1 August 2008

First Friday in August 2008 – Opportunities

Posted by BaBa under: First Fridays .

Tonight was our First Friday meeting and the theme was Opportunities. I worked with the material Susan gave me and prepared the slides for the night. This would be my first time on stage presenting to our group. I was not nervous as I teach in a large lecture hall at the the University. I also was very well prepared in that I did the slide show and thus knew the material. I went to Susan’s in the morning to go over the slides with her so that I could make a couple of changes before tonight.

We had to skip dinner in order to help setup for the evening. This was ironic. I had called Cristy a couple of times during the day to check on them after a long trip back from Shriner’s Hospital in PA and a flat tire in Po’dunkville Virginia. The second call was to see if they would meet us on Sheridan’s gotcha day for lunch or dinner. She did not call back. I later learned that she did not call because they were going to surprise us at dinner that night. Oops. Well they did surprise us when we saw them at First Friday. We also were surprised to see Tina and Grace there since Grace had just had been hospitalized for her appendix.

We also celebrated having three new children in our group. Nate is the son of Julie and Pete and arrived from Denver in a domestic adoption. Nate’s story is one where you can easily see God’s finger working in their lives. Well I see his handiwork in all of our adoptions, but sometimes it is a little more obvious than others. He has such bright blue eyes and his glow is reflected in his parents faces.

Niklas is the son of Laura and Erik and is Sheridan’s age. He is also the brother of Ellie Grace who is one of Sheridan’s best buddies. Niklas has a grin that will light up a room. It will be great to watch him grow along with Ellie Grace and Sheridan. He will have to have cleft surgery soon and once that is done, we are all anxiously awaiting him being able to really talk to us.

Finally (last but not least) is Baby Meron who is the daughter of Tymm and Laura. Sheridan calls her Baby Meron and I think always will. She is home from Ethiopia and what a blessing. She had a hard time after coming home and was hospitalized for RSV, but is now fine. She is such a happy little girl and of course the parents are over the moon happy with their little treasure.

It was a great night. I think the message went over well. We had many good conversations with folks prior to the presentation and then after. We stayed to help Dan and Susan clean up. After this we joined them at a local restaurant to review the evening and of course get some food. This proved a wonderful time to spend with friends and unwind after the night. Sheridan slept well that night because he was able to unwind. We often have sleep issues after First Friday because he is so keyed up from playing with his friends.

Here are the photos from the night. The first show our little guy with a small pillow we found at a consignment sale. We took out the stuffing and figured that it would be great for his drainage bulb and also funny.

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