in his new bed.  He was most happy being able to get his monkey out of his bed by himself and not having to ask us to get it.

He and I did our normal bedtime routine tonight … Bible Story, books, singing a couple songs, praying over him.  I laid him down in his bed and he stayed :)  We haven’t heard from him so we think he’s still in there.  Being that he sleeps upstairs and we’re downstairs, it’ll be interesting to see if there are any mornings where I wake up in bed, open my eyes and see him staring at me.  Actually, that’s not him.  He’d come into our room and yell, ‘DADDY, DADDY, DADDY … WHERE ARE YOU?!?!’  We had plenty of that experience when we traveled over Christmas as he stayed in his pack ‘n play in the same bedroom as us.

Alright, I need your thoughts … he’s 27 months and sleeps upstairs with us downstairs.  What should be the “rules” of getting up in the morning and after naptime?  He goes down our stairs on his own real well.  Should we tell him after he wakes up, to stay in his room and play until we come get him?  Should we let him come downstairs on his own?   Any other thoughts?  I’m leaning for him to stay in his room because he could wake up at the crack of dawn and I like my sleep :)

OK, here’s a couple other pics for ya…

To show you how much our boy has changed, here is a picture of him the first day we met him.  It was a rough go when we arrived back at the hotel with him.  We were in our room and he wouldn’t quit crying and these new parents didn’t know what else to do.  So, we finally remembered to ask God to help us (sad) and we prayed over him, to release anything that wasn’t from Him, and I took him outside.  The boy LOVED being outside and we sat on the steps for the majority of our time there … watching the trucks, vans, and life go by.  I’ll never forget it.

This is a pic of Silas showing off his new hat that his Mammaw.made him for Christmas

Playing in the snow up at Grandma and Grandpa’s,   The boy LOVES snow … he may enjoy eating it just as much as playing in it.

The eating snow was done on our deck after our first real snowfall this year.  We’re always on the lookout to make sure it’s fresh and clean.

Have a great weekend!  Melkam Ganna! Merry Christmas .... Ethiopian style!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

OK, I know I'm a horrible blogger.  Even worse, I haven't even been on my own blog for weeks.  So, I really have no idea what is going on with any of you.  Sorry.

However, Silas wanted to wish y'all a MERRY CHRISTMAS and I wouldn't let him on my laptop so I finally had to blog...hopefully, 2011 will result in more posts and updates of all these crazy thoughts going through my head.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Silas 2 year pictures

I can’t believe it’s been so long since my last post.  And the marathon seems so far away.  To tell the truth, I have not ran since the marathon. Not happy about that.  The main reason has been work.  Since the marathon, I have pretty much worked every night on a huge project/deadline.  This culminated Halloween weekend when my Friday-Sunday nights consisted of a 2am, 3am, and midnight work nights.  Nevertheless, I hit the deadline and am still playing catch-up at work and will be extremely busy through the new year…

However, in October, we did find time to do Silas 2 year pictures.  Kelsey did Silas’ pictures again.  She did his 1 year pictures last year and we loved them so we couldn’t think of anyone else we would want to do them.  In looking back at those 1 year pics, I can’t believe how TINY Silas was!  OK, If that wasn’t enough, Kelsey has decided to donate her photography services to help her brother-in-law/sister-in-law bring their daughter home from Ethiopia!  How cool is that?!  We got to meet Justin and Meredith when they were praying about their adoption.  They are using our agency, AGCI, and we can’t wait to see the daughter God destined to be in their family since the beginning of time…

So, if you’re local to middle TN, contact Kelsey through her blog and get on her schedule.  As you can see, she does great work and all proceeds go to Justin & Meredith’s adoption!  A win-win situation!

Below are a few (ok, A LOT so be ready to scroll … you’ll thank me later) of our favorite pics from the photo shoot…thanks Kelsey!

 

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!

OK, yesterday was the day that has been marked on the calendar for months.  Since June 4th when I signed up for the half marathon, there has been an internal clock for October 16th.  It honestly came much quicker than I thought it would.  It seems like only yesterday when I was laughing about this “opportunity.”  I knew running the 1/2 wasn’t my idea so when I’d jokingly talk about it with people, I knew it was a God invitation.  But I would decline it over and over again.  It wasn’t until Amber started telling others I *may* do it that I started to seriously consider it.  Really, God?  Me?  Run a half marathon?  The guy that hasn’t really ran in years except to get ice cream from Marble Slab.  This guy?  The guy who told Amber when she did a couple half marathons a few years ago that I would support her every way I could but would NEVER do one.  Were you not listening?  You got the wrong guy, God.  To me, it was the same conversation that Moses had with God on 1/1000th the scale.  Really God?  Me?  I stutter … I’m not a leader … I can’t lead these people out of Egypt.  I feel your pain Mo.

Nonetheless, I accepted the invitation/challenge on my birthday of all days.  And the training began.  It wasn’t really training in the beginning.  I had to get to a comfortable 3 miles even before thinking about training.  So for the next few weeks, I worked out to being able to “comfortably” run 3 miles.  I then found a 12 week training program for the half marathon so I had the plan.  I sent letters out letting family & friends know about our adoption, the orphan crisis, and me running the marathon for our adoption.  I asked people to pray for me and our daughter and if led, to sponsor me running the race.  The goal for the sponsorship was $3000.  Well, through His people, God met that before the race.  He is faithful!  Absolutely amazing!  So humbling as I described a couple stories before and I could tell you more and more of those stories.  We raised the goal to $3500 and I think we’ll hit that as well since we’re $100 from that and some people said they want to still sponsor me but haven’t gotten it to me yet.

Yesterday morning came way too early.  I was up at 5am to get ready.  The race started at 7am but we had to be parked before 6:30 as they were closing roads.  Amber decided to get up with me to go cheer me on with Silas.   We got Silas up at 5:40am as we wanted to leave the house by 6am.  As I was putting him down Friday night, we talked about getting up early for the race for sister.  (Side story but when we ask Silas who I ran for, he says ‘sister’ … LOVE IT).  So I turned the light on in his room and he slowly pops up and says, ‘Race?’ “Yeah, buddy, we gotta get ready for daddy’s race”.  ‘Yea Daddy!’ (what Amber and him had practiced for the race) “Thanks buddy!” … Wow, boy knows how to make his daddy smile :)

The drive to the race was uneventful.  We actually got there quicker than I thought we would.  We met up with my buddy Kris that ran the 10k with me.  He and his wife just got back from Israel and he wasn’t sure if he was going to run.  He ran over there but once they got home, he got sick.  So he had only ran once in about 2 weeks but he decided to still give it a go.

It was pretty chilly Saturday morning but it was perfect running weather.  But with that cold weather came one thing … having to pee.  Kris said the same thing.  This started the conversation of what he experience when he ran the Nashville half marathon last year.  This is probably TMI but I couldn’t believe it.  So, skip the rest of this paragraph if you want.  :) Kris was about 5 miles in to the race last year when the guy in front of him actually poo’ed on himself.  Down his leg and everything.  I’ve heard of competitive runners doing that because their time actually matters.  Kris is not a fast runner and for someone in the middle of the pack to do that was pretty hysterical/wrong/nasty/etc.  Anyways, back to my story … it was a couple minutes before the start of the race and I figured that once I started moving, the feeling would pass. 

Silas chugging his milk as we were hanging out before the race

Me and my boy pre-race.

Kris and I all smiles with no pain before the race

Silas stretching with me … his better stretches weren’t caught on camera but they were hilarious

The starting line…

Apparently Silas LOVED this pig.  I guess the pig was talking to another adult who was trying to fix his arm in the pig suit.  Silas just kept pulling on his leg yelling ‘pig, pig, pig’ until the pig finally turned around.  Silas was so generous to offer up his little dinosaur to him…

The gun goes off and here we go.  The moment that all that training had been for had begun.  It didn’t take long for the crowd of runners to spread out and for me to get him my normal pace.  I warmed up quickly and felt pretty good.  Each mile always feel farther when it’s not on your own turf.  Well, I get to mile 2 and still gotta pee.  I see porta-johns but decide to keep going.  The first 6 miles or so actually felt pretty good.  My pace was about normal for me.  I did the first 6.3 miles in 1:04:33 which is a 10:15 pace. 

Amber and Silas met me right around the 6.5 mile mark. 

Kris running by the same spot a couple minutes later.  Interesting how he’s all smiling … I don’t think I had a smile anywhere after 5 miles.

So Amber had to entertain Silas for the race … pictures became one way of doing that along with eating breakfast, playing, etc.  Here are a few of the pictures from the wait…

I love this picture!

Mama and Silas waiting for me to run by

Silas about to practice his running … on your mark, get set, GO!

Here he comes!

Look at the concentration and determination.  We may have ourselves an athlete here.  He’s definitely QUICK!

How can you not love that boy!?!

The next 6.8 miles were another story compared to the first 6.3.  Especially the last 2 miles.  I was really starting to wear down and still had to pee (sorry for all the pee talk).  I decided at mile 11 to stop to go.  BAD MOVE.  By stopping my lower back and calves thought it was time to lock up.  I could not get them loose again.  I did a run/walk for the last 2 miles.  I’d walk and try to stretch them out but it didn’t really work.  There was definitely alot of praying and alot of thinking about my baby girl.  As I said on Facebook, I was praying for the rapture those last 2 miles.  Come now LORD JESUS!  :) 

 

About 1/4 mile to the finish line!

AHHHH … there it is!

All that matters is that I finished!  That’s the main thing.  And my goal was 2:20.  Can you guess my time???  2:19:39!! I’m telling ya … God is faithful!

My buddy Kris finished in 2:27:52 which was a personal best for him … which is incredible being that he had only ran once in 2 weeks.

After the race by the finish line

Kris and I after the race … yes, that is about as fake of a smile as you’ll see out of me.

How am I feeling today?  Sore as you can imagine.  My quads are pretty painful and stairs are my worst enemy.  Nevertheless, I’m alive and well.  And it’s fun to tell the God story … the marathon is just the instrument God used to see if I would be obedient to Him.  It’s crazy to see how close I was to saying no … who am I kidding … I did say no many times … His grace let me finally say yes to Him.

So some things I learned from this race….

• I hope to not see that much of the town on foot again
• If I do ever do a race again and gotta pee, bite the bullet and go early on in the race
• I already knew this but Africans can flat out fly (guy that won it is from Kenya and his time was 1:05:43 (that’s 5:01 miles!)
• If God invites you into something that you have no real desire doing, He will carry you through it.

So here’s the real question– What is God inviting you to and you’ve been telling him He’s got the wrong person??  It’s funny that we think that the One who created us doesn’t know us or what is best for us.  If I could suggest something to you … respond today with “Here I am Lord, send me!”  He will guide you, direct you, lead you.  I am living proof of that.

Thanks again to all you who have sponsored me, encouraged me, and prayed for me.  I sincerely could not have done it without you.  THANK YOU!