Gideon and Dad Watching the Husker Game

Gideon's Play Time

Dad and Son Getting Ready for the Nebraska Bowl Game

9 minutes until kickoff! Go Big Red!!!!

Who would have guessed that Gideon picked this outfit this morning to wear?

Gideon with the Terwilleger Cousins

These are the first pictures of potentially many of Gideon's time up in Dubuque, for the Terwilleger family Christmas. Here he is with the cousins. What was AWESOME was that this was the first time he was able to run around and work on "keeping up" with the cousins. They were incredible with him. Patient, caring, encouraging, and really loving. It was great!


If you'll look at Gideon's position here, you'll see what happens when one desires to be extra wiggly while with the cousins. Thanks Noah, you are great!

David's Place Ethiopian and Eritrean Food

Today, amidst the snowstorm where we lost count of the cars, trucks, and semis in the ditch, we, along with our friends the Jones family, headed to Iowa City, Iowa, to an Ethiopian restaraunt. Iowa City is about an hour from here (it took us about an hour and a half to get there). This is a place we've gone to many times before. Now that I'm on vacation this week, I wanted to make the trek to David's Place for some good Ethiopian food.


Downtown Iowa City, by the Old Capital building. I'd have no idea this place even exists other than the fact that my brother's family lives in Iowa City and took us there a while back (pre-Gideon). The Ethiopian food that the Mexican lady made for us today was AWESOME!!!

Note: the lamb tibs are gone, the beef tibs are gone, the potatos are 1/2 gone, have some salad left, but the chick peas are pretty much still untouched and uneaten (which is also the way they left our table, too).

Interestingly, when we were in Ethiopia, we saw no Ethiopian kids sucking down milk from a sippy cup.

This is the third or fourth time we've been to eat at David's and I don't think I've seen anyone other than us there, ever! However, we love the food! However, it was great taking Adam, Maharah, Anavah, and Asher there for some culture and food. And it was the first time Gideon's eaten Ethiopian food since the flight back from Ethiopia on Ethiopian Airlines (when the steward put some of his supper in Gideon's mouth as Kathee was walking up and down the aisle while I was sick sleeping across all three seats).

After trying a bite of food, Gideon was "all done" eating Ethiopian food. Give the kid Cream of Wheat, his dad's yogurt or unsweetened iced tea, and he's off to the races. He turns his nose up at injera, lamb tibs, beef tibs, and other great stuff.

I do have to say that I was a bit bummed they didn't have Tajj (honey beer) which I had in Ethiopia. The waitress said that due to Iowa law prohibiting out-of-state purchasing of alcohol, they are unable to get any Ethiopian drinks. I was a bit bummed, but since I VERY RARELY have anything with alcohol in it, it was a bit of a let down. However, it took us back to our time in Ethiopia, and was great to share with the Jones family our experience, even with Ethiopian coffee (Ethiopian style). What a great time!

South Park Fun Area

As I've been on vacation, Kathee and I have been intentional about getting out and doing some pretty cool things. I know, I know, a trip to the mall solely for letting Gideon play in the fun area may not seem "fun," but it really was.

It has been a joy to sit and watch him in new environments to see his forming personality surface. When another kid won't move out an area, Gideon is patient, waits things out, and then goes through or moves to another area. When he gets stuck on something, he is quick to ask for help from Mom or Dad. When he succeeds at something "big" he is quick to look at us with pride, and sometimes ran over to us to hug and celebrate. When another kid pushed him down, Gideon just moved on (no crying or whining) to another area. We are really excited to help him develop God-honoring strengths as he grows. And it's neat to see some of thost traits already "there."

Here are some pictures from our time at the mall. Enjoy.

Christmas Meal

Opening Presents Part Deux

Opening Christmas Presents

What a Great Night

Tonight was SO cool! Okay, so chill. There is no picture nor video for this post. We just had a couple over who are adopting from AWAA (the agency through whom we adopted Gideon) and are adopting from Ethiopia. They just passed Ethiopian court a few weeks ago and now have a firm travel date to go finalize everything on that end and bring their beloved Yedidiya (just turned 6 months old). It was so fun spending time with Aaron and Laura. They are from a city about 20 minutes north of here along the Mississippi River. They actually attend Cornerstone Baptist Church in Eldridge, Iowa. That is the church with whom I went to Moldova in 2008 and co-led our youth mission trip to Moldova with Teresa, one of their members last summer.
Interestingly, Kathee and I found out about Aaron and Laura at about the same time, yet from different sources. I found out about them from Teresa Bivens (my co-leader to Moldova) and Kathee from the Yahoo AWAA group.
How exciting. It was so fun to share a meal with them and get to know them a bit. And what an absolutely cool couple! Love the Lord, are going to be raising Yedidiya in much the same way Gideon is being raised, and are just an all-around cool couple. Their little one in waiting is going to be so blessed.
It was fun to sit and share our experiences of actuallyl being in Ethiopia. What to pack, how much, meeting Gideon, etc, etc. And here's what hit me/us midway through the night. We've never processed our adoption experience. As we talked, it became clear to me that as we were sharing with them, we were working through, coming to realizations, and observations about our adoption experience, as well as what happened while we were in Addis.
And although Kathee and I both felt like we talked too much (we should have asked more questions and spent more time listening), we had an absolute blast with them tonight. What a neat day it will be to meet them again with their little one finally home. Our God is good. And it appears that God is growing the Ethiopian adoption community in our area/region (Kathee and I Moline; Aaron and Laura in Princeton, Iowa; Eric and Deb Lockhart in Dubuque, Iowa; and a family south of Newton, Iowa. There are some of us here and more are being added each day. What fun.

Dogs Eating

Gideon is amazed at eating time for Riely and Solomon. He normally plays in the dog food bin for a bit, then walks over in between the dogs, and watches them eat. And oftentimes he messes with them. I'm sure glad Kathee and I would mess with the dogs when they ate since the day we got them. I remember doing that with Solomon as a puppy as I didn't want a youth group kid or a church kid getting bit because they ventured too close to the dog bowl. Now it's my own son, and I'm pumped about the work done 9 years ago! Anyway, Gideon loves feeding time, and as you can see is fearless around his "puppiesh."

Must Be a Seat in the Front Row

Another new addition to the adventures of Gideon is that he's conquering climbing into chairs. For those of you who haven't been in our house, we have some really different chairs, which just adds to the fun Gideon gets to have. One of our chairs is from Pakistan and another is from Zaire/Democratic Republic of Congo. The sentinal chair (from Zaire) is the one he likes climbing into the best and seems to give him the greatest feeling of accomplishment. I must admit, the kid is good. Enjoy.

The Boy and His Dog

Gideon totally loves Riely, our golden retriever. Recently he has started saying "Riery" as we come up the back sidewalk or up to the front door. And once we get inside he yells, "Puppiesh." It's really cool how much he loves his dogs. And it's way cooler how much Riely loves Gideon. Enjoy the video, I think it's pretty cool!

Christmas Letter Pictures

I know it's been FOREVER since I've posted. I've been super-busy at church with things and haven't had a ton of time for much else. So here we go.

We assumed that having the dogs look at the camera may be a bit of a stretch, so we thought we'd "lovingly" hold their collars, pointing their heads toward the camera would work....WRONG!!!
So after moving them a few times, Riely soon lost interest and wouldn't even sit up.
Solomon decided to get in the act... so I thought it'd be funny to take a picture as if I'm freaking out at the poor dog.
And viola! A beautiful Christmas letter-type picture that you won't be receiving in your mailbox as we decided to use another picture for the letter.