Roo is 9 months old!

On Monday, our baby turned 9 months old! He has started to pull up on the furniture and crawls crazy fast, especially when there is a sock left on the floor to gnaw on (it's not the worst thing he's ever chewed on at least-- I pick my battles). His newest achievement is disobedience! I knew it would come sooner or later, but this is a little sooner than I had hoped. It goes something like this: I say "No, Judah. Don't touch the dishwasher." He takes his hand off the dishwasher, looks straight at me, then touches it with the rattle that is in his other hand and smiles... I have a feeling this will be an ongoing challenge of parenthood.

Our big news is that we have decided to adopt! We are just starting the process now and it will take a few months before we have all of our paperwork, homestudy, etc. in order. We want to adopt domestically (a baby from the US) and the organization we have decided to use is called Bethany Christian Services. The way adoption works with BCS is that when a pregnant woman who is interested in placing her child for adoption comes to them, if she chooses adoption after counseling about her options, she chooses the family she wants to place her child with. This means that we have no idea when we will be adopting as we will have to wait until we are chosen. We are very excited to be pursuing this and hopefully will be adding another wonderful life to our family sometime in the next couple years! For those of you Judah-lovers out there, don't worry, I think we will have more biological children someday too =)

I was holding Judah the other night, nursing him before bed, and I started thinking about a couple verses from the Bible. One is Joshua 1:5 where God says to Joshua "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Another is Romans 8:38-39 where it says "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." I cannot tell you how much I love Judah! It has brought me to tears many times. I will tell Judah this now and for all his life: nothing can separate you from my love. That this is what God tells us blows me away more and more as I understand what it is like to have a parent's love for a child.

Sunny days

...chasin' the clouds away, on my way to where the air is sweet! So, Judah's official first favorite thing to watch on TV is "Elmo's song," compliments of youtube and his papa. Forrest heard an allusion to it on the radio and decided he wanted to see if he could find the video online. Sure enough it was readily available and before he knew it Judah had that glazed veggin' out look and was doing a little bop to the music. We've got to be careful with that Sesame Street!

Adam and Amy came to visit and we are sad that it is over already! We had a wonderful week. We hit the beach a couple times, visited St. Augustine and Amelia island, and played games, most of which were won hands down by the girls, of course. They just bought a new house so we got to share in their excitement about their new beautiful lot (including a monkey tree-- they're so funny looking!) and the new addition they are already planning. Here are some pictures from the week:

Judah and Aunt Amy at a picnic

Judah, Uncle Adam (wearing a shirt to prevent a second bad sunburn), and Forrest

Chatty baby!

Things that aren't food...

1. Poop

Apparently we didn't review this very thoroughly with Judah... and maybe we stressed the importance of recycling a little too much...

10 Things

I don't usually do these things, but it gave me a reason to take a picture of my super-cute shoes =)

Rules for this tag: 10 pictures, take them right away- NO cleaning up first, and tag three friends!

1. Favorite destination: Hood River, my home away from home for 8+ years now...

2. Self-portrait: Hey, I look pretty put together for a woman who just got back from a trip to the vet with dog and 8 month old baby in tow!

3. What are your kids doing right now? Waking up from a 3 hour marathon nap and feelin' good.

4. My closet: Hardly worth taking a picture of. Like Emily, I share a small closet with my husband. I actually have more than 5 shirts, but they are all in the laundry!

5. The Laundry Room: not so much a room as a closet...

6. The Fridge: I just went grocery shopping so we're well stocked.

7. My favorite room in the house: Our bedroom, for all the obvious reasons =) and because I love the lanterns I hung this week!

8. The bathroom: Doesn't everyone have duckies scattered on their bathroom floor?

9. The kitchen sink: Wow, it's clean! I'm so proud =)

10. My favorite shoes: I finally found the green flats I have been dreaming about for years!

I tag Elaine, Janelle, and Casey, just if you have time =) Love you guys!

YAY!

I can't stop smiling =) Our dear friends, the Capps, are having a boy and we are so excited for them. Congratulations to Elaine and Shawn!!! We love you guys and love your little baby on the way!

Doin' stuff...

I had my first post-baby job interview today. I felt like things were going along pretty well until the nurse manager pulled out a 12 page quiz! I haven't thought about work stuff for at least 4 months but more like 9 to be perfectly honest. I worked a few days after Judah was born, but I mostly thought about him when I was at work then anyway. Needless to say, I don't think I did very well on the "skill assessment." My only hope is that the other applicants being considered for the position did worse... is that bad of me? The nurse manager said that if I don't hear in the next couple weeks, then I can assume I didn't get the job. That doesn't sound good, but besides that she was very enthusiastic so we'll see.

We went to the beach again, this time with our friends Myron, Dena, and the LaPointes. Once again a beautiful day in Florida, Judah got his weekly mineral intake, and the water was perfectly refreshing. Judah had a nice nap on Forrest's shoulder while he walked up and down the beach. Forrest got a nice sunburn, but Judah was less cranky, and really, that's a fair trade if you ask me =) I have to say though, the best part of the day was getting free coffee at Starbucks! Judah smiled so nicely at the barista that she gave us our order on the house. Atta boy, finally hauling his weight around here!

"Sand isn't as good as I remember."

We tried to get a video of Judah laughing to post, but as soon as he sees us pull out the camcorder, he totally hams it up. It is impossible to distract him from staring straight into the lens and grinning. I was, however, able to get some still pictures of his theatrical little self. Maybe we'll make a flip book...

Ok, ok, I guess I can find a couple more pictures of the little guy. Gosh! (Actually, Forrest and I had some friends over for dinner last night and neither of us even mentioned Judah until dessert was served! I know that is some kind of record.)

Judah's new trick

Mmmm, pizza!