SANTA BABY

It's been three weeks now, but Dodger hasn't forgotten. We went to the local library and got to see Santa! We took a list from home. Dodger sat on his lap and wondered why Santa didn't want to look at the list, so he read it to Santa. (But all in all that Santa was a great one!) Then he ate snacks, had his picture in the Brentwood Journal, which I STILL haven't seen! And saw a magic show! We had such a great time. And Jennifer Bell and the Weavers were there with us. The very next Monday Dodger and I were at the Green Hills Mall for a few things and GUESS WHO WAS THERE....Santa! I told Dodger that we wouldn't be able to go see Santa that day and he replied "Oh, I don't want to. I already sat on his lap at the library, remember?" :) He (Dodger) has new questions about Santa all the time. Like: Why is he always wearing different clothes? Why don't we see reindeer? Where are the elves? Can we go see them? Can we go to the North Pole? Then why can the kids on Polar Express go there? Is it always dark at the NP? When Santa goes to China, can he speak Chinese? Will Santa get cold taking presents all over???

BATMAN GETS FIRED

Actually, Batman lives at our house. He's a lot shorter than I imagined him...and his alterego isn't Bruce Wayne. It's Dodger Vest. Someday he's going to make it all much simpler and just change his name legally to BATMAN. He told me that last week. He reassured us he would still live at the house. Dodger, I mean, Batman doesn't like the idea of someday moving from our house. He also thinks that "getting fired" means falling into hot lava. But we haven't let him see Star Wars III, so he must have made it up. We also talked a lot about heaven. It's been a frequent early-morning-in-the-car discussion and I like it...because I remember doing the same thing with my dad. I wanted to make sure I was going to heaven...Dodger is making sure that Batman, Spider-Man and Superman will be there too. It's fun having Batman live at the house. He fights off the bad guys and gives Dodger a chance to visit his grandparents. One night Batman told us that Dodger was on his way to Nana's on a plane. The next day he went to Honi's. He wore his mask even to bed so we wouldn't discover his alias. We were so concerned that Dodger was gone for too long that Batman lifted his mask and whispered to me "It's me, mom. But don't tell dad".

Our Casa

Questions

Dodger is at that fun four-year-old age where everything is literal and if not, he's asking me what it means. "What does 'keep on truckin' mean?" He's got the questions...and we don't have all the answers. I like the Berenstain Bears book about God "The Big Question" which is all about explaining that God made everything. Sister bear asks at the end: "Did God make questions too?" Anyway, I wish I could remember half of the questions Dodger's asked this week. I do know that he could finally go to bed tonight because he had the answer to what time we are waking up in the morning. He needed to think about those numbers since he's got a digital clock by his bed (and I wonder if he'll wake up in the middle of the night just waiting for 7:00.) We are heading to Chick-Fil-A, then the library to see Santa. Dodger has a small list of wants, mainly Legos and Bionicles, which are really just fancy Legos. But his big concern is why we always see Santa ("Momma, why does he always wear a different looking suit?") but never his reindeer. Who cares how santa fits down the chimney, how does he get around? We had a Paddington Bear adventure for two days this week (Paddington's now on the Christmas list, thanks Genevieve!) and it was the most precious thing to see Dodger talk to Paddington and take care of him. He told me that "Paddington can't wear his boots in the house because they are muddy and no shoes in the house". And "Paddington might want to run away in the middle of the night to his mommy". Paddington had a question for Dodger this week. Dodger had a little "gleek" come from his mouth when he was talking and Paddington asked "What's that?". Dodger said: "It's water...actually slime. We have slime and blood in our bodies". All in all, Paddington liked our house. I hope he comes back for a visit again soon.

Christmas Card 2005

Thanksgiving is here. That means I can send our Christmas card out! Thanksgiving means quite a lot more to us, don't worry. But Troy and I have sent "Annual Christmas Greetings" twice (I think). We've been married four times the number of annual letters...so if you did get a card from us this year (and actually followed the blog address to this site), then I'm sure it's been quite a surprise to hear from us. Good surprise or bad surprise? (Notting Hill) Hopefully good surprise. (Tell us privately, please). This picture was a surprise...I thought I was wasting hours sorting and editing photos, but found this picture of Dodger in his Batman PJ's eating cookies as fast as we could make them. Too bad I had to crop out the PJ's. I also wanted to send out a Christmas letter this year, but didn't know how to fit in all the details about Dodger's growing, our graying (yes..gray..) inside a tiny card. Plus, we have wonderful news: "We're having a baby"! She is due to us from China prayerfully next summer or fall. I overheard Dodger to his buddy Sam the other day, "I'll be a big brother soon...or maybe in a long time". We don't know exactly how long it will be. Hopefully not as long as it takes me to get Christmas cards out!

A Step

Why adopt? Because seeds that God planted in my heart for another child had begun to grow. Change didn't occur in my heart until I realized that adoption isn't exclusively for people who can'’t have children naturally. We have wonderful Dodger. After a year of trying for #2, God began to take us down a different road. We started searching our hearts and asking Him a lot of questions. Troy wasn't verbal about his desire to adopt, but it was there. He has always wanted a little girl from China. I thought, maybe someday. In May I began to pray over and over for two things: One, that God would show me how to actively obey Him. And two, that He would give us road signs if we were to adopt. I thought I needed more than just "“Hey, that'’s a great idea, and lots of people we know are doing it"”. So I meditated on these two requests (obedience and signs) to the Lord for a month. God answered both prayers and showed up in a soft whisper that "“You don'’t need signs, Aim. You need a heart completely and 100% on board. When your heart is ready, you'll do it because you WANT to."” I said "Okay, change my heart then". I didn'’t think it would happen, but once my heart was turned upside down, there was no turning back. In fact it was then that I realized that God planned from the beginning to bring us babies from near and far. And even though I didn't need "signs" they kept coming anyway. I realized that adoption is never plan B for anybody- not parent or child. Just two weeks after my heart was being flooded with this new truth, I went to a Family Life adoption conference at our church. I wondered if the teachers at the conference had read my journal first. And better than having all of these signs show up on a map, the intentionality of God to want to show us and love on us in this way is so humbling. Every step of the way, we've been asking Him to help us follow His lead. We know this is just the first step. But it is a step.

Dodger

 

Gearing Up for the First Day

This is my first blog. I'm sitting here staring at a blank page. I so love to journal about the daily-ness of our lives (simple things that trigger great memories- so simple they are quickly forgotten unless I've written them down). But between figuring out this thing, this"blog-whatever" and paying attention to Mr. Mighty Hunter here, I don't know what to write. SO much to write. SO little time. Mr. M.H. is walking around, headlamp on, asking me if we have almonds and eating Rolaids. He's turned off the lights to adjust the hue of his headlamp and is showing me the different colors on the wall. No, it's not Dodger. I guess it would be frightening or weird if Dodger were eating antacids. Tomorrow is opening day of rifle season, did I say that right? And Troy is gearing up. He is warned not to wake me up at 3:00 AM tomorrow morning. I'm going to wrap up this post so I can get to the fun stuff...picture posting. This could be addicting...

A Rare Pic

This rare pic (because the three of us are rarely together in a shot instead of behind the camera) was taken in Atlanta at Matt and Rachel's - Aug. 05. This is us! CuatroChalecos! If you know Spanish then it might seem strange that we three are cuatro chalecos. I thought about Los Cuatros Chalecos but that's too much to remember. The truth is we're expecting a fourth member and are praying like she is already a part of our family! We would love to give more details, but we don't have any...yet. What we know so far: Dodger is going to be a big brother, and we have love in our hearts for a precious baby coming to us from CHINA! More info on future blog.

First Titans Game!

DODGER had a blast with Daddy at the Titans game on October 30th. The first time we asked him, Dodger said he wanted to be a dinosaur when he grew up. More recently he's changed from wanting to be a dinosaur to being a daddy...until the day he saw the Titans play. He informed us both that he wants to be a football player someday. We told him the great news that he can do two out of those three things! If he will just quit saying "throw me the baseball"!