Monday, December 17, 2012

Mommy Monday

Baby Dedication


This was a very special weekend for our family.  Sunday morning at Harvest Bible Chapel Spring Lake, we were part of the Baby Dedication ceremony.  Much of our family was able to attend and support us in this act of obedience to God's Word.  For those of you wondering, a dedication is not a baptism service...this will come later if/when Cooper makes the decision to surrender his life to the Lord.  The dedication service is about the commitment Richard and I are making by God's grace -

-to recognize that Cooper is God’s gift to us for a season;
-to raise Cooper in a Christian home;
-to train him the discipline and instruction of the Lord;
-to through our words and actions encourage him to one day trust Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord
 
As believers we are called to recognize that Cooper belongs first and foremost to God. God in His goodness gave Cooper as a gift to us. We not only have the awesome responsibility of caring for this gift, but also the wonderful privilege of enjoying His gift. Because Cooper belongs to God and was given by grace as a gift to us, it is only proper and appropriate that he be dedicated back to God. So Sunday morning,  Richard and I and our families presented Coop before God and our church, asking for grace and wisdom to carrying out our responsibilities. And to pray he might one day trust Jesus Christ as Savior for the forgiveness of sin.
 
Raising our child in the Lord was something that Richard and I committed to before we even started the adoption process.  So making this pledge in front of our church family was really just a way for us to proclaim publicly our already intentions.  For me the most meaningful part of the service was when our church family was asked to stand and commit to encourage Richard and I to be faithful to God, to assist us as we teach and train Cooper according to God’s Word, and most of all that they would pray for Coop, that God would show him favor and draw him to Himself, that he would one day repent of sin and place his hope and trust in Jesus Christ, through whom we have forgiveness of sins.  How awesome to know that we have the support of our Body helping and guiding and praying with us for our little guy!!
 
The Lord is faithful and during my time with Hime this week I was reminded of when the angel Gabriel visited Mary and told her "For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:37-38).  May I remember to be a servant to the Lord in the years to come...
 
In keeping with his regular style...here are a few of the pictures I took Sunday morning...
 
Hey...
Arrhh Matey...


Open mouth...
Hey what's that over there...


After 15 tries I finally got this one of him and Daddy...


 
What did I do to deserve the 2 cutest guys in the whole world?!?
 

Monday, December 10, 2012

Mommy Monday

One GREAT Morning...

This morning I knew that I wasn't taking Cooper anywhere too early.  So we got to do one of my favorite things...sleep in together.  Cooper slept straight through past 6 am and then started to fuss.  Richard was in the shower so I crawled out of bed and brought Coop in to cuddle with me.  By the time Richard finished Coop was getting hungry, so Daddy came and got him for his breakfast bottle.  After his bottle Richard brought him back in to me for some more cuddle time.  I wasn't sure if he would fall back to sleep, but after not too long his thumb went in and he went sound asleep.  So I took the liberty to fall asleep right along with him :).  We both slept til after 9 am.  What a nice way to start a long crazy holiday week!!  Probably later in the week we will take an afternoon nap together - hopefully he enjoys it as much as I do...

PS...for all the worried moms and grandmas out there, I have a cervical pillow with one core on each side.  That is where Coop sleeps in the big bed so that he can't role out and I can't role onto him.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Tardy Tuesday

The Outtakes

Not sure about your kids, but Cooper is not fond of us taking pictures of him!  In order for us to get one good picture, we usually have to take 5 or 10 or 15 shots.  Because we have so many of them, I decided I would share some...


Eyes closed and lots o drool

Droopy eyes
Hey...what's that over there


Mitten in mouth even though Mom just pulled it out




What? I was supposed to look at the camera?


Half a cry


Oooooo what's down there?!?
Hi Grandpa...
Ooooo look there's my foot
Wonder what's over there





My cousins looked but I saw something more interesting!



Hey Dad what's that on the TV
 
Not sure I like pumpkins :-b



You wanted the top of my head, right?

Could I look any more HUGE!
 


 
I moved everything...

Please don't take anymore pictures!!!!!




finger in nose


hand in front of face

stay still...impossible!

Yo, can you put that in my mouth

 

Haha...moved my hand

There were many more along the way...usually we delete most of them.  I think I will keep more in the future and give you another set of outtakes sometime soon :)