Baptism

Today Evelyn was baptized. Obviously Alan and I could not take any pictures, but my mom did take a few. To maintain the sacredness of the sacrament there is no flash photography in church, so mom says they turned out kind of fuzzy, but I hope to get them from her soon and post them here anyway. This week I plan to take some pictures of Evelyn in the baptism gown and will post those as well.

The baptism itself was beautiful. Evelyn was so good, too. She had no trouble with the water at all and was happy as a little clam when Pastor Dave walked her up and down the church aisles so the congregation could see her. After the actual sacrament I sang "O God You Search Me" by Bernadette Farrell, a modern hymn based on Psalm 139. To top off how special the day was the opening hymn of the service was "Love Divine All Loves Excelling" which was sung at our wedding. It was a very special morning.

Afterward Amma and Papa took us out to lunch. It was nice to spend time with them because it had seemed like forever since the last time we were all together.

Pictures soon!

Update (mostly Evelyn)

Sorry it's been a while. Our computer died (not sure if it's the cord, battery, or what) so I haven't been downloading pix or thinking much about the blog.

Basically the only update right now is Evelyn's doctor's appointment this morning. She gained 1 lb 3 oz this month, which I was excited about till the nurse told me that's now off the chart :(. The doctor, however, didn't seem terribly concerned. We're upping her cereal intake to three times a day as well as giving her as many fruits and veggies as she'll eat. We basically think she's a bottomless pit with a very high metabolism. Once I told her about Alan's childhood (really all the way into college!) and how skinny he was no matter what he ate, she really is chalking it mostly up to genetics I think. She would, however, like to see Evelyn still basically parallel the bottom chart line. She didn't tell me the plan if her numbers fall lower, but I imagine it will start with blood tests at the very least to make sure all is functioning properly and possibly supplementing with formula.

New milestone: Evelyn sat unsupported this morning!! Wobbly, and fell over pretty quickly, but there was definitely some sitting up all on her own. We're going to keep practicing and hopefully take some pictures soon.

This Sunday, October 11th, Evelyn will be baptized. I'm going to take pictures of her in her gown and those will serve as her 5 month shots. Amma and Papa are going to be able to make it over for the day so we're looking forward to seeing them and celebrating Evelyn's baptism with them.

As of yesterday it seems Adeline is no longer a fan of napping.... This does not bode well for me. I really love and need the "me time" I get most afternoons and really have no idea what I'm going to do with myself if the nap phase of her life is over. Pray for me in this!

In other news, later this month the fam will travel to Cincinnati. Alan has a conference there so we decided we'd take the whole fam and spend some time with our dear friends Nathan, Johanna and William. Hooray!

That's all for now. Will try to be better with more updates and some pix soon. I've been taking pictures, just not posting them. I'll put some up soon.

Love to all,
Meredith

Ebenezer

One year ago today we drove away from the shoebox and towards our new lives in Michigan. Here I raise an Ebenezer to God's faithfulness in our lives. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Let all that is within me praise His holy Name!

Great is Thy faithfulness O God, my Father
There is no shadow of turning with Thee.
Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not.
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see!
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided.
Great is Thy faithfulness Lord, unto me.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth.
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide.
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside.

Apple Picking!

Today Adeline and I went with our friends Kara and Hannah to Erwin Orchards here in South Lyon. We took a tractor ride out to the orchards to pick some Empire and Gala apples. When we came back we enjoyed some delicious doughnuts and cider slushies (Kara and Hannah had an apple cider slushie and Adeline and I shared a raspberry cider slushie - yum!). When we had our fill we fed the goats, took some silly pictures and climbed on the hay bales. What a fun morning. Thanks, Kara and Hannah, for such a good time!

Cookies!

Today I thought it would be a fun activity for Adeline and me to make and decorate cookies. Here are some pictures of the fun...

Adeline cutting out
her pumpkin cookies!

Evelyn helped too, of course

Decorating cookies is fun and easy
with the Decorator Bottle Set
from The Pampered Chef!
I showed Adeline how and she picked it up right away!

The finished product
(Mommie did some, too)

We had so much fun. Looking forward to more cookie-making adventures come the holidays!

Sunday School

Adeline officially attends a Sunday School class at church on Sunday mornings. Last week was the kickoff and this week was her second week of class. It is so crazy to bring home her crafts and lessons! What a big girl! She is given her own little bag to bring home her goodies each week and it always has a little packet in there for parents telling them about what their children learned in class today and how to help them explain to you what they learned. It also includes activities I can do with Adeline. It is so fun to help her learn Bible stories. Last week we talked about how Moses floated in a basket down the river - "Baby in the water!" as Adeline says. This week she came home with her pillar of cloud and fire (that's what she's holding in her hand in the picture). She loves her teachers: Mrs. Marsha and Mrs. Lisa. And she's already learned her memory verse for the month: "God cares about you!" (1 Peter 5:7). We look forward to Sunday School class every week :).

Potty Break

Normally we use this phrase to encourage Adeline to take a break from what she's doing to go potty. (We made up a catchy little tune for it, too, repeating the phrase several times.) Well, today it means a break from the potty instead of for the potty. Over the last week Adeline has been having a lot of accidents and it hasn't been a good experience for anyone involved (she'd been having lots of accidents anyway but I thought we were really making progress). Then last night at small group she had several nasty (#2) accidents in a row... then this morning she just peed all over the bathroom floor... :(. I'm confident that this is more than just regression. All this to say, I'm pretty sure the novelty of the potty that made it exciting in the beginning has now faded, and things have not been going so well. Today we put away the underwear and pulled out the diapers again. I thought she might complain or be sad to feel like a baby again, but nope! She actually seemed a lot happier. I won't lie - I am disappointed that the first take didn't take. But clearly it's just not her time. We'll try again in a couple of months. In the meantime, I'm going to have her keep her diapers, wipes and change of clothes in her little backpack for her to carry around as her diaper bag. I think she'll actually kind of like it :).

Thanks for all the PT advice over the course of our month-long adventure. We'll let you know when we pick things up again.