Luke's First Sign!

Today Luke signed for the very first time! I was holding him in the kitchen while Michael and Brendan were eating lunch when he reached his arm out and started to open and close his fist. At first I thought he was trying to reach for something on the counter, but if that had been the case he would have been leaning out of my arms and he wasn't. He was just sitting upright in my arms and signing milk! So I nursed him right away. He was thrilled! He kept signing milk while he ate and was just so happy. I'm so proud of my little boy!

Brendan's Baptismal Birthday

Two years ago, Brendan was baptized. The day of his birth was wonderful, but the day he was baptized was glorious! What a blessed reassurance to know that our beloved little son was a child of God.
This is the hymn we sung at his baptism at Zion Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne on December 23, 2004

"Salvation Unto Us Has Come"
by Paul Speratus, 1484-1551

1. Salvation unto us has come        
 By God's free grace and favor;       
 Good works cannot avert our doom,        
 They help and save us never.        
 Faith looks to Jesus Christ alone,        
 Who did for all the world atone;        
 He is our one Redeemer.         

 2. What God did in His Law demand        
 And none to Him could render        
 Caused wrath and woe on every hand        
 For man, the vile offender.        
 Our flesh has not those pure desires        
 The spirit of the Law requires,        
 And lost is our condition.         

 3. It was a false, misleading dream        
 That God His Law had given       
 That sinners should themselves redeem      
 And by their works gain heaven.       
 The Law is but a mirror bright       
 To bring the inbred sin to light        
 That lurks within our nature.         

 4. From sin our flesh could not abstain,        
 Sin held its sway unceasing;        
 The task was useless and in vain,        
 Our guilt was e'er increasing.        
 None can remove sin's poisoned dart        
 Or purify our guileful heart,-       
 So deep is our corruption.         

 5. Yet as the Law must be fulfilled        
 Or we must die despairing,        
 Christ came and hath God's anger stilled,        
 Our human nature sharing.        
 He hath for us the Law obeyed        
 And thus the Father's vengeance stayed        
 Which over us impended.        

 6. Since Christ hath full atonement made        
 And brought to us salvation,        
 Each Christian therefore may be glad        
 And build on this foundation.        
 Thy grace alone, dear Lord, I plead,        
 Thy death is now my life indeed,        
 For Thou hast paid my ransom.         

 7. Let me not doubt, but trust in Thee,       
 Thy Word cannot be broken;        
 Thy call rings out, "Come unto Me!"        
 No falsehood hast Thou spoken.        
 Baptized into Thy precious name,        
 My faith cannot be put to shame,        
 And I shall never perish.         

 8. The Law reveals the guilt of sin        
 And makes men conscience-stricken;       
 The Gospel then doth enter in        
 The sinful soul to quicken.        
 Come to the cross, trust Christ, and live;       
 The Law no peace can ever give,        
 No comfort and no blessing.         

 9. Faith clings to Jesus' cross alone       
 And rests in Him unceasing;        
 And by its fruits true faith is known,        
 With love and hope increasing.        
 Yet faith alone doth justify,        
 Works serve thy neighbor and supply        
 The proof that faith is living.         

 10. All blessing, honor, thanks, and praise        
 To Father, Son, and Spirit,        
 The God that saved us by His grace,-        
 All glory to His merit!       
 O Triune God in heaven above,        
 Who hast revealed Thy saving love,        
 Thy blessed name be hallowed.

Brendan's Birthday

Happy 2nd Birthday to my sweet Brendan!
The past two years have been the most wonderful ones of my life. I thank God daily for the wonderful blessing he has given me in you, Brendan. You have cheered me up with your silly smiles and sweet kisses more times than I could count. Your hugs have melted my heart time and time again. Your innocent, exuberant giggles make me laugh, too. I have loved watching you grow from the not-so-tiny baby who needed me to do everything for him to the big, strong two-year-old who can get himself into his own chair, feed himself, scrape his plate in the garbage, and help his mama in many ways. I rejoice when I hear your little voice try to follow along with prayers and hymns and when I hear you proudly say "Amen!" at the end. I look forward to watching you continue to grow and follow whatever course God has set before you. I pray that your life will be blessed and happy, that you will one day find a loving wife and raise up wonderful children like yourself - ones that can melt your heart with their happy grins. But I'll miss the two-year-old you when that time comes. I'll miss the little boy who climbs up in my lap and wraps his chubby arms around my neck and says "Uv yu, Mama!". I love you too, my precious boy!

A Shameless Brag

Brendan continues to amaze me with how fast he picks up sign language. Today he learned the sign for car. He heard a group of grackles chattering in the yard and started signing bird. He heard an airplane fly by and signed plane - complete with sound effects! Today I began to teach him fingerspelling along with the spoken alphabet. (I've been singing the alphabet song to him for a very long time, but I've just begun asking him to repeat the letters after me.) He tried to repeat every letter, sign and spoken. He got the pronunciation of almost half the letters right. His fingerspelling wasn't so great, but I've just begun to teach him that and it's rather difficult for such a young child to form those signs perfectly. He did make very good attempts at it. He signs many words while he says them.
He's also becoming a very polite, helpful child. He usually says please when he asks for something. And when he forgets, he's quite happy to say when we remind him. He almost always remembers to say thank you. I very seldom have to remind him of that. He hands me wipes when I'm changing Luke's diaper, takes things to the garbage when asked, helps me scrape plates after meals and today he "helped" me wash dishes.
Luke is walking fairly well now. He can even stand himself up now without holding onto anything! He hasn't started signing yet, but he does watch very intently when he sees people signing.

Brendan has decided that the star on the Hardee's sign is sleeping. Every time we drive past Hardee's he points at it and shushes us. Sometimes he also signs "sleep".
Other than that, there's not too much going on here. I'm starting to look for a place for us to live in Fort Wayne next year. So if anyone wants to say a few prayers that something wonderful, cheap and really close to the Seminary will appear for me, that would be awesome!