What were you doing at 1am?

I know my blog has turned into the Dylan Diary, but promise I will be filling it up with variety soon. It seems like he's had so many thing happening lately with holidays and new milestones. With this blog, yet another milestone that he's been trying to achieve. 

Lately, Dylan has been waking up a lot. Damien blames me for this and says that he is spoiled as Mommy use to take naps with Dylan during the day. We would cuddle up in my bed and snooze together. Well, for the most part, I have cut napping out, so Damien says he misses our cuddle time and wants to be in bed with me. Thus the frequent wakings...me, deny, deny, deny. Monday night, we put him to bed around 8:15, after home group, and he woke up at 11:00. I knew he wasn't hungry as he ate 5 oz before bed. I went upstairs and rocked him, then put him back in his crib. Then he woke up at 1am. I thought okay, maybe he's hungry, so I went upstairs and nursed him. He fell asleep, and I laid him in his crib. Only this time, it didn't stick. He woke up. I patted his butt and rubbed his back. Then sleep. Then I would stop. Then he wakes up. This goes on for a few minutes. Finally, I throw in the towel and say your just going to have to cry it out. I am going to bed. I leave and he proceeds to cry. I come downstairs, not happy mind you and turn off the monitor. (We can still hear him crying.) After about 10 minutes, it got quiet, so I turned the monitor back on. I hear these noises. They sound familiar. I say to Damien, those are the noises he makes when he is standing. I went upstairs to peek in on him, and he's just standing there. I gasp, he could have fell out. I yell to Damien to come upstairs. I would have just taken him to bed, but Damien being the 'in the moment" guy he is, gets his tools and lowers the mattress. Also, he gets batteries for this vibrating unit to go under his mattress, so when he cries, it will vibrate. We are going to get his goose. After about an hour awake, it's all finished, and Dylan's sound asleep in my arms. Damien joked, "that's why God made kids so cute, so you don't kill them." All that, we are wide awake and he's snoozing.  

Soles 4 Souls

Check out this awesome ministry. For just $5.00, you can buy two pairs of shoes for the souls served by this ministry. How many of us would jump at that opportunity to buy shoes for ourselves for $2.50?  Every one of us would, so why not make the day for someone else. It's much more rewarding. 

If you buy shoes during this 50 day challenge, you are automatically entered to win a trip to Mexico. You and a guest will deliver shoes with Soles4Souls! 

6 months

Today, we had Dylan's 6 month check up and his stats...(think boxing announcer voice)...weighing in at 16 pounds, 3 ounces and measuring at 26 3/4  inches in length. He's a lean, mean, fighting machine. 

Seriously though, he's getting so big, too fast. What happened to my baby?

I am, and there is no one besides me

No, that's not me talking, but it's the motto of the Babylonian culture of the Old Testament and one could argue the motto of many people in today's culture.  I am in a women's bible study, and last week, we concluded the first half of Daniel a la Beth Moore.  It's an amazing study and I look forward to my daily quiet time and our weekly meeting time, so that I can get fed more of God's truth. 

The first part of Daniel is all about integrity. Beth Moore challenges her participants to give up something of value to set a stake in the ground, to say I am not of this world. I gave up buying anything for myself...no shoes, no clothes, no stationery, nada. It was hard! Especially when I went into Old Lady...I mean Old Navy and they had a great sale on their summer items. I bought Damien a polo shirt for 99 cents. I didn't dare go on my side, I didn't want to be sucked in by the, I am and there is no one besides me attitude - self absorption. How are we to live in this extravagant, excessive culture without being poisoned by it...that's the question the first half of the study poses. 

I am amazed by how much I have learned from this study. You think, oh I have heard the stories of Daniel time and time again, but when I really read them and discovered the treasures God left, WOW, that's all I can say.  I just want to share with you some of the things that really struck me.

Daniel refused to eat the food of the King's table. Thus maintaining his integrity. If he would have partaken of the food on the king's table, would the king have some kind of hold over him, a little friendly captivity? In eastern standards, that sharing a meal with someone was to commit oneself to friendship with them. Instead of eating the rich foods, Daniel asked for food that grows from sown seeds which would have included fruits, vegetables and grain. The men scoffed that such foods were not suitable, but God proved them wrong. Daniel's health and strength far succeeded those who ate of the rich foods.

Belteshazzar....does this name ring a bell. If you are like me, I didn't realize that it was Daniel. The king renamed Daniel along with 3 of his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah (better known as their new renamed names, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.  All of their original names referenced their God. While their new names referenced the gods of Bablyonians. Assigning new names was common and the purpose of such practice was to change the identity of the bearer until his life matched the name. The thing that I found striking was that we know Daniel by his original name and the others by their Babylonian name. Beth Moore didn't speculate as to why this is the way it is, but I would love to know.

Nebuchadnezzar was a dreamer as we know. His first dream discussed in Daniel was that of a statue made up of different elements. I never knew the symbolism behind these until this study. That each element referred to a specific empire: gold - babylon, silver - medo-persian, bronze - greek and iron - roman. The rock that took the statue down--- the ultimate kingdom, Messiah's. 

The fiery furnace is a famous bible story we hear growing up. In fact, we covered it on Sunday for the 3-5 year olds. It's ageless. The story of God delivering those who are faithful through a fire, literally. Meshach, Shadrach and Abendego refused to bow down to the king, as a result, they were put into the furnace. I didn't remember from the story that they actually turned up the heat, higher than usual and that those who delivered the guys to the fire were consumed by it. Also, I didn't remember that once they were out of the furnace, they didn't even smell of smoke. AMAZING!  How big is our God!!!

 Ok, I don't want to reveal too much or make this post so long to keep people from reading it, so I will end it with these points.  I encourage you to find the truths for yourself. If you have a Beth Moore bible study at your church, join it, you'll be glad you did. It is an investment. This particular study is 12 weeks long with daily devotional time, but the benefits are priceless. The second part of this study will even be more intriguing as it's about prophecy: the antichrist, end times kind of stuff. At the end of it, I will share with you some snippets. 

Introducing Vaileth

God had laid it on our hearts to sponsor a child through Compassion. I had checked out the website a few times to look for the right child to sponsor, but Damien and I wanted to make the decision together. We searched for a child who shared Dylan's birthday, May 10, and the search resulted in 6 children. Vaileth was ultimately the one we chose as she lives in Tanzania (Africa). We choose her as she lives in an area affected by HIV/AIDS, and my heart goes out to people devastated by this disease. Also, my hope is to go to Malawi next summer on a mission trip, and Tanzania borders Malawi. I don't know if I would be able to visit her, but I think that it would be neat to be able to see what her life would be like first hand. 

She is 5 years old and attends kindergarten and bible classes. She lives with her grandparents and 7 siblings. I look forward to hearing back from her, getting to know her and watching her grow into a young lady.  I can't wait to see how God uses this opportunity to bless her and us.  I know that our lives are forever changed. 

I encourage you to consider sponsoring a child. God calls us to help the poor. I read that one family gave their sponsor child a special gift of $20 in addition to their monthly gift, and he was able to purchase a cow for his family. A little can go a long way.  Think of the difference you can make. 

Now this?

Dylan and I went grocery shopping today, and when we came home, I put him down in the floor to play, while I unpacked the groceries. After unpacking them, I went to change clothes so we could take the dogs for a walk. I come back in the living room, to find this...

I predict that he will be walking by 9 months seeing that he's not even 6 months and doing this. Is this the norm?