Worship/Baptism at The Cove

Every summer, our church holds a Sunday morning worship service at a local park known as "The Cove". This park is beautiful and is right beside the lake! The service is a wonderful outreach opportunity because it is very laid back and presents a great opportunity to invite people to join us for worship! Today was the Cove worship service and it was an absolutely beautiful day! At the end of every Cove Park service, there are always baptisms in the lake. Beckett has been watching these for the last 4 years. I remember the first time we took him down to the lake and watched the baptisms....he sat on his dad's shoulders so he could see and we talked with him about the meaning of baptism. Back in June, right before we left for Ethiopia, Beckett came to know Christ and began a personal relationship with Him! Today, he made a public profession of his faith by being baptized in the lake. What a blessed day, as Sean baptized him and I was right there to kiss and hug him as he came up from the water. All of the pictures that I'm sharing on my blog were taken by friends. Thanks to Sarah, Kayce and Olivia for these great shots!

This first one was taken from behind the crowd that had gathered to worship. If you look right in the middle, way up front, you can see our pastor on the stage. We spoke with one of our pastors after the service and he said that almost 1,400 people came to worship today!
These three boys have been friends for several years. On the left is Matt, then Beckett and on the right is Wheat. All three boys chose to be baptized today and that made the day even more meaningful!

Here is a great picture that my friend Olivia took! (She is an amazing photographer!) She took this picture of all of the people who were being baptized as they stood in front of everyone just before we made our way over to the lake. They announced each person's name who was being baptized and Beckett, Wheat and Matt all stood beside each other with their dads. I LOVE how Olivia edited this picture to make everyone a little bit blurred except the three friends!

This picture was made right before Sean baptized Beckett.

And after. "Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life." Romans 6:4

Olivia got this neat shot between some kids who were watching everyone get baptized. You can see Sean and Beckett right in the middle.

Thanks to Nana, Papa, Kathy and Marley for coming to share this day with us. Thanks also to our friends who made a special effort to find Beckett, hug him and congratulate him. It was truly a blessed day!

Helen's First Day of Mother's Day Out

OK, so to be politically correct, I guess you are supposed to call it Parent's Day Out, but I still say it's for moms! Anyway, on Tuesday morning, Helen went to her first day of MDO and she loved it! She has never been in an organized class/school-type setting other than Sunday School, so we are so happy that she has this opportunity to go and play with friends and have fun! (She will do a little bit of learning too, but that isn't the focus!) She had a great day on Tuesday and couldn't wait to go back today! Here are some pics of our big girl before we left the house on Tuesday morning.

Showing off her back pack with matching lunch box attached!
She wanted a picture with Will, too. She always asks me why I don't take him out in his pajamas. She tells me that she sees other babies in their PJ's in public, so why can't Will? It's not that I'm opposed to it or anything, there just hadn't been an opportunity for him to be out and about in his pajamas. So....just for Helen....I let Will wear his PJ's to drop her off that morning!

After I picked her up, we headed to Sonic for a Jr. Sundae to celebrate her first day!

A couple of updates....Will had his appointment today with the ENT and had the scope procedure done where the little camera goes up his nose and down his throat. It went as smoothly as possible with only a little bit of crying. Dr. Belmont discovered that Will has a mild case of larangomalacia which is literally known as a "soft larynx". It means that the soft cartilage of the upper larynx collapses inward during inhalation, causing airway obstruction, which is what makes the "rattle" sound. He will eventually grow out of it and will not need any type of medical intervention! Praise the Lord! When Dr. Belmont checked his ears, he STILL had a severe ear infection, so Will began his fifth round of anti-biotics since he has been home! This is one nasty infection! We'll go back for a re-check in ten days! Hope this one does the trick!

Update on Beckett....he has been having a wonderful time in St. Louis with my mom, dad and aunt. They have been to (and up in) the Arch, they've been to a Cardinals baseball game, visited the zoo, been to Union Station and an art museum. I'm sure he will update his blog when he returns with many great stories!

10 Months Old....Celebrating With "Old" Friends!

Helen, Will and I returned to LC last night after a quick 24 hour trip to B-wood to drop Beckett off with Granbob and Grankaki. They are heading out this morning on a trip to St. Louis to do some sight-seeing, baseball game watching and hopefully a little bit of learning! :) While we were there, we were able to get together at Chic-fil-a with Will's buddies from Hannah's Hope in Ethiopia! These three cuties were all at AGCI's transition home together and they were all headed home to Tennessee! 10 weeks ago, we met our babies in Ethiopia and yesterday, we got them together for some play-time, some catch-up time for the parents, and some serious picture taking time! Will also turned 10 months old on Monday! What a great way to celebrate....with his "old" friends from ET! It was so great to see Lucy Lane and Silas and their families yesterday! We are blessed that these sweet babies live so close that we will be able to get them together through the years and allow them to develop friendships that will grow from a common bond that they have from their early months in Ethiopia!

Here they are in their high-chairs, getting ready for some breakfast!

Silas, Lucy Lane and Will

Then we got them down on the floor in the play room and took a bunch of pictures! It was hard to get them all to sit still! Silas and Will are on the move and wouldn't be still for long! I love how Will seems to be patting LL's leg in this picture!
This kept them all occupied for a moment so we could snap a few shots! Love those sweet legs!

And here they are from the other direction! How fun!

Looks like Silas had something important to share with Will!

Will seems to be thinking, "hey man, you sure look familiar!"

(Check out their matching shirts! I didn't get a good close up of them, but I will! A sweet friend, Betsy, made them for the three friends!. They say, "Adoption Rocks" with each of their names around the circle! Too cute! Checkout her blog, Lollidrops and look at all of her cute designs!)

What a couple of cuties!! Our case manager told us that these two used to lie on the floor and roll back and forth into each other during their days at Hannah's Hope! On Monday, they were standing next to each other! Sweet!

The whole crew at Chic-fil-a! The brothers and sisters had fun, too!

Lucy Lane with Kristi, Will and me, Silas and Amber! It was great to see these ladies again! (And Troy too! We were glad he could get away from work for a little bit to visit with us as well!) I'm so glad that we live close enough to these friends that we will be able to continue to get these babies together on a regular basis! Such a bond that they will share through the years!

Happy 10 months, Will! So glad we got to celebrate with your buddies!

I put this song by Point of Grace on my play-list because I think it is perfect for these friends. Here is the chorus and one of the verses....

In a circle of friends, we have one Father

In a circle of friends, we share this prayer

That every orphaned soul will know, and all will enter in

To the shelter of this circle of friends!

--------------------

Among the nations tribes and tongues we have sisters and brothers

And when we meet in Heaven

We will recognize each other

With joy so deep and love so sweet

We'll celebrate these friends and a life that never ends!

Friday/Saturday Fun!

Just a few pictures from the last two days! Helen, Will and I went to Cracker Barrell for breakfast yesterday. We always have to sit in the rocking chairs on the front porch!

I let Helen take this one of Will and me. It was pretty off center and not a great pic of me, but when I looked closer, Will had the best smile!
So, I cropped it and it looks MUCH better!
Last night we went to Jill's for a family cook-out and some swim time! I love this picture of Helen as she gets up her courage to jump in to her daddy. I love how they are reaching for each other! So sweet!
No, he doesn't smile ALL the time. He really likes the water and enjoyed floating around in this float until he was all prune-like, but he really studies the water and never really smiles when he is in there!

Lillie, Ty, Helen and Beckett in Lillie's car!

The weather was just beautiful today. This evening we decided to burn a bunch of limbs that had fallen in our yard. We have a fire ring in the back yard and after all of the brush had burned down, we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores! Here is a picture of the kids by the bon-fire.....another first for Will!

And here is Helen enjoying her s'more!

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Check out "The Slam"!

"The Slam" had a little face-lift today! Beckett updated his blog and made a few changes to reflect his new 2nd grade status as well as a few visual changes! Enjoy! (Click on "The Slam" to link to his blog!)

Happy Re-Adoption Day!

This morning we headed to the courthouse for a 9:00 appointment with the Chancellor. We applied for Will's re-adoption and it was approved! This basically just helps us with gathering paperwork in the future. Will was officially ours when we passed court in Ethiopia on May 15th, but with his re-adoption here in the states, we can now apply for a U.S. birth certificate with the name that we have given him. Will Tekalgn Harper! Here is a picture of the kids as we waited to go into the courtroom!
Here we are in the Chancellor's chambers. Our attorney, Stewart Crane is on the left and then Chancellor Frank Williams III and then the Harper Crew!

Immediately following our court appointment, we headed to Cedar Springs where Beckett is enrolled in an enrichment class. Today was his first day and he had to arrive late! (We had already cleared that with his instructor!) We wanted him to be with us for the proceedings this morning! Beckett will be going to Cedar Springs every Wednesday this year for an enrichment class and we are SO excited for him! He is in a class with 18 other 2nd-5th grade homeschoolers and they will be doing Art/Music/Science/Bible enrichment classes. He will also have PE, lunch and a study hall time where he will work on the assignments that I send him from home. He was a little nervous this morning, but I know that he is going to really enjoy it! Notice the shirt change from the court pictures. He wanted to change out of his "fancy" shirt with a collar and put on a "regular" shirt for class! When I dropped him off, he went straight to a table with 3 other boys that he knows from our church and got busy on an "All About Me" poster! I'm so excited for this opportunity to add these extra experiences to our homeschool lessons! Here he is right before we went in to the church to drop him off!

School Begins and a Celebration!

It has been a busy few days at the Harper Hullabaloo! Today was the first day of our school year. I have taken a picture by the back door that leads into our "school room" on the first day for the last two years! It is amazing to see how much they have grown. I started this blog on Beckett's first day of Kindergarten! If you are interested, check here, and see how much they have grown in two years! Not to mention the cute new addition to the picture this year! :)
Helen isn't officially starting school because she is only 4 years old this year, but she will be starting a Mother's Day Out program next week on Tuesdays and Thursdays! We are all excited for her! She wanted to let everyone know that she will be doing some Pre-K activities this year while Beckett is doing his 2nd grade work, so we added a little extra to the white board! I love how Helen and Will both stuck their tongues out for this shot!

Will did not seem to get the memo that I needed a little bit of quiet, un-interupted time to work with Beckett! I am so glad that Will has bonded with me! It is VERY evident! He wasn't too keen on being left in the living room with Helen as a baby sitter for very long! He spent the majority of the day on my hip and in my lap! It was a good first day, but what should have taken about 3 hours....took about 6 hours! I hope we can get the kinks worked out and I can figure out how to manage all of this with a 9 month old baby very soon! He did enjoy crawling under Helen's desk that we brought into the living room!

Yesterday was a very special day! We participated in the Family/Child Dedication service at our church and it was such a great morning! Thanks to all of our family and friends who came to church with us to celebrate Will and what he means to our family! It was a sweet time as we prayed his life verse over him. Zephaniah 3:17 says, "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, He will rejoice over you with singing." We love this verse and believe that it speaks so well to Will and his journey thus far!

We have video from the service at church, but no pictures, so the pics begin at our house where family and friends joined us for lunch after church! Here is a family shot on the front porch. Will wore the shirt that we bought for him in Ethiopia and Beckett wore his necklace from ET while Helen wore her bracelet that we brought home for her. I "wore" Will since he is pretty much attached to my hip! :)

We had lots of yummy American food for lunch....but this was my favorite part! We had some Ethiopian food for everyone to try! No, I have not learned how to cook any Ethiopan food yet, but we were able to have Enjera, Shiro W'et, Miser W'et and Kik Aletcha compliments of Gojo Ethiopian Cafe and Restaurant in Nashville! The owner of the restaurant was so kind to help me out when I told her that I wanted everyone at our celebration lunch to get to try food from Ethiopia and she even threw in a few extras! If you are ever in Nashville, go try out their restaurant! The food was amazing! We are having leftovers tonight! Yum! Special thanks to my mom and dad (Grankaki and Granbob) for swinging by Gojo on their way from Brentwood to LC to pick up our ET fare!

I think I got pictures of Will with everyone that came yesterday, but I'm not going to post them all. We will definitely be printing those pics out to add to Will's Life Story book, but I did put a few pics from the day. Here is Will with Sean's mom and dad.....his Nana and Papa!

And here he is with my mom and dad, Grankaki and Granbob!

This is the first picture of all seven cousins together! How fun!

Will tried a tiny piece of enjera and some shiro......and he seemed to like it! We haven't found anything that he doesn't like! :)

After everyone left, we went outside and had a little photo shoot! Will was in a great mood and was just hammin' it up for the pictures! He is sitting on the quilt that my mom made for him with the colors of the Ethiopian flag.

Sweet boy!

It was a wonderful, memorable day! Thanks again to everyone who came and shared this special time with our family!

Tomato Day!

Sean stopped by his mom and dad's house on Tuesday night and brought home all of these tomatoes! They grow LOTS of tomatoes each summer and they are so kind to give tons of them away! This big bunch was for us, so on Wednesday, I got busy!

I spread them all out so I could see just how many I had to work with!
After peeling and coring them, they cooked for a while, and then I canned them!

The final product! 16 quarts and 3 pints! Should keep us full of chili, spaghetti and stew this winter!

Thanks for the tomatoes Nana and Papa!

THIS is going to be interesting....

So today I took Will to our Pediatric Otolaryngologist, Dr. Belmont. He has been Helen's "ear doctor" for the last two years and put in her tubes a while back. We really like him and it was fun talking adoption with him today, as he and his wife adopted a little girl from China about a year ago! Anyway...Will has had a "rattle" as he breathes since the day we picked him up at Hannah's Hope 8 weeks ago! He has been treated with breathing treatments, anti-biotics and reflux meds, but none of these treatments have helped "the rattle" go away. Our pediatrician finally decided that we should take Will to see Dr. Belmont and let him try to figure out what causes the constant rattle when he breathes! The first thing that Dr. B discovered was a very bad ear infection! I had no idea! This is the most laid back, happy baby...you would never know that he was experiencing any dis-comfort from an ear infection. So, Will has started another round of anti-biotics. Then, Dr. Belmont asked lots of questions and watched my little "Flip" camera videos that I took to let him see how Will breathes while he is playing and while sleeping. He said those were helpful and then he decided to have Will come back in two weeks for a Flexible Fiberoptic Laryngoscopy. What is that you ask? Yeah, me too! So, I've done a little research and here is what I've found.......He is going to stick this flexible camera thingy up Will's nose and thread it down his throat to see what is going on with the different parts of his larynx! Check out this diagram....

Makes you want to gag, right? Me too! I just can't imagine! However, I mentioned it on my Facebook page and it turns out that a friend of ours has a daughter who had to have this procedure done periodically for the first 2 years of life and she said that it is done very quickly (like in 30 seconds) and with little dis-comfort. It will require that I help hold Will very still and I'm sure it will be hard to watch, but I am anxious to find out what is causing the rattling sound! His appointment is on August 27th. I'll let you all know what we find out!

Saturday Morning and Catch-up from the Week!

I don't get to post as often as I would like to, so I end up doing week-long catch-up posts! This picture is very recent! Sean and Helen had a "date" to Dunkin' Donuts this morning. She was so excited and they had a great time!

The boys and I stayed at home. Here are Beckett and Will watching Saturday morning cartoons!
On Thursday, the kids and I went to visit this young lady. She is a former student of mine....(yes, I taught her when she was in first grade!) Feeling old now! She had this precious baby girl on Wednesday! Please pray for these two girls..........

Last Saturday, we had Will and Megan come spend the night one last time before they moved to Florida on Sunday. This is a pic of all the kids before we headed out to church on Sunday morning! We are already missing the Pridmores!

Last Saturday, we went to visit Lillie, Connor, Jill and Darrin. Helen and Will also went swimming with them! Here are Lillie and Helen wearing their matching tennis shoes! Nana and Papa took them shopping on separate days.....Lillie went first and picked out these Nike tennis shoes. Helen went a few days later and made a bee-line for the same tennis shoes...not knowing that Lillie had picked the very same ones! Birds of a feather......

Lillie holding Will!

Connor and Will in the pool!

Just a fun one of our happy boy!

And in case you didn't know it........

Life is VERY good!

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17