Adventures in Our Home & Hearts: Meet the Newest (4-pawed) Member of Our Family

Giving God Glory

God is faithful! - For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6 The Lord is faithful! We have been experiencing His faithfulness in sanctifying us to be more like Christ as He has been faithfully helping us to process and grieve with hope our miscarriage that occurred recently. A song that really hit home in our hearts is Faithful, which describes how we must cling to God's faithfulness in trials.

Click on this link to hear Faithful by Stephen Curtis Chapman

Also, a blogpost by Ann Voskamp was encouraging to remember...

“From where we stand, we can’t see whether it’s something’s good or bad. All we can see is that God’s sovereign and He is always good, working all things for good... My focus need only be on Him, to only faithfully see His Word, to wholly obey...” Ann Voskamp

Click on this link to read the entire post The Horse Principle: 1 Truth that Will Get You Through the Hard Days Again & Again by Ann Voskamp

What's on the Harrisons' Hearts

The difference in desire & direction - Wes and I love children! We immensely love our sons, and we also enjoy loving on our nephews and nieces, working with children in AWANAs and other children's ministry opportunities, interacting with and investing in the children in our neighborhood, and discipling or teaching children the Lord brings in our lives. After 4 consecutive miscarriages, a question that comes up in conversations and in our hearts is - "What's next?" The short answer... we don't know. The Lord has definitely given us a strong desire for more children, but He has not given us clear direction. Psalm 127:1 - Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it... We want to make sure the Lord builds our family to the extent that He wants and in the ways He wants. Time will tell if He calls us to adopt again through private adoption or through foster care, to receive a biological child He sustains and brings into this world, or to focus solely on cherishing our two sons He has blessed us with. For now, there is one clear answer... to continue to cherish!

Praises & Prayers

Various Loved Ones - Continued prayer for wisdom and for Christ's strength and perspective as they are in the midst of various trials (James 1:2-5).

Tache - Continued prayer of James 1:5 for wisdom for the doctors to determine how to help her back heal.

Tami - Continued prayers for the Lord to give my dad and other loved ones His perspective and that God would heal Tami, but ultimately that His will would be done. Prayer of Galatians 5:22-23 that the fruit of the Spirit would abound in Dad's & Tami's lives during this trial.

Our Family - Praise for how the Lord has been showing His faithfulness to our family and has been continuing to sanctify us to be more like Him. Praise for the Lord blessing us with paying off our adoption loan earlier than we had hoped. Praise for Wes' furlough ending early - only half the time that was originally planned.

Wes - Continued prayer for Wes to continue to be a strong light and witness for Christ at work in the midst of a very spiritually dark environment and also for spiritual protection (Ephesians 6:10-20).

Christina - Praise for the Lord blessing me with opportunities to teach and invest in children from a couple different families. Please pray James 1:5 and Ephesians 5:16 for wisdom and discernment with priorities and making the most of the time the Lord has given me now that our family is in a new season with these opportunities.
Noah - God would graciously save him at a young age and lead him to walk with the Lord all of his days, if that be the Lord's will. Praise for the Lord giving grace to Noah to trust Him, even when we don't understand His plans. Prayer of Ephesians 6:1-3 that the Lord would grow Noah in honoring and obeying Wes and me right away and not arguing (whether defiantly or subtly).
Josiah - God would graciously save him at a young age and lead him to walk with the Lord all of his days, if that be the Lord's will. Prayer of Psalm 19:14 that the Lord would grow Josiah in communicating in ways that honor Him (ex. attempting to communicate with words/sounds rather than screaming when he wants something). Continued prayer for the Lord to grow Josiah in his gross motor skills (ex. progressions involved with walking) in His perfect timing.

Marriage Memories

Denver Dates

Celebrating my birthday in Denver - enjoying some delicious seafood & also an overnight stay in the "mile high city." Great memories!

We recently went to this class in Denver and made a date out of it. The information presented contained some psychological research and also helpful, practical tips for communicating the hard truths about adoption to your child at various ages and stages. We highly recommend this class to those who have adopted.

Family Fun

Our fam at the firestation

Noah spraying the hose * Josiah exploring the firetruck supplies

Noah was thrilled to try on Daddy's gear

Josiah enjoyed playing with the firetruck & the rocks outside the firestation ;)

Meet the Newest Member of Our Family

Dozer (short for "Bulldozer" since he is going to get big)

Looking sweet * Sound asleep

1st day with our fam - Josiah pulling on Dozer's ear * Noah petting Dozer

Our other dog, Sierra, that we've had for 7 years was not so sure about our new puppy...

Noah was super excited! * Lovin' on our new little one * Josiah gets the biggest kick out of Dozer ;)

Dozer does great with both of our boys!

Daddy & sons having fun in the pouring rain :)

Noah jumping * Josiah splashing

One day the boys & I went to a water park about 30 minutes away. Noah had a great time, and Josiah enjoyed watching him play but wasn't too interested in getting wet since the water was cold.

Biking - Daddy & Noah * Mommy & Josiah

I couldn't keep up to Wes' speed, so it quickly became Daddy with Noah & Josiah ;) * Josiah enjoyed his 1st bike ride

Daddy & sons wrestling fun

Noah News

Age - 4 years old

Cute Communication -

*Using the number 100 to add greater emphasis to something - "This monster truck goes 100 fast." "I am 100 hungry." "I like this dinner 100." "I love you 100!"

*"Cottonwood candy" (Cotton candy) We have a park nearby called Cottonwood Creek Park, so that's probably where the combo phrase came from. ;)

*Noah - "I want to read." Me - "Ok. I will teach you." We started working on sight words, and he already knows 15 of them. One day when it was our first time for Dozer to be in our front yard, I explained to Noah that we needed to watch Dozer closely in case he tried to run away. Noah - "Away is in my book." (We created a book of all the sight words he knows, and I had just recently taught him the word "away.") It brings me joy that he is already starting to make connections with words he is sight-reading.

*Noah enjoys "telling a secret" - as he calls it. He will come up to us, put his hands around our ear, and then talk in a normal voice (for all to hear).

*One day Noah informed me, "My worker said I need to work for a few days, and then I have some overtime."

Latest Likes

Inventing games with various balls

Dressing up/pretend role play with friends

Slap bracelets

Climbing trees

Inviting a friend over for a sleepover

Having fun! - Climbing a tree in our front yard * Dressing up/pretend role-play with Liam (friend in our neighborhood)

Showing... - His new shoes * Slap bracelet * Marker body art... we had a discussion about where we do our artwork ;)

Noah was motivated for a minute or so to try to pedal his trike

Noah & Xavier (neighbor) are both 4 now and are becoming quite the buddies

Riding scooters together * Noah riding with Xavier ;) * "Playing" boardgames together

*Video - Noah enjoying some musical rhythm

Josiah Joys

Age - 14 months old

1sts - holding sippy cup on own when sitting up, temporary tattoo, pulling up to knees on his own, giving/initiating a kiss (Wes got the first one), pointing at something he wants or wants to show us

Teeth - 8 (4 top & 4 bottom)

Latest Likes

Screaming

Food (especially fruit & sweets)

Pulling up to his knees on everything

Playing with water - in bowls, bathtub, shower

Being chased while crawling

Josiah enjoys pulling up to knees on everything! - Step-stool * Dishwashwer * Stairs * Crib

Balancing - Coffee table * Step-stool (we have to help him get to standing)

"Reading" * Crawling while carrying legos ;)

Physical therapy progress - These are Josiah's orthotics supports and supportive shoes that we received this month. The increased support does seem to be helping him and making a difference. Josiah is getting stronger, which lately we have seen evidenced by pulling to his knees frequently and being able to stand on his feet (with support/something to hold onto) for greater amounts of time.

*Crawling with items in his hand

Bro Bonding

Showing off their (temporary) tattoos * This was Josiah's 1st tattoo

Having fun playing together with their toys

Bro wrestling

Playing together in the sand box

Josiah has a lot of fun playing in the sand box & "crawl/flopping" out of it too ;)

Noah letting Josiah "play" with his friends - notice Josiah between Noah's friends watching the action ;)

*Video - Bro "wrestling"

Homeschool Highlights

This month we did a Science unit study on animals.

Click on this link if interested in the FREE preschool skills/benchmarks that I use - Core Knowledge Preschool Sequence of Skills

Click on this link for a corresponding preschool book that I use - Core Knowledge: What Your Preschooler Needs to Know

Science: Unit study on animals - The Lord blessed us with a bird nest in our apple tree, so we enjoyed observing the mama bird with her 2 baby birds.

Mama bird bringing a warm to her babies * The bird nest

The Lord brought a lot of insects our way this month too! - moths, flies, mosquitos, bees, beetles, and more

Wes teaching Noah about the moths they found by our door...and trying to get Sierra to eat them. ;)

"Mama moth" * "baby moth" * Noah holding a beetle

Animal life cycles - Explaining how dogs begin as puppies (Dozer) & grow to adult dogs (photo of a full grown dog of the same breed)

Life skills: Caring for animals - Noah blowdrying & brushing Sierra's hair after her shower

Life skills: Yard work - Helping rake leaves

Life skills: Putting away the trash can after trash pick-up

Reading: Making The Gingerbread Man story come to "life" by making our own gingerbread cookies

Daddy reading the familiar story to Noah * A few of the cookies we made together

Memorable Moment of the Month

Noah's first official sleepover - Last month we had friends stay with us for a week, and one of the nights Noah and the 2 year old boy attempted a sleepover that ended up to be more of a play party. ;) This month Noah invited a neighborhood friend, Liam (5 years old), to come over for a sleepover, and it was Liam's first sleepover at a friend's home. The boys did great (talked for awhile, stayed in their beds, and fell asleep not too late) and had a blast!