Asher Blogs

Hi guys. Me Asher here. 

Oh, there you are. Nice to see you. 

I'm excited because Mom said I can start blogging now. Without her. 

I mean, I'll still ask her permission because I am the perfect child. 

At least I want her to think that so she's looking the other way while I'm getting into trouble. 

Because what fun is life without a little trouble? 

Exactly. 

Yeah. I know you know what I'm talking about. 

I'll let you in on a little secret. When I'm at the park, and the conditions are perfect ...

I try to eat mulch. 

What?

It's organic. 

Uh oh. 

Gotta run. Mom's coming.  

I'll be back soon. 

blurry fun at the park

Friday we went to Ikea, where Asher told me {in not so subtle language} that he does not love Ikea as much as I do. Which is sad, because he's been before and didn't tell me that then.  Anyway, as some sort of plead with him to like Ikea again, I promised him a trip to a park. Good thing we have a GPS! We found one right down the road and went and played. 

Life is always much better after playtime. This is actually the first time he's actually laughed out while enjoying the baby bucket. He's been in them before, but he either stares at his feet, or watches drool hang from his lip to the ground or tires of it easily. But on that glorious Ikea day, He laughed and I pushed him pretty high. Well, pretty high for a 13 month old, in my own opinion. 

Sorry the picture is wonky/janky/distorted but I took it with my iPhone and there's a bit of a delay and he was swinging pretty fast. It took several attempts and when I finally did get a good one, I also laughed out loud and immediately emailed it to everyone I could think of. Sorry I didn't think of you then.  Forgive me? 

Asher's day got infinitely better as we went to Grandmama's after this and he had a HUGE cookie. He sat in her lap for half an hour calmly licking one side, then the other. {He licked the cookie, not Grandmama.} Then he went to Willie's with some grandparent-type people where he was smothered {with both food offerings, waves, and blown kisses} to his heart's content. He had three chicken fingers, half a cup of puffs, six packages of crackers, a fruit cup, and many many fries. 

the results are in

Well, the voting is finished. Lots of you told me you voted! Yay for you. Thanks for putting up with me and my blogging issues.

It turns out, more than 75% of you are adoption-related readers. I was kinda surprised by this! I really thought we had more friends and family, but I'm also thinking a lot of them didn't vote. {Shame on you silly people.} This means a lot of this content will remain adoption related. I think. At least, that's what the statistics say should be on the blog.  One of you said you were not adoption-related, and not a friend or family, and not a stranger. So now I am trying to think if that makes you a non-friend ... unfriend ... or an alien. Or maybe a zombie. If you are a zombie, please let me know because Justin has been waiting to meet a zombie for a really long time. It will be great. I promise.

The amazing thing is that hardly any of you (only 2) wanted all adoption related stuff ... so that is great, because I like to talk/write about all sorts of stuff. And now I feel like you will be less disappointed with me. There are a handful of you though (20%) who said they wanted more pictures of Asher and less of me talking. You are going to be disappointed. There will still be pictures of Asher. Don't worry. The world. Would. Stop. if we stopped taking pictures. But I'm afraid there will probably be more talking. And after the positive response to my all writing no pictures of Asher post, I'm ok with it and it will maybe happen more often. I have a lot of stuff like that all bottled up waiting to come out. Good thing, because I'm holding the three quarters of you who said you're completely smitten with GGG and devour everything here. So please keep coming back. And sending nice emails and comments. Those go a long way with me.

Here are some things coming up to look out for--
1. More updates more often: I am really looking forward to this now that I feel like I can color outside the lines of just adoption stuff. It's my blog, but for some reason I felt I needed permission. It's probably inherited from my perfect childhood and teenager-domness years. Yep. That's my story.
2. Our actual time in Ethiopia: It occurred to me recently that I never actually blogged about that. So hip hip hooray for something all of you will like. Me talking + lots of cute pictures of Asher.
3. More posts from my heart: I'm in pruning season. {This will be explained more fully in an upcoming post, but if you're dying for a head's up, check out John 15.}
4. Asher blogs: Yep. You read that right. Stay tuned for a series {yes, a series!!!} of blog posts written by Asher himself. It's going to be a great way to get to know him better. He's really excited about it.
5. Labels: You might not think this is very exciting, but if you're looking for all the posts about waiting, days at the park, or words only {yeah right, nobody is going to search for those!} then you'll be able to locate them much easier. This is going to be a big project for me, but I'm going back to the beginning and labeling each and every post. Just for you. Because you love Asher. And put up with me.
6. Sneak Peeks: It might be a sneak into part of our day, part of our weekend, or part of our next big plan, because nell ann likes to hold stuff over you we like to show a little love to our fan club. Ok, fine. Asher's fan club.

And because I feel like maybe you stuck with me and read this whole post, the next one will have pictures as your reward. I'm big into rewards. Real big.

shutting doors

We try to give the manchild a little freedom here in our house. He can wander through most of it most of the time. It's a little hard for me to deal with sometimes, but I am adjusting. Slowly. 

We keep our bedroom door closed because we can't see him if he goes in there. And if he goes in there, he's headed for the bathroom. One of his favorite games is to empty out all of Mommy's drawers. We play this game everyday while Mommy gets ready, and well, there's nothing dangerous {is mousse dangerous?} and it keeps him right under my feet so I know where he is. But it's not fun to walk into the bathroom ... to this ... 

We also keep the front bathroom closed because he likes to try and get into the bathtub or eat the little plastic covers from the toilet {you know, the thing that covers the bolts on the floor?}. Yuck.

Also the laundry room. He likes to crawl through piles, resort laundry, pull things out of the dryer, open the door, close the door, etc.

Oh, and the pantry. He can't reach his snacks, but there are lots of other ways for him to get in trouble, so we've been practicing closing doors.

He'll walk up to the pantry if it's open and I'll ask him to close it, and he will, and we are all happy because he's such a good helper. Same with the dryer. When I'm done putting things in {and reputting the things that he's taken back out} then he gets to close the door.

Problem: I leave his bedroom door open so he can grab a toy or look out the window or whatever. It's his room, he should be able to play in there, right? Twice already this morning and once yesterday he's gone into his room, seen the open door, and closed it. Then he's not very happy because he's in there by himself and can't open the door.

Maybe we need a little doggy door so he can escape?
Bad idea.

if you're waiting...

It's no secret that I keep a prayer journal. Well, maybe it was unknown to you, but it's not anymore. I often go back through and have myself a little looksie. Today, I wanted to see what I was praying about a year ago. We'd already received our referral, but we still hadn't heard a court date I don't think. When we did receive our court date, I was terribly upset because it was so far away. Most of the families with referrals right around ours had much closer court dates, and we were in for a long wait. I had been studying about worship and what true worship meant, and how we can worship through any situation in our life. I stumbled across an entry during this time period, and it made me think of some of you who are waiting. So I'm going to gird  myself in bold courage, and share some of my deepest moments with the Lord. 

March 11, 2009

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. --Psalm 27:14

You say, I choose the appointed time; it is I who judge uprightly." --Psalm 75:2

It is 54 days until our court date for Elyas, Lord and I am choosing to wait for you. I will be strong. I will put my hope in you; in you who deserve all my faith. I will praise you because You are strong. You can handle my issues. Father, it is you who is in charge of time. Your timing is perfect. You choose the perfect time. Your judgment is righteous. I trust you, God, and you alone. I give you this boy and his life and his future. They always have been and always will be yours. You remember him. You love him. You protect him. 

You, Lord, are full of glory. You sit on a throne of praise. You are holy, so holy. You are God. You deserve praise and are worthy of our worship. We worship you alone. We repent to prepare our hearts for time with you. 

Thank you for your peace. Lord, I know we could not have made it this far without you. Thank you for providing an agency and social workers. Thank you for our beautiful son, and the promise of family. Thank you for adoption, both in our family and into yours. Father, I am so excited to go on this journey with you. I am excited to see where you want to take this family and how we'll see you work in the world. I pray Lord that I always give you the glory. PRAISE YOU GOD for all that you've done. PRAISE YOU for all that you're going to do. We praise you because of who you are. 

For those of you waiting for referrals, for court, or that short wait to travel --

be strong

take heart

and know that Lord is never late. 

He is never surprised by the outcomes of court. 

He is never unaware of how you feel. 

He never forgets your child. 

The Lord longs to be gracious to you; 

he rises to show you compassion.

For the Lord is a God of justice.

Blessed are all who wait for him!

                      -- Isaiah 30:18

Dedication :: A Huge Picture Post

I know what you're all thinking. Finally! She's going to post some pictures from that big party! Sheesh! Took her long enough. Well, fooey on you, because it took me about ten million years to narrow down the choices (yes, this is actually narrowed down!) and also another billion million years to upload them all to blogger. Holy Moly. So, shut your traps  sit back and enjoy the show. (And my dumb comments, or you may ignore them if you prefer.)

Yep. Lots of food. Good stuff. 

(Sidenote: I ate those lemon bar leftovers all by myself, as evidenced on my left and right thighs.)

Love this little guy. He's all clean and ready to party.

Somehow, all the menfolk ended up babysitting. Hmmm. How to make that happen again???

MeMaw and Grandmama 

Asher's very own cake.

There was a little hand holding. 

And a little smoochin. 

We are blessed. (Oh, and check out that fancy mantlepiece.)

We had the ceremony in our yard, in front of our family, friends, neighbors and the whole world. 

This is our cousin, Jason. He officiated. It was sunny.

I'm pretty sure this is everybody. There were a few stragglers who came in late, so they aren't pictured. 

Time for the good stuff. Dig in. 

Asher's very first ever cake!!!

He liked to ooze it between his fingers. 

One bite and he's already comatose. 

Then we see the shove method kick in. 

I do not like this hat! This hat is distracting from my focus on the cake!!

Eh, well, I'm going to have to be more focused. 

With the hat out of the way, cake gets in the hair. Just like everything else. 

I love you PawPaw Earl, but don't even think you're getting any of my cake.

Pure cakey bliss. 

Mimi and Grandpa

(Special thanks to Grandpa because he is the only one who helped Mommy clean me up. 

And boy did I need some cleaning!!!)

More smoochin.

Still hungry. 

That cake (and all the food I had before the cake) did not fill me up.

I have hollow legs, I'm telling you! Don't judge me!

Thanks for coming to my party! Or for looking at all of these pictures. If this wasn't enough, you can actually see all 215 photos on facebook (in two albums). Thanks! Oh, and if you haven't voted (in the top right corner, two different polls) then please do so! Consider this post and all these pictures your thank you and reward.

Another special thank you to Starshine Photography for all these great shots (and the rest on FB). Tracy is a complete joy to work with and her hubband is fun, too. {Some of these photos are on the website!}

seven things

This post was originally written August 2009, but for some reason was never published. Bummer. Here you go anyway. Lucky you. 





Here are some seven things about our boy:

(I picked seven because he's seven months old...)

Likes:

1. Fruit

2. Lotion (twice a day)

3. Bathtime and Splashing

4. Sleeping in his carseat

5. Snuggling

6. The Itsy Bitsy Spider

7. Jumping

Dislikes:

1. Meat flavor baby food

2. Not being able to see Mommy or Dada, but still hear their voice

3. Losing his pacifier in the middle of the night

4. That's all. He's super happy. 

5. Hate me. 

6. It's not my fault.

7. I prayed for him to be happy. And God answers prayer. : )

Favorite Toys:

1. Mommy

2. Dada

3. Johnny Jump Up

4. Exersaucer

5. Photobook of Mommy and Dada

6. Links

7. Stackable Donuts

Best Ways to Make Him Laugh

1. Tickling!

2. Smiling really big

3. Singing Itsy Bitsy Spider

4. Blowing on his belly

5. Squeezing his thighs

6. Playing Peek-A-Boo

7. Changing his diaper

oatmeal :: take 2

Remember when I became the funnest mom ever? Yeah, me too. Anyway, here, as promised, is a post chock full of pictures.  {Warning: this post contains nudity. Well, none that you will see, but beware, just the same.}

Enter oatmeal.

Yep. That was fun. We all know what happens next. 

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Enter bath.