John Piper Video

Okay, last video embed for the night. I have linked this video a couple times on my blog over the years. However, I'm now embedding it for you. As many/most of you know, I think Doctor Piper is THE BOMB!!!! Enjoy the video. Nothing like hearing biblical teaching, eloquently and theologically shared, by a father of an adopted child. Our God is so good.

Drawn From Water

Okay, so I just figured out how to embed things, so watch out. This is a video I received from a dear friend of mine in Dubuque. This is one of the most powerful videos I've seen. I'm passing it along.



Now that you've seen it, what will you do with it?

Youtube Video

I just found this video on Youtube and it has Kathee, Gideon, and I in it. Seemingly half of the families in this video were in our travel group when we went to Ethiopia in November. This video (of which we sent pictures to the creator) was done by a women who showed this video to her church. Hope you enjoy it.

Gideon Playing in the Kitchen

My brother Aaron and sister-in-law Jenn gave this toy to Gideon. We took the video to show them how well he plays with it, not knowing that the video would be pretty much Gideon ripping everything off the fridge. Nothing like showing someone by action just how much you love them.

Gideon Chillin with Sydney

Sydney came over to the house early today to hang out with Kathee. Gideon loves Sydney and thinks she's great. We were just having fun with the camera, enjoy!

A Neat Connection

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, of this week, Kathee, Gideon, and I went camping with our friends the Schurmans at Starved Rock State Park in Utica, IL (halfway between here and Chicago). We arrived first and were setting up our tents, when a man walked by. We said our pleasantries and he walked away. Stopping a few yards away, he picked up a bubble toy that some kids had left from their weekend before and gave it to Kathee for Gideon to play with. He then stopped, asked where Gideon was from, and then the fun started. It turned out that he and his wife had just gone to Ethiopia in June of last year to pick up their two new grand kids. Their children had gone through America World (the same agency as we did) and they adopted two older children (8 and 10ish as I remember). The blog address for his children is: gardneradoptionjournal.blogspot.com. He had pictures on his digital camera, of which we saw some of the workers who were present when we were there and pictures of the transition home. Unfortunately, their children and grandchildren had left on Sunday, otherwise we would have been able to meet them. We must have talked for 15 to 20 minutes with them. How random, and yet, how fun! Who would've thought?!

Bathtime

Gideon's First Hair Cut

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

Gideon's First Commercial... Frito's Bean Dip

We were having, among other things, Fritos and bean dip for lunch today. Kathee wanted to give Gideon a bite. Not sure if he enjoyed it or not, you tell me.

He Gets Into His Cake

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Crashin The Birthday Cake

These were the cakes that Darlene Adams made for Gideon! She is quite the cake-lady. She is absolutely great and volunteered to make him a cake. So now that you have seen it all nice and neat...

Bill and Rhonda's Gift to Gideon

Bill and Rhonda LOVE cowboys, horses, and everything western (which is maybe why their license plate is NHRA (national horse racing association). So, to go along with the cowboy hat they gave him before he arrived, they brought a horse over for him to ride. One grabs an ear and it makes noise. Here are some pictures!

More Birthday Pictures

Manlin's Gift to Gideon

Well, Gideon is celebrating his first birthday today. And Manlin, a young lady in our youth ministry brought Gideon a couple gifts for his birthday. I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Waking Up From A Nap

Some More Fun Things

The kid is growing up! Kathee said that today she had him lying down on the floor in the living room and then she walked in to the kitchen for a second. When she came back, he had rolled himself over to the outlet and was tugging on one of the cords. Then she moved him back to the center of the room and when she came back, he had rolled himself over to another outlet and was tugging on another cord.
When I got home from work today, Gideon was taking things out of his box, pulling himself up to the little coffee table, and putting his goodies on the table. The kid is slowly going mobile!

Getting Ready for Nap Time

Gideon's Spaghetti O's Initiation... and More of His Showing Off His Mad Skills

Although his face seems to be telling Mom that he doesn't like the Spaghetti O's he had for supper tonight (you know, a well-balanced diet), he snapped out of his funny face and broke into showing off once he heard the beeps on the camera and went in to show-off mode.
The latest thing I think is absolutely hilarious is all in honor of the Swine Flu/N1HI Outbreak. I taught him how to do a fake cough, which he seems to be perfecting, but not ready to break out in public. I'll try to get him to do it on camera.