Harper Hull-a-ba-WHO?

July? Really? I haven't posted since July? Wow. I realized that the reason that I first began this blog was to keep family and friends updated on our family activities, but I can do that so quickly on Facebook that I haven't been very good about posting on my blog. I also realized that there are a few of you who have told me that you like to see pictures of the kids, and you are NOT on Facebook. So, for those 2 or 3 people....I thought I would do a pretty quick update. Not going to catch you up on every event over the last three months, but thought I would post a few pictures of our recent trip to Disney World!

We had an amazing opportunity to take a week-long vacation and spend three days at Disney World and four days at the beach! We were able to keep it a surprise for the kids and they didn't find out that we were going until it was time to get in the van and go! That was so fun to be able to surprise them that way! Our hotel in Orlando had Mickey Mouse waffles that the kids enjoyed each morning!

We hadn't even been to Dollywood in a couple of years and Helen had only ridden a kiddie roller coaster until this trip! She was tall enough and she hit them ALL! No fear! (Well, maybe a little!) But she rode them all! Here is a picture of Helen with Sean and Beckett before she rode her first BIG roller coaster at The Animal Kingdom!

Helen was the only one who liked posing for pictures with Disney characters. Here she is with Pocahantas. Beckett was too cool for character pictures, and Will was pretty much freaked out by the over-sized stuffed guys! He liked to talk to them and give them hi-fives, but only if I was holding him!

We saw lots of 3-D shows and Helen and I always took our pictures with our 3-D glasses. Here we are at "A Bugs Life" in The Animal Kingdom. Cute show!

On our first day, we spent the whole day at The Animal Kingdom, then went to the hotel to change into Halloween costumes, then went to The Magic Kingdom all night for "Mickey's Not-so-Scary Halloween Party." The park stayed open until mid-night and we pretty much closed it down! LONG day! Here is a picture of the kids in their costumes as we were riding the ferry over to The Magic Kingdom! Beckett was a pirate, so he is trying to look mean. Helen was a princess and Will was "Tow-Mater" from the Cars movie!

At Hollywood Studios on Tuesday, Helen and Beckett both got to participate in the Jedi Training Academy show. It was so cute! In this picture, the Jedi Master had just told Helen to "Keep smiling. It confuses him." as she fought with Darth Vader. She really did smile the entire time! This picture shows Helen finishing her "battle" with Darth Vader and Beckett getting ready for his turn.

 Will posing on some Star Wars creature!

 Helen with Alice and the White Rabbit!

It was a little shady for this character picture, but I managed to get Beckett to join us for a picture with Tiger and Winnie the Pooh. Will loved them, but again, he wouldn't get down to have his picture made with them. He wanted me to hold him! So he and I are over to the right in the shadows next to Pooh!

 Helen with her Minnie Mouse ears, eating a Mickey Mouse chocolate ice cream!

After three wonderful days in the parks at Disney, we headed to Indian Rocks Beach for a few days of rest and relaxation which you definitely need after three days at Disney! This was Will's first time at the beach and he loved it. He really enjoyed digging in the sand, and by the third day, when the waves were a little calmer, he even enjoyed jumping the waves!

 We all enjoyed building sand castles and Sean liked the shade under his umbrella as he read a book!

 Will running from our condo to the beach on the second day!

 A picture taken from our balcony of Helen jumping waves while Sean sat under his umbrella!

 Surfer dude!

We ate lots of seafood and had dinner one night on the deck of a restaurant. We were there during sunset and it was beautiful! We all enjoyed it except Will. It made him really sad that the sun went away!

 This picture shows how really sad he was that the sun went away! He had a hard time re-grouping!

 Helen loved riding the waves on her boogie board!

 Action shot of all three jumping into the pool! Will "dives" belly first each time and it looks like it hurts....but he loves it!

 Will loves to swim and he smiles the WHOLE time!

 Helen and Will saying good-bye to the beach on Sunday morning before we made the LONG drive home!

This trip was such a blessing and a true gift to our family in every way! 

Happy Independence Day!

Hope you all have a happy fourth of July celebration!

Helen and Beckett competed in the Firecracker Run this morning and they both did great!

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance.” Psalm 33:12

Stone Mountain Family Reunion

Last weekend we headed down to Stone Mountain, Georgia for the Beckett Family Reunion. My family gets together every other summer to visit and catch up. The Becketts are spread out all over the USA, so it is difficult to get everyone together, but a fairly centralized location is chosen, and we always hope that many "Becketts" can come. This year, my cousin Jill coordinated the reunion and chose Stone Mountain Park for the location. It was beautiful and I'm so glad that we got to visit this state park in Georgia! On Saturday morning, Beckett and Sean climbed up Stone Mountain while Will, Helen and I took the Skyride Cable Car to the top! We met them up there and enjoyed the view for a bit and then took the Skyride back down to the park. Here is a family picture on top of the mountain.

This is the carving in the side of Stone Mountain.The Memorial Carving depicts three Confederate heroes of the Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee and Lt. General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.The mountain is 825 feet tall and covers 583 acres. The top of the mountain is 1,683 feet above sea level. The entire carved surface of the Memorial Carving measures three acres, larger than a football field.

We also took a train ride around the base of the mountain. This was a little later in the afternoon and Will stayed awake for about 3 or 4 min. before he crashed. The train pretty much rocked him to sleep!

Next, we went to Camp Highland Outpost in the park where Beckett and Helen participated in a low ropes course and had fun on the zip line. Here is Beckett looking super cool as he flew through the ropes course.

 It was a bit more challenging for Helen, but she loved it!

 Loved this action shot as Helen used the ropes to help her balance on the line bridge!

That afternoon before our family dinner, we gathered at the hotel and took some pictures. This is a picture of the whole group of Becketts with their families!

Granbob and Grankaki Beckett with Will, Helen and BECKETT! And, true to form, my Beckett is giving Grankaki bunny ears! Aren't nine year old boys fun? :)

My family with my mom, dad and sister Susi!

After dinner on Saturday night, we all returned to the park and watched the laser light show on the side of Stone Mountain. It was very good! We all then returned to our hospitality suite at the hotel and surprised my dad with a birthday celebration to honor his upcoming 70th birthday! Beckett and Helen helped him blow out his candles!

The Harper family is about as "low tech" as you can get in today's society. Sean likes to quote a Jimmy Buffett lyric in reference to our lack of specialized phones and gadgets; "I don't NEED that much organization in my life!" We own one very old cell phone (a "flip" phone....which I understand is pretty lame) and we just added limited texting to our plan last week. Anyway, my kiddos got to enjoy all of my family's high tech gadgets this weekend and I was amazed at how quickly they catch on to how to use these things! Here, Beckett and Will were playing with my cousin's I-Pad and loving every minute of it!

 At dinner on Saturday night, my cousin Ric was Will's best bud as he let him play with his phone. I was amazed at how quickly Will figured out how to operate this thing. He was using his thumbs to drag screens around and had so much fun with it. 

This last picture was just too cute not to share. I loved that this picture caught both Will and Helen playing with people's phones and you get Helen's dimple and Will's concentrating pose with his tongue sticking out! How fun! I think at this point in the night, all three of our kids were playing games on phones! Oh my!

They are having high-tech gadget withdrawls this week.....but that is fine with us!

We had a great time in GA with the Becketts and hope to see many of our family members again soon!

How Quickly Things Can Change......

On Wednesday night, we went to Gosh Ethiopian Restaurant to celebrate two years home with Will! We had a great dinner and enjoyed our time visiting with the owner of the restaurant. She told us that the curtains hanging in the restaurant were from the region of Ethiopia that Will is from. She said that they are known for their beautiful fabrics and clothing. I had already commented to Sean that I thought the curtains were pretty, so of course, I had to have our family's picture made in front of them before we left!

 When we got home, we celebrated a little more with a special cake that all three kiddos had made that afternoon. Beckett and Helen had decorated it with M&M's which are Will's favorite!

 On Thursday, we spent several hours at the lake with a couple of friends. It was a very pleasant day...not too hot and simply beautiful! Here is Helen giving Will a piggyback ride!

 Nathan, Matt and Beckett were out playing on the floating yellow tube that marks the end of the play area and Will and Helen (my non-swimmers) stayed where it was more shallow!

 These two have so much fun together!

 I just love this picture (even though it is a bit off-center!) Will has gotten to the age where, when I ask him to smile, he gives a big CHEESY grin! You just have to catch him laughing....not posing to see his great smile! He is such a happy boy!

So, fast forward a few hours and see how quickly things can change! We had a normal Thursday evening, although we were a little late getting to bed. I won't go into all of the details, but around 10:30 on Thursday night, we had to call 911 to get emergency help for Will. He was experiencing a seizure of some sort and it was clear pretty quickly that we needed help. The paramedics arrived and began caring for him and I rode with him to Children's Hospital in the ambulance. The seizure lasted about 30-40 min. and it was over by the time we arrived at the hospital. We were so relieved when he finally began responding to us when we said his name and then he eventually began talking to us. Will had several tests in the ER that ruled out any emergency situations and then we were admitted to a room at 2am Friday morning. He was exhausted, not only because it was his normal sleeping time, but we were told that a seizure will wear out your body and make you extremely tired. They told me to wake him up at 4am and keep him awake until 8am so he could be sleep deprived for the EEG test that they would do on Friday morning. THAT was not easy. A very sleepy little boy did NOT want to stay awake. It did help that he was VERY sleepy when they attached the 24 wires to his head so they could record his brain activity during the test. He did very well during the test and by noon on Friday, just a bit over 12 hours since the whole episode took place, we had some answers as to why the seizure had happened. He does have an area of his brain that has some abnormal electrical disturbances. There is a good chance that he will grow out of it, but for the time being, he will take medicine to control those abnormalities. By Friday afternoon, after some good rest, he was right back to our sweet, fun Will! He had so much fun playing in the hospital play room and with all of the new toys that Nana, Papa, Helen and Beckett brought to him! Every time a nurse or doctor came to check on him, he was friendly, happy and compliant with their requests! They kept him Friday night for observation and we were allowed to go home on Saturday afternoon. Here is a picture of Will showing his breakfast on Saturday morning. He loved the little dome that covered his meals to keep them warm! He would say, "taa daa" and then lift the cover off as if he had performed a special trick to make the food appear!

 And here, he turned the cover into a little hat!

To say that this was a scary experience would be an understatement. My thoughts were all over the place as I was trying to figure out what had happened and wondering if our little boy would recover from this seizure. But as I look back over the events of that late night and early morning, I am so aware of God's presence with us and His hand of protection in everything that happened. I just see so many ways that He was guiding us as we made split second decisions when time was so important. The paramedics arrived so quickly and were here with us when the seizure became more disturbing and for that, I am so thankful. Sean's parents were able to be here so quickly to take care of Beckett and Helen who were so scared for their little brother. I am so thankful that Nana stayed with them and that Papa was able to bring Sean to the hospital so I wasn't there alone with Will during all of this. I was greatly pleased with the paramedic who helped Will. I was so scared and he not only took care of Will, but he "talked me down" and just calmed my nerves. I'm so grateful for East TN Children's Hospital and the work that they do! They took such good care of Will and were so conscious of this momma's concern for her little boy.

 For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. (Isaiah 41:13)

I am just so THANKFUL for the many ways that God was guiding us and protecting Will through all of this. I have such peace and comfort knowing that He loves us and that He will hold our hands and help us through all of our life experiences!

Two Years Ago Today......

we were in Ethiopia and we met our sweet Will for the first time! We are celebrating Will today and the blessing that he is to our family! So thankful that God planned for us to be a family! We are just spending time today remembering our time in Ethiopia and that special moment when we first met Will Tekalgn Harper!

Happy "Will Day!"

Fun at Chic-fil-a!

Helen, Will and I headed to Chic-fil-a for dinner last Friday night when the boys went camping! These two have so much fun together and I enjoyed taking lots of pictures of them being silly and having fun!

 Will thoroughly enjoyed his ice cream!

 ....and playing with his spoon!

He didn't want to miss a single drip of ice cream!

 The spoon just wasn't getting it.....so he did what all ice cream lovers do.....

 YUM!