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