Select Your Favorites by February 1st

We are taking picture orders for family and friends. We will place our order on or around February 1, 2008, so that we have them back in time for Matthew's first birthday. You can post on the blog or email me the prints you would like at faith42day@gmail.com. When you make your selection, please indicate the photo number, the size print you would like, and how many. Thanks!

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10 Month Photos

This Friday, Greg and I set up our "photo studio" in our basement to capture Matthew's 10 month photos. We hoped to do this at the 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 month marks...but things don't always go as planned. Anyhow, we caught some great shots, and I realized just how often Matthew tries to put things into his mouth! Here are just a few examples...

Beautiful Snow

My friend Karen stopped by yesterday for a visit, and we took Matthew outside to see all the beautiful snow. He really enjoyed shaking the snow off the branches of our tree in front of our house. She took a few photos with her camera and sent them to me today, so I thought I would post them, since I have not downloaded any of our Christmas photos yet.

Happy New Year!!

Updates and video

Greg caught this fun moment on video yesterday. Notice the new muscle on mom's right arm from carrying around our 22 pounder!!


We have a praise too...our friends (that heard the bad news about their pregnancy) had their ultrasound this afternoon, and the concerns were not validated. As it turns out, their child is developing perfectly...and it's a girl!! They are thrilled, and thank you for their prayers!

Charisse has still not gone into labor. She is now 2 days past her due date. Please continue to pray for her.

No update on Rhyer as of today.

Love,
Matthew and the gang

Prayer requests and updates

Hey there friends...We have some prayer requests for those that are willing to pray with us. First and foremost...our friend Rhyer needs your urgent prayers as he approaches three months old, we ask for him to get healthy and home before they need to go back for his second open heart surgery. The latest is that Rhyer had a scope on Friday where they found something they call an erosion...mostly it's an abrasion on the wall of the colon that probably occurred when he initially had NEC...due to poor blood flow to the bowels. So, the good news is they are 90% sure they have found the source for his bloody stools. But they are still not out of the water, mostly because it will take a very long time for this erosion to heal. In fact, the night after the scope, Rhyer started bleeding very heavily and he needed 2 blood transfusions. Then they needed to do another scope to try to stop the source of bleeding...which ended up being the erosion, and the scope most likely had irritated it. A feeding plan will probably be put into place this week. If he does start bleeding heavily again, they will probably need to do surgery on this spot in his colon. Please pray that this does not need to happen.

Then, we have some friends that just got some hard news about their pregnancy that will require full trust in God and a faith walk that will try and test them. Please pray for their peace, joy and faith that God is in control and can certainly turn around any situation. I know they are a bit down and discouraged, and it's a hard place to be in. They seek answers now, and they may not get them for a while, so please pray with them that their fears turn out to be for nothing. (I've seen doctors be wrong before, after all...they are only human right?)

Also, please pray for our friend Charisse. Her baby is due tomorrow, and she has been sick her entire pregnancy. We are hoping for a fast and problem free delivery with as little pain and trauma as possible. (I've heard of some incredible women that have delivered in under 20 minutes, so I know it's possible!!)

Finally, we have a praise!! Baby Grant just had a lung test and they said his lungs almost look like that of a perfectly healthy normal boy!! Yeah! Thanks for praying. It's cold season, so he will likely have to stay in the house and away from all other kiddos until spring, but his parents finally got some good news! (PS: Grant is the cutie pie in the photo here.)


Thanks for praying for our friends!

Brushing his teeth for the first time

Now that he has 6 teeth, they have to be brushed twice a day. He seems to love it though. (Don't worry, I brush them for him before I let him try :-)

Matthew's favorite toy

Just when we thought we child-proofed everything, Matthew decided to make the door-stop his new favorite toy. In the time it took me to turn and grab the camera, he had it unscrewed and was ready to chew on it. We really have to be on our toes these days.

Matthew is learning sign language

Greg and I have been using some basic sign language with Matthew that will help him to communicate his needs before he understands how to use his words. The signs he sees most often are "all done" and "more please." Here is a video of the first time Matthew tried to communicate "all done" to Greg by using sign language.

Now... while Matthew made up a brand new sign of his own to get his point across, we think he gets that he can make motions to communicate. It's really cool to see the light bulb come on as he learns new things!

More Posts On The Way...

I plan to update the blog no later than this weekend with new photos and stories, but in the meantime, please enjoy a laugh on us by clicking on the link below. It is well worth the time to take a peek.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1261483398

Love,
Michelle

It's only been two weeks and now we have a toddler!!

The title says it all. In the past two weeks, Matthew has mastered crawling. He can go from one end of the house to the other in under 5 minutes. He also has a radar for all things off limits. I actually got down on my hands and knees to crawl through the house to see what dangers lie ahead. He seems to be most interested in the germiest of things, like the door stop, remote control, keys, shoes, area rugs...did I mention that everything goes in his mouth??? Speaking of mouth, we now have 4 teeth!! It's been a busy two weeks.

At the same time he's figured out how to crawl, he decided to master walking too. He wants someone to hold his hands so he can walk all through the house. He can actually go pretty fast too. We get tired out long before he does. We bought him a walker a few days ago to satisfy his walking desire while hopefully saving our backs from walking hunched over all day, but he can only go backwards in it so far, so it only takes about 2 minutes before he asks to get out and walk with me again :-)As this new freedom is emerging, so is his ability to express his likes and dislikes. We have actually witnessed our first temper tantrum, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

Matthew's new favorite time of the day is bath time, now that he's graduated to the big boy bath tub. It is hilarious to watch him splash around like a fish in water. Matthew is also talking all day long now, though we still can not understand a word of it. I think he is saying Rah for Sierra and everything else he calls ma ma. I won't complain about that :-)

Finally, he has also caught on to the camera, and he smiles a big cheesy grin every time you aim one his way...well, maybe not EVERY time.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Sorry for the Wait...

It's hard to believe it's really been two weeks since we posted anything!! So much changes in two weeks, it's incredible. Matthew is now crawling (not far yet, but forward :-) He also has two teeth, one on top and one on bottom, with 4 more coming right behind those!! He says ma ma and blows lots of raspberries. He is such a joy!! Everyone that meets him comments on how good natured and happy he is! Here are some new photos...

Officially Ours Forever :-)

Matthew's adoption became final on November 5th!! We should have his new birth certificate in a few weeks. To celebrate we covered him in kisses & thanked Jesus for the goodness he has brought to our lives.

On another note...Matthew actually let me look into his mouth today (you know how hard that can be if you have ever had an 8 month old :-) I was shocked to see that all 4 of his upper teeth are bulging and ready to come through any moment and the neighbor to the bottom tooth that appeared this weekend is ready to make a showing as well. I guess Matthew figured,if it's going to hurt that bad, might as well get it all over at one time. We can't wait to see that cute toothy grin!!

Thanks for your prayers for Dylan (pictured left) He never caught Matthew's tonsillitis, and for Matthew (who is feeling much better) and for Greg and I (we caught up a bit on our sleep). Please continue to pray for Courtney, Bill and Rhyer. The are still fighting an uphill battle. Rhyer was given the green light to try food again at very small increments. He needs to be able to eat before he can go home. Please pray for complete healing and for endurance for Courtney as Bill had to go back to work this week and she is alone at the hospital 24/7. Pray too that his brain damage is reversed and that Rhyer can be fully cognitively, physically and emotionally healthy. Thanks!!

Gimme Five!!

I don't like avocado!!!

Thanks for Praying!

We finally had (almost) a full night of sleep last night!! Matthew made it all day yesterday with no Tylenol the Doctor confirmed that he is healing, and should be fine in 3-4 days.

Also...This morning, upon waking at 6am, I noticed that Matthew's first tooth finally decided to push through. So, after 2 weeks of night waking and fussiness, we will never know if it was the tooth or the tonsillitis that caused all his distress. My guess is both. At any rate, we are grateful that he is back to our happy smiley boy (with a new pearly white as part of his smile.)

Matthew is also talking up a storm all of a sudden. We don't understand a word of it yet though. Uncle Steve thinks Matthew may be speaking in Romanian :-) It's funny though how he seems to learn new things in his sleep. He started "giving me five" two days ago. He also figured out how to get food into his mouth with his own hands. I will post the video of this as well as the "I don't like avocado" video today too. This is the best job in the world!!