Will's First Haircut AND I Am Not My Hair!

It is hard to believe that we have been home with Will for almost one year! When we met him last June 15th, he had very little hair; just a little fuzz on the top of his head! His hair has really grown in the last year and he had never had a hair cut......until Friday. It was just time. Although we loved the long springy curls on top of his head, his hair has never grown in evenly and he has been getting so hot on these warm days! So last night, we took Will to get his first hair cut! Here he is sitting in the chair for his "before" picture.

Then daddy got in the chair and they put this funny cape around him. I think he was beginning to wonder what was about to happen!
Next, Chrysal got out these funny sounding clippers and started moving them toward his head. It wasn't looking good......

Is she putting those things on my head????

He was quite certain that he didn't like what was happening, but we were committed at this point! He had half of his hair cut and half was not. We had to continue! In this picture, Sean is trying to get him interested in his play cell phone....but he was not going for it. We tried another favorite....goldfish snack crackers....still a no go. He just wanted down. Wait for it....

Full melt down. It was not pretty.

Fortunately, the hair cut didn't take too long and once he was out of the chair and back in mommy's arms, he was all better! Now we just have to get used to our new little guy. He looks SO different without his big curls on top of his head!

I know he will be so much more comfortable in the summer heat, but he just looks so much BIGGER! Oh my! Absolutely adorable and precious in every way! So, I've been thinking of a song to put on my playlist to go along with a haircut. Found this song by India Aire and I LOVE it! Not only is it a happy, fun song, it just really spoke to me. I don't know why we place so much importance on our hairstyles, but I know it was something that I used to be totally obsessed with. My issues were different than those that African American women deal with, but I can totally identify with this song. I wasn't worried about jeri curls or relaxers, but I was obsessed with having "feathers" like Farrah and getting perms so my straight hair would be curly! Crazy. I'm sure one day Will will be figuring out how he wants to wear his own hair; will he want a fade, dread-locks, braids or an afro? Who knows? But I do pray that he will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is NOT his hair....that he is not his skin....that he is a child of God who is loved beyond measure and that is where he will find his identity!

DI

What is DI you might ask? Well, me too. I had never heard of it until my dear long-time friend, Trish called to say that she was in town last week for the Global Finals of DI. (Destination Imagination) So on Thursday, the kids and I headed downtown to the convention center to meet Trish and see what DI was all about. It was a bit overwhelming, I must admit! There were somewhere between 7 to 10 THOUSAND people (I've heard different totals) that were from all over the world who had come to Knoxville for this global competition. Trish is a teacher and has been involved with this program for the last several years and she is so excited about all the program has to offer for kids! We had a great time visiting with her, watching some of the competitions and even participating in the KEVA booth where Helen and Beckett built their own creations. Here is a picture of Helen with her KEVA plank creation.
Here is Beckett with his KEVA plank creation. Some of the structures that were being built were amazing! (including Beckett and Helen's!) They both earned a pin for building their structures. Pin trading at the DI competition was HUGE!

Will didn't build a KEVA creation. In fact, I had to keep him far away from the booth or I was afraid that some of the work that these kiddos had done would go crashing down! He was quite tired of being in his stroller and wanted to be moving! A 19 month old boy in the middle of thousands of people was a bit un-nerving....but we survived! I didn't take any pictures of Beckett and Helen's pins, but Trish made sure that they each got the Tennessee pins. All of the students attending the competition stayed on the UT campus and one of the neat things that they do is trade pins from all around the world. Each student brings pins from his/her own state or country and then they trade and try to build up their collection. The "pin trading" was going on everywhere and many students had hundreds of pins that they have collected over their years of DI competitions. To my knowledge, our county schools are not involved in DI, but I have heard that there are a couple of local homeschool teams. It appears to be an excellent program for students to learn and experience teamwork, creativity and problem solving! We will be checking into it! Thanks, Trish, for calling and inviting us to come see what DI was all about and also for stopping by on Sunday afternoon to visit more!

We had a pretty laid back Memorial Day weekend and enjoyed having Sean home an extra day! This week has seen the end of the baseball season with a loss in the first round of the tournament. Other excitement has included a front-end loader and a bobcat in our front yard digging up and replacing our water line. That was big fun for the boys because who doesn't love to watch big machines dig and move dirt??? And if you haven't checked out the Slam in a while.....you ought to link on over there and see a little video of Beckett and Will. It ought to make you smile! :)

Feeling Yucky/Blessed/Challenged!

Can you tell these kiddos don't feel well? They were posing for this picture and having fun with my idea for a blog post, but they are feeling better now. A trip to the pediatrician on Monday afternoon revealed that Beckett and Will both have strep throat and Helen (who had a rough weekend with a virus) now has an ear infection!
Thanks to children's motrin and good antibiotics, everyone is feeling better now and we are on the road to recovery! I think this is the first time that all three of them have been sick at the same time. It is quite a feat to keep all of their meds straight and administered at the proper times!

Since our trip to the doctor and the pharmacy, I have been thinking about how blessed we are to have the medical care and medicine that we need to keep our children healthy. I can't help but think about the millions of children around the world who do not have those basic needs met on a daily basis. I don't want to take it for granted. It was so easy for me to pick up the phone, schedule a sick appointment and be seen by a doctor within two hours of my call. The doctor ran quick strep tests, checked their ears and within 45 minutes we were on our way to the pharmacy to pick up three different antibiotics.

How many children are suffering because they do not have access to medical care? How many have been diagnosed, but the medicine that they need is not available to them? My prayer is that we will all become aware of the needs around us and look for ways that we can help. It may be here in my own community, or it may be across the world in Africa, but I am challenged by the Gospel of Christ that as a believer, I must do something! I read this scripture this morning and just wanted to share it. I am thankful this morning that my children are feeling better but my heart is heavy for those who feel sick and do not have what they need. May we all consider how God would have us to be involved in helping His children.

"Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it written; "He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever."

2 Corinthians 9:7-9

Winding Things Up!

With the end of the school year come many fun activities! Both Beckett and Helen had parties with their friends to "wind things up" and celebrate a good year! Beckett's enrichment class had their last day this past Wednesday and the parents were invited to come for a picnic lunch and for games! Beckett loved his time in the class this year. Here is a picture of Beck with a few buddies as they are getting ready for the three legged race.
It was obvious that Beckett and Cam had never done this race before. One of them was always dragging the other instead of running in sync with "three legs"! It was too cute!

Another relay race that the kids participated in was a "dress the dads" relay. Sean and Adam were the lucky dads and this was the end result! Aren't they beautiful?

Will had fun playing with this dog while we were at the picnic. He pretty much laid down on top of poor "Sammy" and was petting him like crazy! Beckett and Helen have never been very interested in dogs, but Will LOVES them!

We met this great couple through Beckett's enrichment class! Tracy was the assistant in the class and we found out that we go to the same church! Not only that, but when we met, they were just weeks away from traveling toTaiwan to bring home their 7 month old son! We have loved getting to know them and so happy that they are home with Eli now! They came by the picnic so all of the kids and families could meet Eli. They have been home with him about 2 weeks! Aren't they a sweet family? Love, love, love adoption!!

Here is a picture of Will checking Eli out! We couldn't get him to get much closer than this. No hugs for Eli....Will was basically just staring him down. I'm hoping these two will become buddies! Hard to believe that Will was about Eli's size and age almost one year ago when we came home with him! Wow, time flies!

Will was all about the big kids, though! He was wanting in on the football game! The two blond headed brothers on the left and in the middle are going to be bringing home a baby brother from Ethiopia in the near future! Their sweet family, including their big sister, mom and lovely dad, Adam (dressed so beautifully up above) have just started the paperwork part of their Ethiopian adoption! We are super excited for their family as they obey God's call to go to Ethiopia and bring another one of His children into their sweet family!

Beckett played a baseball game that night and I took this picture of my three guys during the game. Beckett was up to bat and the other team was warming up a new pitcher, so "Coach Sean", Beckett and Will had a little pow-wow at the fence!

This is a picture of most of the Marlins (plus Will) after the game. Sean always gathers them around and talks about the game, how they did, and gives out the game ball. Will loves being right in the middle of it all. The season is officially over, although they do have to play in the league tournament next week. It has been a fun season, even though the Marlins didn't have a winning record. They played well, improved each game and encouraged and cheered each other on! That sounds like a winning season to me! I wasn't sure what it would be like to try to watch the games this year with Will "in tow"....but it has been great! Thanks to Nana, Papa and one of the team member's big sister, Emily, Will has been quite entertained at the ball park! I shudder to think how many goldfish snack crackers he has eaten while at the ball park, but they kept him happy! :)

And I only have two pictures from Helen's end of the school year celebration. Her friend, Carlie had a party at her neighborhood pool on Thursday, and all of Helen's five year old friends who will be starting Kindergarten this fall came to swim and play. It was a great afternoon and we had a good time. I'm sorry that I didn't take more pictures, but here is one of Helen with her good friend, Sophie!

Will had a good time at the pool, too. He actually kept his hat on and didn't venture too close to the pool without me. The water was SO cold, so he and I sat on the side for quite a bit. He was content with that and so was I!

We had quite a busy family day planned for today, but Helen got sick with fever and other yucky virus side effects, so we had to do our day in shifts. Our East TN Ethiopian Adoption family gathering was today, so Beckett, Will and I went to the picnic while Sean stayed home with Helen. I can't believe that I forgot my camera! (Click HERE to see some great pictures from the picnic today.....including our ET cutie himself!) Tracie is a gifted photographer and she took some great pictures! So many beautiful children were there! I enjoyed meeting many of the families in our area that I had only heard of, including one family here in our little town who is close to bringing home an infant girl from ET! Amazing! Loved seeing kiddos and families that have traveled this adoption journey and sharing stories with each other. It was a great event! We rushed home from that picnic so that Beckett and Sean could go to their end of the season baseball party. One player's family hosted the party at their pool and they had a great time. I was sorry that Helen and I had to miss the party. I asked Sean to take the camera, but I knew he wouldn't take any pictures. It was a fun, full day, but no pics to share! That is the latest from the Harper Hullabaloo! We will be finishing up our last week of school this coming week! Never a dull moment!

Major Catch Up!

I don't know if I've ever gone this long without updating my blog! Although this blog began as a way for me to allow friends and family that we don't see very often to keep up with our activities, it has become a way for me to journal and document our day to day lives. I used to love scrapbooking, but have not had time for that in quite a while, so blogging has become my scrapbook! Therefore, I need to catch up on the last month and I want you to be warned......this is going to be a long one! I'll begin with April 24th which was Will's half birthday. (The real one, this time!) I made chocolate cupcakes with white icing and my intention was for Will to have a "do-over" from his first birthday when he freaked out and wouldn't have anything to do with his smash cake! Well, not much has changed, and he still didn't want to eat any icing or cake and basically was totally hands off!

Just a fun picture that was taken sometime in the last month of Will in the "corn box"! We decided to fill the sand box with corn this year and it has been a big hit! Will loves it! Now, I do have corn EVERYWHERE, but it is better than having sand everywhere! He is such a happy boy!
Another sweet memory from the last month. I asked Beckett to go outside and read a chapter book to Helen and this is how they got set up. It was so sweet. He read the whole book to her. He would show her the pictures and they would just laugh and laugh!

About two weeks ago, Nashville and it's surrounding communities experienced terrible flooding. Many lives were lost and people's homes and businesses were ruined. The damage has been horrible. My mom and dad live right outside of Nashville and they have a river that runs through their backyard. We grew up playing in it and it is usually more like a creek than a river. Occasionally it would rise up out of the banks and come up in the backyard a little bit, but not often. However, on May 1st, dad called me and told me that they had water all the way in the front yard and up the street. Within an hour of that phone call, firemen came to their front door and evacuated them from their home in canoes because they could not get to their cars and they could not see the roads to drive on. It all happened so fast! Fortunately, the water did not get in the house, but it did flood their rec room. They had converted the garage into a rec room over 20 years ago. So Sean and I spent a couple of days that week helping them clean out the rec room and the little storage barn in the backyard. Fortunately, they have a covered carport and they were able to move everything out there so they could tear up the carpet and the baseboards. The bottom 2 feet of dry wall and insulation had to be torn out and is all being replaced. I didn't take any pictures except this one of their carport with everything under it. I also took it at night, so it isn't a very good picture. So many lives have been affected by this flooding. Mom and dad were very fortunate and their loss was minimal compared to so many others. We are very thankful that they were able to get out of their home that evening and that they were safe and dry!

The kids stayed with Sean's mom and dad while we went to help my mom and dad. (Thanks, Nana and Papa!) We had really missed them, so we decided to go to the mountains on Friday! This is a picture of the kids having lunch beside the river. They couldn't wait to get in!

It wasn't long before they were all in the water! Here is a picture of them posing with Sean.

And of course, Sean was fly-fishing while we were there! I got this cute pic of him showing Will his fly rod! Won't be long before they are fishing together!

We had to get in a bit of school that day, so we took Beckett's math book and he completed a few pages. He wasn't too happy about it, but I think he knows that he's got it pretty good. When I reminded him that not too many kids get to work on their daily assignments while sitting beside a beautiful stream in the mountains, he had a quick attitude change!

I loved this picture of Beckett and Will playing together! I caught them as they were laughing at each other. These two are quite a pair and Will really loves "Beh Beh"! Beckett is a great big brother! (And that is a colorful band-aid on Will's head.) He took a spill off of a tricycle and had a pretty big gash on his forehead, but it is much better now!

The next day, Helen and I went BACK to mom and dad's house to help with more clean-up. We were able to clean up a bunch more and also go to a craft fair at Centennial Park which was a nice break for mom! On Sunday, which was Mother's Day, my sister, Susi drove in from Atlanta and we had a nice lunch with mom! Helen and I left after lunch and Susi stayed for a couple of days and helped mom and dad pick out new paint and new carpet for the rec room. It is coming together well.Here is a picture of mom with her daughters and grandaughter!

I loved this sweet pic of mom with Helen! She loves Grankaki!

Helen also loves Susi and Susi's I-Phone! Beckett wasn't there to have to share the I-Phone time, so she enjoyed playing with all of Susi's "apps"! She was hanging out in the hammock with Susi and concentrating hard on a game!

We've been back home this past week and back into our routines which includes baseball! Here is a picture of Beckett with the game ball from Thursday night's game and Helen in her Marlins jersey with the boys!

Sean's brother Josh and his wife Kathy went to NYC for a few days and their kiddos stayed for us one night! We loved having Ty and Marley here for a night and day! Here they are enjoying fudge popsicles in the corn box!

Another cute one of the cousins in the wagon!

And last, I'm posting two cute videos. This first one is of Helen singing her special Mother's Day song to me. We enjoyed our mother/daughter trip to Brentwood and yes, I took this video as we were driving on the interstate, but it was all very safe! :)


And this video was from the other morning when I took Helen to Mother's Day Out. The boys always stay in their pajamas and wait for me to drop her off. This particular morning, they were listening to their I-Pod's. (Except Will's isn't an I-Pod, but he doesn't know that his is any different than Beckett's!) It is one ear phone and it plays N-Sync's song "Bye, Bye, Bye". Will was singing it over and over, but he wouldn't sing when the camera started rolling. Instead, you have to hear me sounding goofy, but Will just looked too cute in this video so I had to share!

Referralversary!

One year ago on April 20, 2009, we laid eyes on this beautiful baby boy for the first time! It was an amazing day that we will never forget! Our caseworker from AGCI surprised us with a call that came sooner that we expected! We were beyond thrilled and immediately in love! That love has just continued to grow and we feel so honored that God placed this precious child in our family! We love you Will! Happy Referralversary! (if that is even a word!) We were fortunate to receive many pictures that day, so I won't make you look at ALL of them (although I did....over and over!) but here is one of our favorites.....

To read a bit more about that day, click here to link back to April 20, 2009! We have been blessed indeed!

Oh What a Night!

On Thursday night, I had the great pleasure of dressing up a bit, and heading out for a date with this handsome young man.

We went to the University of Tennesse campus and made our way to Thompson Boling Arena which is where the UT men and women play basketball. However, it didn't look at all like a basketball court; it looked like this:
We were there for this event:

And it was a wonderful night! Mike and Beth Hamilton sponsored the event to "get the word out" about the orphan/HIV-AIDS/clean water crisises in Africa. 750 people gathered and enjoyed a yummy dinner and exceptional entertainment all to benefit Africa. God was glorified as the Watoto Children's Choir from Uganda sang His praises. They were such a blessing to us and we purchased their CD and have about worn it out already! Beckett and I enjoyed listening to them sing and watching them dance! We also got to enjoy our second chance to hear Steven Curtis Chapman perform. Beckett and I attended his concert in Myrtle Beach, SC about a year and a half ago. SCC is not only an amazing singer and songwriter, but he is an inspiring speaker as he is able to share his experience regarding the blessing of adoption, as well as his family's experience of walking through the valley of the shadow of death after the tragic death of his youngest adopted daughter. The hope that he has in God and is still able to sing and proclaim after such a tragedy is incredible!

We heard about the amazing work that Blood:Water Mission is doing in Marsabit, Kenya and in many places throughout Africa. If you have a minute, watch the video clip on that link to find out about their work. We also heard about Show Hope which is the foundation that Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife, Mary Beth, began in order to help with scholarship funds for families who want to adopt and need some financial assistance. They awarded an un-suspecting family with their $5,000 scholarship for their adoption from Ethiopia. If that wasn't cool enough, Mike announced at the end of the evening that an anonymous donor had offered to pay the remaining $10,000 for that couple to bring their child home from ET! Wow! Obviously, this was a fundraiser for these two programs, and well over $100,000 was raised for each organization that night! God really blessed the efforts of everyone involved and it was a huge blessing to be able to be a part of such a special evening. And it helped, too, that I was with one of my favorite guys! :)