A good read

Every night Noah and I read some books together. (At this point, I am using the term "read" rather loosely. . .) One of our favorites is a Peter Rabbit book called Munch!
This is a very appropriate title for a book to read with an infant. . .


. . . because that is what they do to books anyway!
:)

Eight months old!

Noah is eight months old! Is it just me, or does each month get faster? He is learning and growing so much. It sure is fun to watch. I'm not sure how much he weighs, but we are guessing between 15 and 16 pounds. He definitely is feeling heavier.
At eight months (5 adjusted) he also:
-Laughs! Peekaboo is a favorite, and the bigger surprise, the bigger the giggle.
-Has started babbling. There is the "I'm so happy and learning to use my voice" babbling, and the "I am very mad and I know that I am expressing it" babbling. I know that there isn't meaning with it yet, but it is very fun to hear him say "mama"!
-Is teething...
-...and therefore puts everything in his mouth. The new favorite is his curtains while I change is diaper. How about using that $12 toy that Mommy bought you? Nope, curtains.
-Does like to play with his toys now. You know those toy bars that babies are supposed to lay under and gaze happily at? My baby somehow yanks down the bar and tries to put the whole thing in his mouth. (Did I mention I am okay with him not crawling yet?)
-Rolls very well and has amazing powers of wiggling to get from Point A to Point B.
-Is getting very close to sitting up on his own.
-Loves to eat.
-Loves to drink out of a cup. (with Mommy and Daddy's help of course)
-Has put himself on a schedule of going to bed at 8:00 and getting up at 7:00. I like that.



With his bear at 4 months:

Camp

I finally finished this update on our week of camp! It was an awesome week, and it is hard to condense it down and put it into words.
We went from having almost no volunteers for staff and wondering if there even would be camp to having 55 campers and 6 "leaders-in-training" from Red Lake and a lot of awesome staff from various organizations. The past 7 years we have used a location where we rent out the camp and provide all our own staff. That just was not coming together this year, so Corey threw out the idea that we use Camp Oak Hills. I said, "that's a nice idea, but camps don't just come with a staff." He suggested we ask their staff to just stay on another week. I agreed, but honestly didn't think it would fly. I was wrong. The Camp Oak Hills staff, who had already put in a whole summer, stayed and loved these kids and did a fabulous job. Then not too long before camp was scheduled to happen, a group from ND said they wanted to come and help. My first response was that we had enough help and there wouldn't be anything for them to do, and maybe they should look for another opportunity. I was wrong again. They served any way they could and spent time hanging out with and loving the kids every chance they got. It was so cool to see how God brought together volunteers from 5 different organizations to serve together and get excited about this ministry.


Noah did great and loved his very first week of camp! He got to be outside and in his stroller a lot, which is one of his very favorite things. He had a group of admirers around him at pretty much all times, which he also likes. :)

Corey took over a lot of leadership duties and did awesome! I am so blessed to be able to live life and serve God with this man!!
We got to do a little "devotional" each morning and one evening we told about Noah's birth. We wanted to share how choosing to follow Jesus does not mean that your life is perfect, but that it DOES make a difference when you go through hard things. It was kind of hard, but really good, and another step for me in the processing/healing through all of it. I managed to hold it together okay and only cried a few times. :) I shared about how I found that it was more powerful to be thankful and praise God than to be sad and mad and ask why. Then we gave the kids a chance to publicly share things they are thankful for, which was really powerful. It was amazing to see how many wanted to do this, what they came up with, and how respectful they were overall. One LIT that I am close to and has been in my cabin since she started coming to camp took a turn and said, "I am thankful that Ellie is still alive." Yup, let the crying start again.

We love camp and more than that love those kids. It is what brought me to this ministry and what we will always be passionate about. It was SO good to get back into it. Even though Noah is doing so well, I think part of me was still a little bit in crisis mode, and this week was a good push to keep moving forward. I am excited to see how God will use our family.

When did that happen?

This morning I picked up some overalls that have been in the "that is huge and will never fit" pile (which is rapidly shrinking), put them on Noah to find that they DO fit, and that my little baby is not so much a little baby any more.

When did that happen?

(I am working on a post about camp. It was an awesome week!)

Off to camp!

We are off to camp for the week! This is the seventh year that I have been a part of this camp for kids from the Red Lake Indian Reservation. It is very near and dear to my heart. It is so cool to see how it has grown and how God has worked. The first year I think there was barely 20 campers and last year there was over 50. Some kids who started out as campers are now leaders. Camp rocks.
This year we will obviously have another member of our family with us; we'll see how Noah likes his first week of camp! Some of the kids have watched me go from single to engaged to married to pregnant and now to being a mom. Last year they were pretty excited that we were going to have a baby. The girls in my cabin even said, "next year you can put a crib in the cabin!" They were totally serious. :) We will be sharing Noah's story one night and pray that it is a powerful testimony of God's faithfulness. We would greatly appreciate your prayers too.
We also have the opportunity to share a lesson each day. We debated and prayed and went back and forth on what we should teach about, and what God put on our hearts is to share about what is truly central: Jesus. He was a REAL person, but not the long flowing haired white guy that is often pictured. He had dark skin and hair and was from a tribe that was the minority. He hung out with people who were looked down on. He was passionate about truth and wasn't shy about sharing it. And each of us needs to make a decision on who we think he is and what we are going to do about it.

Jesus said "I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6

You know that kind of thing...in about 10-15 minutes a day...see, I told you we needed prayer. :)