Morning Feedings

I have a baby son. Since the day he entered our home, one of the biggest changes was that I have never used an alarm clock since. That era can now be refered to as ‘BC’ – Before Cryingbaby. Before Crying baby, I would fight the alarm clock every morning. Snoozing it untold times… exhausted from the day before and often working too late into the night, I would finally get up with just enough time to start my day. But since ‘the boy’ (as we call him) entered my home, I have awakened to his gentle cries for his morning feeding. Since he is adopted and we feed with formula, I volunteered the first day to be the one to do the morning feedings so my wife could sleep a little longer before starting her day. While eager for this time with the baby, I would nevertheless rise lethargicly and pick up ‘the boy’ and move to the couch or rocker in the front room to feed him. This morning I did so yet again. I am always amazed that he rises without an alarm – just an internal reminder that it is time to eat – simple hunger…

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Happy Six Months Luke!

HAPPY SIX MONTHS LUKE! Baby Luke is now 6 months old, and to celebrate, he had food for the first time! Luke is all smiles as Sara gives him his first spoonful of rice cereal… Not so sure he likes it… but doesn’t fight it. Mom and Dad aren’t sure how much got into his stomach! Instead of going to a studio or kid-photo place, we decided to try our hand at doing our own Six Month Pictures…. how did we do? Though, we did have a pretty cute kid to work with! Ooooooo… this is soft!Winter styles… Just chillin… Hi, I’m Luke! You can’t help love me, can you? Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee DAD’S FAVORITE: Bombs Away on Mom! Every day with this baby is a joy and a delight. I’ not sure how I survived not being a dad. I was made for this. People ask me often how I am adjusting to being a Dad, and I answer, “I always was adjusted, I just lacked the kid.” Probably doesn’t make any sense to most, but I feel like there is no adjustment… its the way it’s supposed to have been, and finally having a kid just feels so right. I’m…

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Baby Luke Goes Camping!

Well, it was time for our third annual Children’s Ministry Leadership Team / Kidology Staff Camping Trip! Starved Rock, Illinois was the destination this time. This week away from cell phone, e-mail and Internet each year is a wonderful break for me! And… it was Luke’s FIRST time camping! A family at church was nice enough to loan us their RV so that Luke didn’t have to suffer in a hot tent, and with temperatures in the high 80’s and 90’s all week, it was GREAT to have an air-conditioned RV… it also meant we had lots of visitors often as well: A bunch of happy campers enjoying Luke…. or the air-conditioning? (ok, both!) but my favorite is always the evening camp fires. Luke took right to it! We feared that camping would be rough on the boy, but he seemed to enjoy it alot. Never cried and was sooo easy going. Of course, there were lots of kids and big friends constantly giving him attention and love. Here is Baby Luke in his swing… and he LOVES to swing! Mom with Luke ready for some evening singing around the camp fire. Dad enjoys playing the guitar and leading singing….…

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Ministry with Balloons is a blast!

Ever since I was the house magician at the Rock ‘n Roll McDonald’s in downtown Chicago (in college) I’ve been twisting balloons for kids at church, birthday parties, magic shows, etc. But my use of them in my ministry for teaching was pretty minimal and limited to one balloon creatures. That was until very recently. “Master Ron” as he is known, is a Christian children’s entertainer and awesome juggler and balloon artist. I have used him for years to sub for me in Kids Church when I’m out of town, and he is the only sub I’ve had that the kids just don’t seem to miss me at all when I get back. (is that good, or not?) :-) A computer systems analyst by day, and a balloon twistin’ juggler by evenings and weekends, Master Ron is a great teacher and communicator with kids…. and an inspiration to me. This summer I had him teach all our grade school kids at our church for Sunday School in June. We found ourselves with three weeks to ‘fill’ between our regular Sunday School and when our summer Family Sunday School class could start, and I needed something easy for me and fun…

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My First Father’s Day – My 13th Anniversary – And Baby Luke’s First….

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY (to me) HAPPY ANNIVESARY (to me) HAPPY FIRST TIME SWIMMING (to Lukie) HAPPY HAPPY WEEKEND (to me and sara) YES! It was my FIRST Father’s Day as a DAD, and it was a wonderful day. Luke headed off to church with me early as usual to ‘help’ me with my morning set up duties and then we caught the first service so we could watch the video I made on the big screen! It was a very nice Sunday… glad to finally be in a part of “Club Dad.” After church it was off to Sara’s parents home for a DELICIOUS steak lunch and visit with my other awesome Dad. Sara’s dad is truly a father to me in every way… except that I don’t have any embarrassing pictures of him from when I was a kid. Luke is so blessed to have the heritage of a Grandpa who loves God and has given his life to serve Him. Who knows, maybe Luke will be a third generation preacher? But even if not, what a blessing to be adopted into a family where both sides know and love God. It can’t help but be a wonderful influence…

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Luke Goes to Luke’s!

Well, Dadddy gets to go to off to work and other places, and usually Mommy is home alone with the Little Boy for hours on end… so today, Dadddy kicked Mommy out of the house – sent her off to do whatever she might enjoy while Daddy played Mr. Mom all day… and what fun we had! Here is the sweet little boy sleeping like, uh, well, like a baby. But getting to this blissful state takes a little work sometimes. One of my favorite tricks is cuddling with the boy having quality bonding and lovey time, and then pullin’ the old bait n’ switch… little boy falls alseep with Daddy only to replaced by pillows! To master this Daddy move, Verrrrrrrrrrrry slowly first replace the arm under baby’s head with one pillow, keeping your hand on baby and face close in case he peeks…. then slip away holding his hand and replace your body with another pillow. Finally, help him clutch the pillow case thinking it is your shirt… and your FREE! They do eventually wake up and figure out they’ve been had…. but that’s ok, got some work done! Next it is time for some motivational training and…

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