Boy Wonder Now 9 Months Old!

Our precious baby boy officially became 9 months yesterday! It's been 9 months since we were at Mercy Hospital meeting him for the first time... Wow, we didn't realize then just how much he would change our lives. And it's just not in the sense of less sleep and him getting most of our attention; having him has completely changed the way we think about ourselves, our roles, our family, our future, our relationship with God... everything. And we know that, God willing, in the months and years ahead, the privilege of being Daniel's parents will just continue to change us. Parenthood is transforming... I didn't realize 9 months ago it would be this much.

We've had some special times over the past week: Thanksgiving with the Staggers and Ritchies; party for Daniel at Maria Helena's so that he could meet her closest friends and Maria Helena spending time with us on my day off. Check out the slideshow for our favorite photos - if you click on the slideshow, you can download the photos through Picassa (unfortunately our old camera broke on Thanksgiving so we haven't got any photos of that special day).

We now need to start preparing for our upcoming trip to Malaysia! We are leaving one week from tomorrow and will be away for 3 weeks. We are really looking forward to going but kind of dreading the flights there. We will first be taking a 15 hour flight to South Korea, sleeping over in Seoul and then making our way to Kuala Lumpur. We ask for your prayers for the flights over; Daniel is so active now and we're just not sure how we will manage to entertain him for so long in a confined space... oh well, we'll manage somehow! The time difference is also huge - 13 hours ahead from here - so that too will take some adjusting to... Please do keep us in your prayers! But once we are there, God willing, we will get to enjoy spending time with Jonny's family, introducing Daniel to family and friends, being outdoors in hot weather, swimming pool, wonderful food, etc... it's going to be worth it!