We had a party for him on Sat. We had everyone dress up in their Halloween costumes. It was great. Mason is wearing a bear costume. He went to town on his cake, and got completely messy. He didn’t care at all that there was icing all over and mushed it up all through his hands as he was eating. It was so cute. We will be posting pictures as soon as we download them, and I’m waiting to get some from friends too.

We are truly enjoying him. He is such a good baby and has been such a blessing for our family. Him and Cole have so much fun together! It’s been so wonderful having him home. I can’t wait to watch him grow and learn new things this year!

Mason has been cruising for a few weeks now. He is crawling all over and gets himself from one place to the other very fast!!! And of course, has no interest in the toys. He would rather be pulling all the magazines off the coffee table or the clickers off the couch and slobbering all over them! But, he is awful cute while he does that!!!

And, on a much more serious note, there is a lot of bad news for adoptive families and waiting children coming out of Guatemala. I’m not sure if you all have heard, but the president has issued a statement saying that Guatemala will be closed for adoptions as of Jan. 1st. And as of right now, they are not allowing the close to 5,000 cases in process to complete. If they are not completed by that time, they won’t have a chance to complete them and bring their babies home. And I just read an article on cnn.com (here is the link http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/10/03/guatemala.adoption/index.html) which said that Guatemala is also considering getting rid of the fostercare system and instead put these children in orphanages, which aren’t even built yet!! And, there’s no money to build them. So, if you could all get on your knees and be praying for these children. First for the ones who are already in process to be able to be brought home to the loving parents who are waiting for them. And secondly for all the other children who aren’t yet referred out, to have a chance to find a loving home instead of being sent to the street. And also be praying for the parents who are waiting for their kids to come home, hoping that that will even happen. There are a few families that I have “met” through our adoption process who are waiting to hear if they will be able to bring their babies home. If you can pray for them specifically, that would be great. The first is Laura who is waiting for her daughter Carrie to come home. Carrie just turned one and they are in PGN right now. They have an adopted son from Guatemala named Drew. Her blog is waiting4carrie.blogspot.com. And the other one is Bekah and they are waiting for their daughter Eloisa (Isa). They have a biological son named Benjamin They have been in PGN for 15 weeks (I think) now and have gotten kicked out. So, they are waiting to get back in again. Her blog is adventuresinadoption.blogspot.com.

Sorry this is such a long post, but these familes and children need everyones prayers. So, if you can be praying for them and pass this on to everyone you know to be lifting them up to our loving Father. These babies need to come home!!!!

He is also army crawling all over the place. I set him down in the living room and next thing I know he is in the the kitchen behind me. He is going to be the one who gets into everything. His little hands are constantly exploring and getting himself into trouble. He is also taking steps, and will go back and forth between Todd and I. He stands for a while and will take a few steps and then fall with his eyes clenched shut anticipating the landing.

He is such a happy baby and laughes and smiles all the time. Cole has such a great time making him laugh and is such a great big brother.

They both went to a friends house today so that I could get some work done here at my house, and Mason did great!!! I was pretty nervous because this is the first time someone else has watched him besides Todd or I. But he played really well, and took a bottle and went down for a nap for her. It was such a great feeling to know he is able to do that!

I can’t believe he has been home over a month. It feels like he has been with us forever! It has been the most wonderful month for us. We are having such a great time getting to know him and watching him grow. He is such a fun kid!

So, here is the update for this week… Mason is doing so much better than a couple weeks ago. We had a REALLY bad week after we got back from Chicago!!! He did great while we were there, despite meeting many new people and sleeping in yet another new place. But the day we got back he was a completely different baby, and was the same way for a good week. He wouldn’t sleep well, would wake up crying every 10-15 min. He wouldn’t eat well at all and wasn’t drinking much of his bottle. And would scream bloody murder if I put him down or left the room. I think a lot of it was just the crazy couple weeks he had. I also think part of it was his teeth because I switched from giving him Tylenol to Motrin which is a little stronger and that made a bid difference.

After we got past that week, things changed dramatically. He was eating so much better, and actually sleeping like a normal child! He is in the crib now so that we don’t wake up if he cries. He usually cries out once or twice a night, but never really wakes up. He is such a happy baby!!!! The last couple days, whenever Cole walks in the room, he gets so excited he doesn’t know what to do with himself. He starts squealing and wiggles his body all over the place.

He has started standing by himself the last couple days too! He will take a couple steps if I put him a little ways away from me. But most of the time he just falls into my arms and laughs. I think he would be closer to walking if he didn’t think that was so much fun to fall. Part of me really wants him to get walking so I don’t have to hold him all the time, but part of me is dreading following after him when he does start walking to keep his little hands out of everything. I think it would be so cute if he were walking right now though, because he’s so little!

Well, again my goal is to update this every week, so keep checking back. And hopefully my pictures will continue to update. I’m pretty sure the newest ones are on the top of the page.

Mason is doing so good adjusting to the crazy events that have happened in his little life. He loves watching Cole run around, and just lights up when Todd walks in the room. He smiles all the time and is starting to laugh when you tickle him. Last week he would just tense up and smile, but now giggles are starting to come. He is teething somethin’ fierce! He chews on everything. Right now he is sitting in his high chair going crazy on one of the little things you can freeze for them to chew on. He is biting down so hard he’s cracking the ice inside.

The only thing we are really struggling with is sleeping. His fostermother fed him mostly at night and not to much during the day. So, we are obviously trying to turn that around! He is doing much better eating during the day the last couple days, but still waking up at night. He is eating enough now during the day, that I think he is just waking up through the night out of habit. So, needless to say, Todd and I are really tired!

But, other than that, he is doing so good! We went to church on Sun. and he was charming all the ladies with his smile! Thanks so much for all your prayers while we were traveling! We could tell that people were holding us up! If you need something else to pray for… we are traveling to Chicago on Thurs. to see Todd’s family. So, you can pray that trip goes well. I just feel bad for Mason because we have only been home for a week and we are going to a strange place again. I’m sure he will do fine, I’m just a mommy being concerned!

We have internet in our room so we’ll be updating a lot.

We just wanted to say thank you to everyone for all your prayers and support!!! You all have meant so much to us and have been such a help to us. God has surely blessed us by putting some amazing people in our lives through this whole journey.

Keep checking back while we are gone, because hopefully we will be able to post while we are there. We meet Mason on Fri. and have our Embassy apt. on Mon. And then we leave next Weds. So weird to think we will be on our way home with Mason a week from today. Please pray for safetly while we are traveling and for Cole while we are gone.

Well, next time you hear from me we will be in GC! Adios!

Couple things for you guys to be praying for… 1. Cole. This is going to be a HUGE adjustment for him. I have been talking to him about it, but I think there will be some things we face once Mason gets home. And also for him to be okay while we are gone. He was just at my parents house for almost a week, and by the end was really missing us. And now in a few days, we have to leave him again for a week. He has just had a lot of confusion in his life lately, and I don’t want this to add to it! So, please just pray he will go with the flow and all this stuff happening in his little 4 year old life won’t be to much for him. 2. Mason. This is going to also be a HUGE adjustment for him. He has spent the last 9 months of his life in a spanish speaking home, by a lady who’s been taking care of him and now he’s just going to leave her all the sudden. And he’s going to be brought to an English speaking home with two people he’s not going to know and a very energetic four year old. I just pray he feels loved and at home when he gets here! 3. His foster mom. I have heard that they get very sad when the parents come to get their kids. She has watched him grow for nine months and now she is going to hand him over to people she doesn’t know. She has done this for years, but I’m sure it’s still really hard! 4. Safetly traveling and no problems while we are there! I won’t feel 100% better until he is in our house. Going to the apt. and making sure we have everything we need, still kinda freaks me out! I just don’t want anything else to go wrong. Well, I guess that will keep you busy for a while. Thank you all so much for your love and support through this time. It’s been a long journey, and I’m so glad it’s coming to an end!!!

It is painful to share, but my wife Melanie had a miscarriage early Monday morning. She is physically doing alright and will have some minor surgery on Tuesday morning.

I was just observing yesterday with a friend how our family has gone through a roller coaster of emotions with the news that our son Mason is almost ready to come home from Guatemala in addition to recently finding out we’re pregnant.

Little did I know that this roller coaster was far from over as we processed this today…

I had just recently began to comprehend a little better that idea that we’d have three kids by February. As crazy as that sounded, I was so excited about it. Two kids in six months. That’s exciting. Who cares that we’d have to buy a home, find a minivan. This was worth it. Debt? Who cares. A child is such a bigger deal that worrying about that stuff….

We were talking the last few days about how we were “feeling” like it was a girl. We’d started talking about names. We even found some good ones. Now honestly this concept of having a little girl was crazy for me to process. I have two brothers and am pretty sure I would not know much of what to do with a girl. Recently though, we’d stayed with some friends who have two girls and I was strangely amazed with how much I was drawn to the idea. Just last week I found myself really hoping for a daughter who would call me daddy and think i could do no wrong…

But tonight. I sit here and can’t quite comprehend that this is not our immediate future. If the Lord wills, we still would like to have three children. We weren’t certain before about three children, but if the Lord will bless, we are more sure of this than ever…

So, the title of this post has the word “blessing” it it…I just added this. Why? Well, I have just sent out a prayer request to our church community (its weird to write a prayer request for yourself) and even at 11:15 at night I have already received back a number of beautiful and encouraging e-mails and a few phone calls. This morning, as I called a few close friends and family members, each of them showed so much grace and compassion towards us. Half the people stopped what they were doing and prayed for us over the phone. The out pouring of love from our family and our community has literally brought me to tears. It’s too bad my wife is sleeping…she’s never seen me cry… While sharing news like this is emotionally draining and not easy, we are blessed to walk down this road with such wonderful people. I cannot imagine if they were in our lives…

Earlier today I spoke with a close friend who had recently found out that there was a good chance his mom might have cancer. He informed me that today they learned that she doesn’t. What great news! Of course, I then informed him of our news. We realized that this is what Romans 12:15 is all about. “Rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn.” We need to do this even if we are the ones rejoicing and even if we are the one mourning.

Any time now i expect to receive a text message or phone call from our good friends from church who are about to have their first baby. Melanie and I, and the rest of our community, have an opportunity to live this verse out together as well. While our pain is very real, I can’t wait to go see Mark and Beth in the hospital and share in the joy of their new … little girl….

hmm…living Romans 12:15 won’t be so easy will it?