Splish Splash!

So, I don't do this very often, although I wish I could. I love to give Will a bath in the kitchen sink! It saves water....he is better contained....and it is just too cute. HOWEVER! He has learned how to splash. And splash he does! Loves it! My kitchen was flooded after this particular bath. We had towels all over the floor and counter-tops. The window over the sink looked like a huge rainstorm had just blown through....and in some ways it had! Anyway...just some cute pics to share of his fun bath night!

Here's a big splash!

Watching to make sure Beckett and Helen saw that big splash!
Rub a dub dub...having fun in my "tub"!
And I just had to finish out the pics tonight with his wet head and big grin! You can really see his four teeth that have come in so fast! I could just eat him up!

I haven't been blogging as much lately, so I want to catch up on a few things. First, a virus hit the Harper Hullabaloo last week. Beckett was sick last Tuesday and Wednesday. Will had it on Thursday and Friday. We thought that we were virus free over the weekend and then on Monday morning, Helen woke up with a fever and was sick through Tuesday evening. I did take Beckett to the doctor last Wednesday to rule out the flu and he tested negative. Turned out to be a 48 hour deal for each of them. Glad that is over! Now on to other news......

When we arrived home from Ethiopia, Will did not seem well. I had several concerns, none of which were about his ears. We took him to the doctor the day after we got home and the doctor discovered a double ear infection. Well, three and a half months later, he STILL has an ear infection. He has been on 5 oral antibotics that didn't work and 2 weeks ago, he had to take three shots (one a day for three days in a row) of rocephin...a high-powered antibiotic. We were told that only 1% of children do NOT respond to these shots. Well, we knew Will was special, but we didn't want him to prove it to us this way! He is in that 1%! His ears are still infected. Our pediatrician confirmed that on Monday, we met with the ENT on Tuesday and he scheduled surgery for Friday to put tubes in Will's ears. Our doctor said that he will run a culture on the "stuff" in Will's ears to see what it is that has been so resistant to antibiotics.

Please pray for Will on Friday morning and for Dr. Belmont as he performs the procedure. Mommy could use a few prayers too, as I'm quite nervous about the anesthesia part. I know that the Great Physician is in control and He will provide peace, comfort, wisdom and rest for us all. Thanks for thinking of us on Friday morning!

And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

Matthew 9:35

We are trusting in His power and His promises that Will's infection will clear up with these tubes and that the actual procedure will be smooth and trouble-free!

5 Months Ago....

Five months ago, on April 20th, we received a phone call that blessed our hearts in the most amazing way! The call was from Julie, our AGCI case manager, saying that she had a little guy that she wanted to talk with us about. Within a few minutes she emailed pictures to our home. Without opening them, I sent them to Sean at work and then I called him. We opened each picture, one by one at the same time so that we could see our little boy "together"! It was the most surreal and amazing day! We were so happy to finally learn about our son, to know his story and to see his face. I could have never anticipated the way my heart would immediately be drawn to this sweet child and to love him so completely..... even though I had never even held him in my arms. Less than two months after our referral day, we flew to Ethiopia to meet our new son. What a joy the last 3 and a half months at home have been! We fell in love with Will's smiling face five months ago, and we are so blessed to wake up to his smiling face every morning!

I was never able to share his referral pictures before we got him, and it occured to me that I never had posted any on my blog, so here is one of the pictures that we received. Will can be quite a "ham" when it comes to picture taking, so I think that whoever was taking his referral pics had quite a lot of fun because we received 30 pictures that day!! I've just chosen one to share today. He did come into Hannah's Hope mal-nourished. I remember Julie telling me to not be shocked at how small his little legs looked because his socks just swallowed up his feet....and they did!
And here he is, 5 months later! It is amazing how far he has come....literally and figuratively! He was SO well taken care of at HH in Ethiopia! He was fed well and loved well and had gained several pounds before we got him. You better believe he has been fed well and loved well since being home and he has continued to pack on the pounds! I took this picture tonight just before I got him ready for bed. You can't see all of his pretty dark curls in this picture, but you can see two of his four new teeth! They are coming in so quickly! He is changing and growing with each new day! We fell in love 5 months ago and we are just so glad that Will is home with us forever!

We love you Will Tekalgn Harper!

Smoky Mountain Birthday

We celebrated Sean's birthday on Wednesday with a trip to one of his most favorite places....The Great Smoky Mountain National Park! We are so blessed to live only 45 min. away from one of the most beatutiful places in the world (in my humble opinion!) and given Sean's love of fly-fishing, we spend quite a bit of time there! He took half a day off from work and we headed to the Cade's Cove picnic area so that he could fish and the kids could play. Not sure why Beck and Helen look so washed out in this picture....could be that my camera is finally wearing out, or could be that the operator has no idea what she is doing....especially in low-light situations. Anyhow, here is Sean with the kids right before he set out to fish!

Doing what he loves!
Like father, like son. Beckett is turning into quite a little fly-fisher himself!

Helen isn't interested at all in fishing. She just likes to play in the water and pose for pictures!

And Will liked to crawl off of the "neat sheet" to pick up handfuls of rocks and try to eat them! He keeps me on my toes!

After about an hour and a half of fishing and playing, it started to thunder. We packed up our things and began to head out, but then we decided to drive the Cade's Cove loop. We hadn't done it in a while and thought it might be fun. It was great! The weather cleared up and we were able to see quite a bit of wild-life as well as enjoy the beauty of the mountains!

We saw several deer......

and a bunch of turkeys!

OK, that sounds kind of funny, given that the pics only have one each of a deer and a turkey....but we did see lots of them. These were just my close up shots! We saw a few bears (didn't get any pics of those) and beautiful views like this! It was a wonderful evening!

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Isaiah 55:12

Week in Review!

I'll be honest. As much as I love to blog.....I'm having a very hard time finding the time to do it! Now that we have started school, our schedule is a bit more tight and I just can't work it in. I guess the bottom line is, I need my sleep! In the past, I could stay up late at night to do my blog and then read tons of other blogs....but I treasure my sleep and it has been more important to me as of late! So, in an effort to keep my faithful readers updated about the Harper Hullabaloo, here is our week in review. We will begin with yesterday. In case you hadn't heard, there is a new coach in town. Yes, Coach Kiffin has come to Tennesse and the VOLS won their season opener. There is definitely excitement in the east Tennessee air! I am a VOL fan and can even say that although I didn't graduate from there, I spent 2 quarters on campus. That was EARLY in my college career and let's just say that I wasn't ready to handle the responsibility of college life. (That is another story for another day!) I did have fun and enjoyed several football games! SO! I still cheer for the University of Tennessee Volunteers! Yesterday I had a little photo session with the kids in their orange and white. The first one is of Will. Could he be a future Volunteer? Maybe not, but he makes a pretty cute fan if I do say so myself!

Helen striking a cheerleader pose! All three of my Volunteers!
Right outside of our neighborhood is a railroad track. The trains come through quite often throughout the day and night. Yesterday after breakfast, Sean and Beckett asked me to take them down the road and drop them off at the railroad tracks. They wanted to walk home on the tracks. It was quite an adventure and Beckett came home with all kinds of treasures! I took this pic out of the window of the van as they started their trek!
On Friday, Beckett celebrated his 1/2 birthday at Sonic with an OREO blast! I can't believe my baby boy is 1/2 way to eight years old!

LAST Friday, we loaded up and headed back to B-wood for the day to pick up Beckett after his adventure to St. Louis with my mom, dad and Aunt Meg. They had been doing a LOT of driving for the previous 3 days, so we decided to go get Beck rather than have them meet us half way in Cookeville. We visited for a while and then had lunch at Swanky's....a yummy Mexican grill where my cousin Clay is the manager. After lunch, we headed back home. Here is a picture of Aunt Meg with the kiddos! She lives in south Florida and we don't see her very often, but Beckett sure enjoyed getting to know his "traveling buddy" better during their trip and Helen latched on to her immediately and had fun loving on her during lunch! It was good to see you Aunt Meg! Hope to see you again soon!

And speaking of Beckett's trip to St. Louis, he has been wanting to blog about it, so we will try to do that soon. He took two disposable cameras and I had the pics developed onto a disc so that he could put them on his blog. We will get that done this week so he can tell all about his adventures in St. Louis! It was a fun and memorable trip! Thanks Grankaki and Granbob!

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!