Flat Reed: Drip, Drip, Drip

When we bought our house, there was something wrong with our sink according to the home inspection. It had a drip, a constant drip, but not if you put it in just the right place. Alas, some people (my MIL) did not like it.



Flat Reed decided that he would like to get the drippy faucet, so he took a look "under the hood." I knew, as his plumbingly inept father, that I did not know how to replace a faucet.



But, I knew that my friend Jeff from down the street could help. He came over and helped Flat Reed fix the faucet.



"I think that hose connects right here." Flat Reed said.

"That's right, you're a smart kid." Mr. Jeff said.

"I take after my daddy." Flat Reed said.



... and it works!!! No more drippy faucet.



Not only does it work, it has a setting for two different flows.

It's a Moen, buy it for looks, buy it for life! Hopefully, we'll never buy another faucet for this house!

Flat Reed: I'm Not Happy

The other night, Abbey made her "Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake" for me to take to work for my wonderful coworkers. Flat Reed didn't get to try any, so when I came home tonight with a completely clean cake plate he was REALLY unhappy. He wanted to try some!



So, that brought Flat Reed to a different subject. He wanted to know when I was going to get the world's greatest "exersaucer" out of the box. He is so ready to play in it.

Now onto other things. I've been thinking ... this could be dangerous.

Every morning I wake up and do my Bible Study. Every morning I pray for different things. This is where I started thinking. Everyday for a long time now I have prayed for Reed's foster parents. I've prayed that Reed would sleep well and have happy days, that his health would be gaurded, and finally I have prayed that God would allow us to go and pick him up. I started thinking about my own life when people start telling me a story that they have already told me at least 10 times before. I get really annoyed by that. Aren't I glad that God doesn't get annoyed by me constantly asking for things and fervently asking daily to let our baby come home? The weird thing is not only does He not mind it, He wants me to tell Him my needs.

Instead of turning a deaf ear to it, as I often do to that person who begins telling me that same old story once again, God hears our prayers. We must trust that If I say, "My foot is slipping," His faithful love will support me, LORD. When I am filled with cares, His comfort brings me joy. (Psalm 94:18-19)

Thank God that He never gets tired of hearing from us.

Flat Reed: The Choir Shower

Tonight after choir they had a shower for us. Pictured here are the goodies and Flat Reed. The lady in the picture is Mrs. Pat. She is hilarious! I enjoy joking around with her in choir. She's the coolest bass singer we have. I'm not joking, she really sings base.



Our corsages for the evening were bibs. Mine said "I love Daddy" and Abbey's said "I love Mommy."



The shower was not full of gifts, although we did get a handmade baby quilt and a "little green machine" (for cleaning up after sick babies when it happens in the sto-n-go), but it was more a "cash" shower. The choir was so generous. We were overwhelmed by their gift. We are so very blessed to be a part of a church with such loving and caring people. God tremendously blessed us with our church family. They rock!



After a hard week of camp and several weeks of no updates, etc., Flat Reed and I were noticing that Mommy needed a little pick-me-up. So, on Monday I called our favorite florist "the superlative (SUE- poy - la - tive) florist." and asked for Mommy's favorite all white flowers. They did a great job on a very pretty arrangement.

Today Abbey sent me an email and asked me to go and pick up Reed on the way home from work. Don't we wish it were that easy?

Flat Reed: I Gotta Wear Shades

One of the greatest things about our neighborhood is that it has a country feel in the middle of a subdivision. Last night as we came home from our walk, we saw a large bunny scampering through Mia's front yard. This morning, Abbey went into the bathroom and saw a deer in the backyard. Her quick thinking led to the photo above.

When my big brother Trae first came to our house, he said he thought I was taking him to "The Children of the Corn." I really don't think that our subdivision is that far out in the country, you just have to ride past some farmland to get to it.



Flat Reed was excited because Mommy finally cleaned out his baby bed today. That means that he can comfortably sleep in it tonight.



These are just a few of his favorite stuffed animals.



Above is the finished closet. Abbey moved the bookshelf in there so that we would have more places to store all of his gear.

Flat Reed: My Clean Closet

Reed's closet was quite a disaster. Since we've lived here, we've sort of always used Reed's closet as a catch-all. That means that whenever Abbey was a bridesmaid and had a dress she wasn't going to wear again or all of Abbey's dept. 56 houses (and there are a lot of them!). Someone had to do something to make Reed's closet really be his closet, so that's what Abbey worked on today.



It's not quite finished yet, but Abbey really did a good job on it. I think that Reed will be able to find his stuff quite well in this closet. It's amazing how baby stuff actually makes the closet look a lot bigger.



Here is Reed's souvenir from this past week in Texas. He got a DBU t-shirt. DBU is on the list of approved colleges and universities that Reed can attend. Right now the list is sort of short.

P.S. Flat Reed arrived home safely around 1:00 this morning. He told his mom that he knew that we were on the earlier flight, but he wanted to get to hang out in Dallas a little longer.

Flat Reed: Lost Luggage and We're Finally Home!

Oh where, oh where has my flat baby gone,
Oh where, oh where could he be?
With his lips in a pout and his arms stuck out,
Oh where, oh where can he be?

Oh course, you are able to understand that Flat Reed is missing. Not only is Flat Reed missing, so is one big red suitcase! It all started when we got to the airport quite early. We asked to fly standby on an earlier flight and we got on it. We got to Nashvegas and found only one suitcase had arrived.

I just called to get an update on the luggage, and it has been found and will be delivered tonight. The last time that American Airlines lost my luggage (notice a theme here) they delivered it around 2:00 in the morning!

Okay, so I know many of you are thinking that we shouldn't have let Flat Reed fly in the cargo area and be stuffed into our luggage, but we made sure he was very secure. Let me tell you though, when we were standing there watching the luggage carousel go around and not seeing our luggage, I began to get a sinking feeling in my tummy. Never mind the fact that I have tons of clothes in that bag, my flat baby is in that bag. I think it made me really miss the real thing that much more!



We are SOOOOO GLAD to be home! I believe that Dorothy put it best when she clicked those red glittery heals and said, "There's no place like home!"

P.S. We are watching "The Next Food Network Star" and oh my, there are a bunch of cry babies on there tonight!

Flat Reed: Wichita Falls, TX

We've had a busy day! We slept late and then had breakfast around 12:00 noon. So, does that really count as breakfast? Blanton has enjoyed getting to know Flat Reed. I am sure that they are really going to like the real Reed!



Much conversation has been had this weekend about whether or not we would get another animal (for those of you who don't know, Jack the cat is now gone as well). I am not an animal guy, so not having an animal in our house is not that big of a deal for us. Rosie is a sweet little dog, but then again, I've seen alot of sweet dogs and I still don't want one!



Jaime is going to make sure that Flat Reed gets a good Texas education. Blanton and Jaime both graduated from DBU (where Abbey got her masters) and that is one of the approved universities that Reed can attend.



We went to see "Evan Almighty" today. I was a little squimish about going to see it, because I thought it might be kind of sacreligious, but it actually had a really good message. There was only one word that shouldn't have been used and most kids today don't even consider it to be a bad word.

We've had a good time getting to be with family, but we are SO ready to be home! We fly home tomorrow! Abbey and I love to go places, but we really love coming home to our own house, our own bed, and our life that God has so blessed us with.

In case some of you are wondering if we have any information about getting Reed home, we have not. Everyone on our adoption board says that when you go out of town you get information. We didn't! Hopefully, we'll hear something soon!

Flat Reed: My First Camp Experience

The first night of camp, Flat Reed got to get on stage with Daddy. All of the kids loved him.



He's already a ladies' man, but who didn't alread know that?



Everyone enjoyed "cheesing" with Flat Reed.



Flat Reed enjoyed riding on the golf cart, but he didn't enjoy the smell of body odor! This was the perfect opportunity to teach Flat Reed of the importance of deoderant.

AND! It rained everyday which caused mud - which caused kids to play in it constantly, so we had stinky, sweaty, muddy kids.



Flat Reed got to go to craft time with mommy.



Supposedly these were really fun "bumper" soccer inflatable things. We never actually used them though.



The nurse from camp was so sweet to Flat Reed. Flat Reed was not really hurt, but he thought all of the other kids were having fun getting bandages, so Nurse Cecelia gave him a band-aid for his fake booboo.





Finally, we walked in and caught Flat Reed playing poker with the counselors! He showed them though. Look at the hand. Forget the fact that he has one-too-many cards!

All that to say we are now enjoying respite in Wichita Falls, Texas with our VERY dear friends Blanton and Jaime. It's so good to see old friends. They've just moved into a new house and so it is really nice to get to visit with them.

Flat Reed: Hang On, We're Still Here

We're having trouble with internet connections out here, but Flat Reed is having fun! We should be able to post pictures tomorrow!

Flat Reed: My First Camp

Flat Reed is getting comfortable in his camp surrounding. I hated to explain to him that he was not the camp pastor, but I am. I think that he is going to help. The theme "So Long Self" was something I came up with after hearing the MercyME song. I thought of the backdrop idea and the interns at the church that I am working for made these.

With the black lights, they are really awesome.



The kids wouldn't let Flat Reed hula hoop, so he just had to watch.

More updates tomorrow!


Two OOPS!

Happy 4th Month Birthday Reed! We love you dearly!!! (6-16-07)

Happy Father's Day Poppy and Pop Rox!!!

Flat Reed: Happy Father's Day

For Father's Day, we went on a trip down memory lane. Since we are in the Dallas area, we went to Fort Worth to see where we lived while I was at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. We got to see our old trailer. We loved that place. We never thought that we would be very comfortable living in a mobile home, but it turned out to be a neat experience. It was our little "experiment" house. We painted every room. The fun thing was that the people who we sold it too, Brandon and Jennifer were there. Jennifer was out on her porch and we stopped to visit.

She invited us in and we got to see the old place. It was just as we remembered it. They have painted most of the house, but it still looked like ours. One amazing thing was the fact that we had forgotten how tiny the two guest bedrooms were. It's amazing that we were able to get all of our furniture in that place. But it was neat to see. Unfortunately my lantana didn't make it back this year, but Jennifer said that it has been beautiful for the past two summers. My dwarf crepe mytles were looking really good.



This is where I took most of my classes while I was in Seminary.



Flat Reed and I took a moment for a photo shoot.



Flat Reed had a good time taking a stroll around the beautiful campus.

Now ... for my Father's Day presents.



Reed and his mommy decided to help me keep my office organized and keep me happy by seeing his picture at the same time. These nifty little boxes have magnets on them and they are perfect for holding paper clips, rubber bands, sticky flages, etc. Each one of them has a reason written on the inside of why I will be a good daddy.

It is my favorite Father's Day present ever. Well, it's my only Father's Day present, but I am sure that it will always hold a special place in my heart.



My Father's Day cards, minus the one that the Sprinkles sent to me.



Is it wrong to constantly remind people how beautiful our baby boy is. Man, it's hard not to brag.



Reed got some new outfits this weekend. We went to this children's specialty shop and found this little polo outfit (left) half-off. Of course we had to buy the chocolate stripe outfit.



And ... baby gap also had some cute little outfits. Another brown stripe one, I know, I know, I've got to quite buying brown, but like father like son! I'm trying to teach our little boy that his favorite color should be brown. I mean, is there another color?

Flat Reed: The Lonestar State

"Hi all! Just wanted you to know we made it to Texas safe and sound. This time, Mommy packed me, so she made sure that I was buckled in tightly. She's not like Daddy, although the trip wasn't as fun this time! Tomorrow, I am going to get to go and see where Mommy and Daddy lived while Daddy was in seminary. Then, on Monday, I'm going to go and see where mommy went to get her Master's degree."



"Mommy's trying to get a few last things ready before camp starts. Mommy and Daddy both have some things to finish up before they start."



Hi All, Daddy (uh ... I mean Jeff here. Man, I'm really looking forward to my first Father's Day tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to having my baby boy and letting him meet his daddy.) Tonight we had dinner with some of our very best friends from Texas. Todd, Caroline, and Hunter were able to have dinner with us. Todd and I served on staff together at my first church.

Hunter was barely walking when we first met him and not he talks non-stop.



He's also grown to be quite the ham! He is a really fun kid. Ironically, he also knows everything there is to know about NASCAR. He kept asking me who number 23 is or who number 63 is. When I would tell him I didn't know he said, "You must have forgot." I agreed, I mean, who am I to tell the kid that I don't watch NASCAR?



Hunter quickly became comfortable around me, and soon we were sharing crash stories of Percy, James, and Thomas. We even let Diesel have a little play in the action. The best story was the one I made up of Thomas Earhardt Jr, James Gordon, and Percy Muirez. The were all in a TRAINCAR race. Hunter was into that one.

The best part of the night for me was when Hunter said, "You come with me, you're my best friend." I can't wait to have my boy home.

A side note, we found some incredible baby clothes stores today and bought Reed some more clothes. Since we've been talking about trains tonight, here's what I think about shopping for clothes. "We've got to stop, we've got to stop, we've got to stop."