Still Thinking About Adoption

This hymn came to mind as I mediatate on adoption:

The love of Christ is rich and free;
Fixed on His own eternally;
Nor earth, nor hell, can it remove;
Long as He lives, His own He’ll love.

2. His loving heart engaged to be
Their everlasting Surety;
’Twas love that took their cause in hand,
And love maintains it to the end.

Chorus: Love cannot from its post withdraw;
Nor death, nor hell, nor sin, nor law,
Can turn the Surety’s heart away;
He’ll love His own to endless day.

3. Love has redeemed His sheep with blood;
And love will bring them safe to God;
Love calls them all from death to life;
And love will finish all their strife.

4. He loves through every changing scene,
Nor aught from Him can Zion wean;
Not all the wanderings of her heart
Can make His love for her depart.

5. At death, beyond the grave, He’ll love;
In endless bliss, His own shall prove
The blazing glory of that love
Which never could from them remove.

~William Gadsby

I love the permanance that this song drives home, the utter and irretractible security it describes. That security is MINE in Christ! Nothing can make Him love me less. He's my Surety. AMEN! Not all the wanderings of my heart can make His love for me depart. What a reassurance!!

Listen to a really great tune to this hymn here.

Real Need

“We never feel Christ to be a reality until we feel him to be a necessity.”
- Austin Phelps, quoted by Gordon Keddie in Preacher on the Run: The Message of Jonah (Hertfordshire, England: Evangelical Press, 1986), 85.

Carrier, Slings, & Wraps

I've had a chance to try out all of my various baby-carrying apparel, and here's what I'm observing:

1. the Hugamonkey slingPros: WONDERFUL in terms of its packability. Light, foldable, fits in my diaper bag. Affordable. Easy-shmeasy to put on & off. As a new newborn, she slept in this sooo well.

Cons: since Eowyn isn't strong enough to hold herself upright for long periods of time, she has to lie down in this sling, and during a reflux flare-up, she cannot abide being laid back at all (it's usually during an attack that I most want a sling, so that isn't so helpful right now). Long-term, not as comfortable because it puts weight on only my shoulder & across part of my back. Can still swing out when I bend over, so not totally hands- free.

I wear this when I am in-and-out of the car or on a quick trip.

2. the Ergo carrier
Pros: easy on-and-off, very simple to get her in & out of. Durable. Long-term, very comfy: distributes her weight really well. Warm- her feet are tucked in and covered! Keeps her upright, which is HUGE right now. Totally hands-free: holds her close and securely.

Cons: Bulkier to carry around (I wish it folded up). The perk of not having her feet poke out also means that it's a bit uncomfortable for her sometimes-- right now her legs are too short to poke out the sides like they are supposed to. While I'll eventually be able to put her on my back or side with this carrier, right now I can only stick her in one way, and sometimes that's not what she wants.

I wear this when I go shopping or run errands (and she sleeps the entire time, even if through her normal feeding times!), or whenever I need a hands-free hold-- I even wear it around the house while doing chores & cooking. Yesterday I wore it to the courthouse for Graydon's adoption-- not a really long errand, but still long enough to make a carseat waaay too cumbersome.

3. the Kendi wrap
(same as a Moby wrap, but made by my super-sewing-sister-in-law, Kendi)
Pros: lightweight, easy to pack. Extremely versatile-- during an acid-reflux flare-up, Eowyn loves to have her head waaay back, as you can see from the above photo. She has to squirm herself sideways to do that in the Ergo, but w/ the wrap it's easy to let her do it. Perfect fit every time, since you tie it on and off for a custom fit. Totally hands-free hold. VERY comfy long-term (like the carrier, it distributes her weight really well). Warm. (I'm going to try nursing in it soon!) Cheapest of all (cost of the fabric could be as low as $7), especially if you are a confident seamstress.

Cons: more complicated to get her in & out of (though really, it's NOT very hard at all!). Does slip down over time (though it's easy to rectify).

I wear this when I'm going to be out on one errand for a while, on a walk in the park, or around the house doing chores. I also have slept with her in it when she was really having a hard time.

Hooray Again!

The summer before I married Ryan was also the summer after I graduated from college, meaning that Ryan & I had been apart for the whole school year and were feeling it. My last sememster I'd been student teaching and working two other jobs as well as being a student and planning a weddin.g... wow our engagement only survived that season by the grace of God! Anyway we wanted to spend the months just prior to our wedding at least in the same town, so that we could do our pre-marital counseling together, look for a house, adjust to being near-distance fiancés, and so I could find a job & my way around town. But where could I live for just under two months? Into this need stepped, no JUMPED, Glen & Bethany M. I had met them during my previous summer in Louisville; they'd had Ryan & I over for dinner once, but other than that I hadn't really gotten to know them. Out of the blue they offered me a place to live for the summer, rent-free. I actually moved into their guest room while they were on vacation, lol; made friends with Scout (the cat) and then spent a wonderful summer as part of their family. They were wonderful chaperones for Ryan's & my courtship, and they were great friends. I say all of that to paint what sort of people they are; how they view their home. They are hospitable to the core, and their house is just one more resource God has entrusted to them for His Kingdom's expansion.

Is it any wonder, then, that they should take that to its logical extreme and bring in an orphan to love and raise? Today Éowyn and I got to go watch & listen as Judge O'Reilly pronounced them legal and final parents of Glen Graydon, after two years of waiting, working, praying and hoping. It was one of the most encouraging & devotional experiences of my week. Tears were very very near as I heard the judge read out what Graydon is now to them, and what they are to him-- son and heir, with all the rights & priveleges as if born of their bodies, and parents & guardians with all the legal and moral obligations of natural ancestors.

Why was this so touching and encouraging to me? Partly, because I know how amazing it was for Glen & Bethany to hear those words. They never knew if this day would for sure come, and they deeply had hoped it would. To hear that no one could EVER take Graydon from them again was especially amazing to me-- "Little G" was a concurrent foster placement in their home, meaning that they had him as a foster son with no guarantee that he would become legally free for adoption. For the past year and a half, there has been the possibility that he would be reunited with his birth mother, and even after the goal of his placement became "adoption," there was still nothing legal stating that he was their son. But that wasn't why the judge's words sank so deeply into my heart, and why I will forever remember those short, precious 15 minutes in that courtroom.

Here is why:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, [...] In Him we have obtained an inheritance..." (Ephesians 1:5-11)

"But to all who did receive him, who believed in His (Jesus') name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:12-13)

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (Gal. 4:4-7)

That courtroom was like a window into my own life. Spiritually, I'm adopted, too.

Graydon has a little brother, Ian. Ian was born to his parents, and Graydon was adopted... and before the eyes of the law, and in the eyes of their parents, there is absolutely no difference between them. Both are their full & legal sons. Anyone who's ever seen them with their parents knows that they really are treated exactly like natural, beloved sons. What absolutely blew (and still is blowing) my mind is that WE, once adopted by God, are treated as His natural Son too: that means that in God's omniscient eyes, we're viewed just like Jesus. We are just as secure, just as loved, just as dear, just as heard, and slated to receive just as much inherintance as... Jesus Christ! WOW! Because of Jesus, we are headed towards a future, an inheritance so amazing that Paul said it made every hardship in this world worth it... He earned the inheritance through agonies and a perfect life, with the full intent of splitting it evenly with all the brothers & sisters His life & death brought into His family. Let that sink in. Wow. Really!!? I get treated to the same lavish love, the same riches, the same favor as Jesus!??? But I don't deserve it! Not at ALL.

That's the marvelous unfairness of mercy and grace, isn't it?

"For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." (Romans 8:15-18)

Waiting for Judge O'Reilly (it was so cute to hear Graydon say that!)

About to be officially a family-- Glen holding Ian (4 mos) & Bethany with Graydon (2)

They had quite a crowd of witnesses; the officials all commented on it, saying it might be a record of children present for an adoption. Since most of the kids were girls, I chalked it up to Graydon's charm with the ladies...

"Hi, Abby!"

Lydia, excited and not sure why

Listening to Judge O'Reilly read the statement

Graydon was saying things like "More!" (pictures) and "Judge O'Reilly" and "All done... down?"


Graydon got a totally new identity today; a new name completely unlike his old one; all three names, all new. I found out that he was a junior before-- named after some one from his birth mother's life. Now he's named after someone else; his daddy. Having met both men, I can say that the two are utterly different. I know that Graydon will be much more proud to be named after the man who has set his love on him and is raising him, giving him his name and huge shoes to follow.

That started me thinking about us and our spiritual adoption, too. We also have a birth father-- Jesus called him the father of lies (John 8:44). Nice. We're all born with Satan's last name, you could say. Then we're adopted, re-born, and we get a new name-- God's name. We become Christians. We get a new identity, some one new to imitate and become like.

I actually was talking to Bethany a few Sundays ago about how adopted children tend to look like their adoptive parents. It seems that we imitate the facial expressions and physical mannerisms of those we see most often, and that in turn affects where fat is deposited, influencing face shape and facial features! Amazing! 2 Corinthians 3:18 says that as we look at our new Father --"we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,"-- we start to look like Him-- "are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another." As John Piper put it, "beholding is becoming." Like Graydon, I know that my new Father is far more worthy of imitation than my first one.

Graydon didn't set out to find Glen & Bethany. He was totally oblivious to everything going on today. He had no idea what he was saved from; no idea what a horror his life could have been. He laughed and smiled and sucked his thumb and waved, and just enjoyed the love of parents he didn't earn, seek, or buy. They just set their love on him, and pursued him. They persevered through every obstacle, and finally made him their own. I didn't go after God-- no one does. No, He had to come after me. He set His love on me, and now I am His. Wow.

I'm never going to forget today. I pray that some of my wonder will lodge in your mind and start you marveling, too.

Hooray!

Our friends Dave & Stacey just passed their adoption court date on the other side of the world, meaning that now they are PARENTS! In 4-6 weeks, they get to go get their daughter & son from Ethiopia. Eowyn was quite excited to hear the news; she knows that means new friends for her! Ryan & I are a bit stoked, too. :)

That's nothing compared to the proud new mama & papa; they've been waiting for almost 2 years for this day. Adoption is a labor of love, that's for sure. Hooray! Praise the Lord!

Modeling Family Togetherness

You know, the family that plays together stays together, right? Ryan & I had fun putting together our costumes for our church's Fall Party this year. It was minimal sewing, and I got a few props at the dollar store. I have a bag of stained baby clothes that we had to take out of the Clothes Closet at church, so that's where I got material for Eowyn's clothes. See more fall fun pictures here.

And this is yet another reason why Ryan & I were so evidently made for one another. I'm so thankful I have a hubby who enjoys dressing up and being thought a bit crazy as much as I do! :) We just COULDN'T let his long hair go to waste when there are so many wonderful costumes that call for luxurious locks!!

Sweet Sailing on the Sea of Dreams

"Wynken, Blynken, and Nod"

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, one night sailed off in a wooden shoe;
Sailed off on a river of crystal light into a sea of dew.
"Where are you going and what do you wish?" the old moon asked the three.
"We've come to fish for the herring fish that live in this beautiful sea.
Nets of silver and gold have we," said Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.

The old moon laughed and sang a song as they rocked in the wooden shoe.
And the wind that sped them all night long ruffled the waves of dew.
Now the little stars are the herring fish that live in that beautiful sea;
"Cast your nets wherever you wish never afraid are we!"
So cried the stars to the fishermen three - Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.

So all night long their nets they threw to the stars in the twinkling foam.

'Til down from the skies came the wooden shoe bringing the fisherman home.
'Twas all so pretty a sail it seemed as if it could not be.
Some folks say 'twas a dream they dreamed of sailing that misty sea.
But I shall name you the fisherman three - Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.

Now Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes and Nod is a little head.
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies is a wee one's trundle bed.
So close your eyes while mother sings of the wonderful sights that be.
And you shall see those beautiful things as you sail on the misty sea,
Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three - Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.

~by Eugene Field (published on March 9, 1889).

I think I'll memorize this so I can recite it to Éowyn when she's a little older and getting tucked into bed. =D

Mama's Sailor Doll Baby

She looked like such a perfect baby doll tonight while I was changing her... and then I got the idea to stick a sailor cap on her and see how she liked it. Maybe she'll be a sailor like her Poppy?

Blog Ideas

So I've been thinking about how better to utilize this blog... right now it's a mishmash of posts about my child, home-making tips, good quotes, educational information, reviews of books/other media, and my own opinions of Scriptural interpretations, politics, child-rearing, and a whole host of other topics. A reader really has no idea what to expect, and could easily be bored with the discussion of children's literature ("just tell me about your latest trip!") or get sick of photos of my darling daughter and handsome husband ("all right already-why are you boring us with the details of your piddly little life?"). I've got a few ideas about how to format the blog-- either a daily categorical emphasis (ex. "Homemaking on Mondays," "Media Reviews on Wednesdays," "Family Update on Thursday," etc.) or a topical daily emphasis (topics like History, Nutrition, Missions, our Nation) with my own views mixed with articles and/or quotes from others.

What do y'all think? Which should I do?

One Month Old!

I took Eowyn in for her 1-month well-baby visit (what my mom always called a "check-up") this morning, and her doctor said she's looking great!

Weight: 10 lbs, 6 oz-- 90%tile-- she's gained an average of about 1.25 oz a day since we brought her home. [That's so wack when you think of what percentage of her body weight that is! That'd be like a 130 lb-person gaining over 1 lb a day!... wow I can't believe I just calculated that out. And my dad wasn't even making me!]

Height: 22" -- 75%tile

Milestones: came home from the hospital (2 days old), gone to church (9 days old), lost her bellybutton (3 weeks 1 day old), first bath (3 weeks 3 days), had her first baby-sitting (4 weeks 1 day old)

Skills: eating, crying (she gets her point across!), holding head up (especially when having an acid-reflux attack), following an object with her eyes, grasping & tugging, turning head from side to side while on tummy (she tries to roll over from her back to her stomach; it's more comfy on her belly).

What I seem to like: walks in my stroller; my warm bath (while I'm in it); being held upright (like in my Ergo carrier), sometimes with my head hanging waaaay back; being patted on the back; napping on my tummy; the taste of breastmilk; being swaddled in my fuzzy pink Swaddler or my knitted pink blanket; being facedown & bounced or patted across Mommy's knees; being held by Daddy; sleeping on Poppy's chest.

What I definitely do NOT appreciate: anyone messing with my head or arms (aka getting shirts on & off or into my carseat); burps that won't come out; being laid flat on my back; getting squirted in the face while trying to eat; having to stop eating mid-meal; getting out of the bath

What people say about me: "She is cute as a button!" "Wow! She's so observant!" "She's very strong!" "Look at those big blue eyes." "She has the family chin-dimple!" "Where did you get her headband?" and variations on "You (Mommy) have one of the prettiest babies I've ever seen."

Visitors: Poppy & Nana (Elder grandparents), (Great-) Grandpa & Grandma Presley, GB & Nina (Thompson grandparents), Daddy Ron & Mama Peggy (Thompson great-grandparents); Aunt Courtney (Elder), Tia Anna (Thompson), "Aunt" Ashlea (Davenport), "Uncle Mr. The Lyle" (Mantooth), "Uncle Mike" (Johnson), and lots of friends from church: Ben, Amanda & Eleanor Brainard; Aaron, Jenny & Jane Montgomery; "Uncle" Coshack Robinson; Hayley Wilton; Caitlyn; Randi & Isaiah Tyson; Glen & Bethany Moore; Ryan, Sarah & Brooklynn Bebee; Melanie, Noel, Ava & Calvin Hall; the entire Jim Rairick crew; "Aunt" Sina Shuey; Natasha Miesee (with Grace in utero); all the Beams; Jeff & Alexis King; Ben, Sarah & Daniel Hedrick; Tom, Joy & Kerith Lynn... all devoted fans!

Outings: Starbucks, Shelby, Central & Cherokee Parks, the St. James Ct. Art Fair, Moe's, Immanuel Baptist Church, the Downtown Post Office, Bardstown Rd., Ramsi's Cafe on the World, Care Group (@ Jim & Marlaina Rairick's house), Book Club (@ Sina Shuey's house), Sojourn's Fall Festival, the Keune twins' baby shower (@ Libbie Timmons'); Huber's Orchard & Winery (in Starlight, Indiana), KidsRGreat Pediatrics, Experience the Hands Chiropractic; Walmart, Target & Goss St. Kroger!