Her Royal Highness

This little outfit really makes her look like a princess. It was a gift from our friends Jeff and Cristen, whom I recently visited in AZ. I will blog about the trip when I catch up on my sleep. This jet lag thing is a killer. (Plus the rainy weather of SC isn't helping much either). I can tell you this, God was in control of this trip!

Enjoy the pictures of our princess...



Here is a picture of the top of the bow that Cristen made to go with the outfit. Savannah, their daughter, has a matching bow for every outfit. If you are interested in purchasing Cristen's bows just let me know and I'll get you connected to her. They are really sweet, the bows that is, although so are Jeff and Christen!

Out of the mouths of babes

I told Tradd about the dedication ceremony for Coleman and described it as something we do that lets everyone know we are serious about or committed to raising her up to know and love Jesus. I told him that we did this with him and with Cooper. Tradd said something to me about Simba from the movie The Lion King. I said something like "was Simba dedicated too?" Well, we took Tradd to church with us instead of sending him to his classroom. We tried to do the same with Cooper but he wanted to see Miss Jessica. After Coleman was prayed over by our beloved Pastor Michael, Tradd asked me when Coleman was going to be "raised up" like Simba!? All of a sudden his words from earlier came back to me and I pictured the movie where Mufasa, the King and father of Simba, raises him up to show all in the prideland his successor. We got a real kick out of that!
Speaking of Tradd, let me brag on him a little bit. We went to Walmart the other day to buy a small toy which I was using as bribery because I needed to run some errands and I wanted it to be a happy time. We were expecting company after nap time and these were kids we'd never met before. Tradd picked out three toys, one for himself and two for the children that were coming to see us. I thought that was really precious of him and so, of course, we bought the other toys as well. Tradd does that sort of thing a lot. He spent most of this morning talking about his friend Andrew and creating gifts to give him. Tradd is an inventor. He likes to put things together that don't originally go together, in order to make something. He told me that sometimes he has to bite the toys to make them fit together but he says "that's o.k. cuz' that makes the toys better." When he gets a little older, I can't wait to see the stuff he'll come up with. He kind of reminds me of that kid in Toy Story, the one next door to Andy. I know that's probably a bad comparison but that kid was pretty ingenious. The storytellers just made him sort of evil. So Tradd is like him except he's not evil. I know he's gifted to be able to think of uses for things that were not originally designed for such uses and I think this will be a real asset to whatever he chooses to do when he grows up. (Not sure if that made sense, been awake since about 5 AM) Tradd has also recently learned how to swing all by himself. I told him that I wasn't going to be pushing a 5 year old boy on the swing and that he needed to learn. So, he made it with about 6 months to spare! Tradd is tearing up the memory verses we've given him and is also doing quite well with some Spanish vocab. He's a bright one. I really need to spend some time with him on writing skills. I know he could be doing that by now, I just haven't taught him. His attention to detail and his memory have always impressed me and has made me think twice about home-schooling someone so precocious!! I'll have to brag on Cooper some other time when I'm not so worn out from all his antics!! I must say that I've wised up. I now shut the bathroom door tight so that anyone going in there makes a big noise which tells me I'd better go check it out. Then, I put the hand towel out of reach on top of the shower rod because Cooper soaks it every time he's in the bathroom!!!!! Well, now he can't do that. Of course, it requires lots of energy on my part to be where he is all the time and still cook, clean, do dishes and laundry etc. I really think we should get rid of all chairs in our house. I don't get to sit in them anyway so what's the point!? (HA HA! Don't feel sorry for me, just being funny!)

Coleman's Dedication

I want to share with you Coleman’s dedication that took place today, October 14, 2007. We don’t baptize infants at our church; we believe that they are covered by the Grace of God until they reach an age of understanding when they can make a commitment for themselves to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
It was a beautiful service, but it did not arrive without its challenges. It started off with pretty much a sleepless night. The kids were up and it was tiresome for Meghan and I. Then as I was waiting for Meghan and the kids to arrive at church, Meghan sent me a text message saying she was stuck in traffic due to an accident on 526 (the highway that we take to get to church). At that moment I realized the enemy was trying to stop us from this special day and having Coleman dedicated. The sleepless night so that we would not have the energy we needed for the day, the accident slowing up Meghan’s arrival.
But the Bible tells us that Greater is He who is in us than he that is in the world.
The service began but not without its problems. The projector that is used to show the words to the songs, as well as the video message that is watched in the Chapel Venue broke right before service began. But that did not stop anything, the service began and the congregation stood to sing “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”, a song that means a lot to Meghan and I, especially after Coleman’s surgery. (thank you Pastor Jeanne for making that happen)
Our dear friends, Jim and Charlotte White, sat in front of us, Charlotte was holding Coleman and after we were done singing Charlotte said something about singing that song at Coleman’s wedding. That wasn’t the first time she mentioned Coleman’s wedding to us. Meghan and I have just never really thought Coleman would get married, it isn’t a common thing with children with downs syndrome. But after hearing the song and hearing Charlotte’s words I thought, great is God’s Faithfulness, and if His plans include Coleman being married one day, then I’m on board.
Anyway, they called our name and we went forward to have Pastor Michael pray for us and for Coleman – It was a special moment having a big guy like Michael who has the most sensitive heart of anyone I have ever met. He had tears in his eyes and a crack in his voice has he prayed for Coleman, the boys and us. We are very blessed to have Pastor Michael as a friend.
It turned out to be a most beautiful occasion and there were several friends there to celebrate with us.
We know people have been praying for us and we feel it every day.
May God bless each of you as he has blessed us above and beyond all we could ask or imagine.
In His Great Faithfulness
Scott

PS. The other thing that made today's dedication special was to be able to have Coleman Dedicated with Samantha, and Abby two beautiful little girls whose mommy's work with me in Children's Ministry - as well as the other wonderful families and friends that had their children dedicated today! We love you all!

These are a few of our favorite things...

We just love these three...they may wake us several times during the night, they may make messes or ask 4,000 questions in one hour, but that's what they are supposed to do, they're kids.

(I can write this now because Coleman is napping and Meghan has taken the boys to the store so daddy has some alone time).

Enjoy the photos and video, I'm sure there will be more to come later.

Coleman Video

It's a long one, but if a picture is worth a 1,000 words then this must be worth a million!

Tradd's New Drum Set

Tradd loves music and loves to play the drums, so every now and then he or Cooper will get the pots out and play. Enjoy his drum solo...

Cooper's Audition for the Lawerence Welk Show

I will be adding more video of the boys and Coleman later, but wanted to share this one with you. It's a little dark, but it is a good night song after all.

The boy's new swingset

Along with our yard makeover we were blessed with a new play set. The boys love it and there is a special swing for Coleman, which she loves.

Wow I'm loving the idea of putting video on here for everyone to see.

Coleman Crawling

I have tried to figure out how to put a video on the Blog - who would have guessed it was as easy as clicking "Add Video". Hope this works - if it does I'll be adding more.

Pictures from the Buddy Walk

As Meghan said, here are some pictures from the Buddy Walk. We had a great time and got to see so many of our new Buddies! Thank you so much to all of you who supported us in the Buddy Walk either financially or by showing up and walking with us, or through your prayers, we are a very blessed family because of all of you.

Meghan and Coleman at the Buddy Walk!

Tradd and Cooper had fun on all the slides and jump castles!

Great t-shirt slogan

Just saw a little boy at the park who's shirt read "0 to naughty in 6.2 seconds." Is that the truth!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even Coleman is speeding along now doing her army crawl. She's mostly motivated by paper items and not necessarily her toys. I'd love to download some video footage if we can. Scott may work on that tonight. Also, some pics of the very successful Buddy Walk yesterday. We had a great time and will be better prepared next year with pics of Coleman to hand out and a banner and maybe even a tent. Thanks so much to our "Buddy's" Bill, Kelly, Liam, and Colin Nixon for coming out and walking with us and also the Propes family for coming out to support Coleman. We sure do have great friends!! Happy Monday!