Caroline meets Lou Holtz

On Saturday, August 26, the whole family took an outing to the Wal-Mart in Fayetteville (where our church is), where Lou Holtz was signing copies of his new book, Wins, Losses, and Lessons. We are big college football fans, going back to Galen's days as student manager and later team chaplain at Wake Forest, and Lori working for three years at the ticket office there. Coach Holtz is most famous for winning the national championship at Notre Dame, but he also coached at North Carolina State and Arkansas, which is why he came here for a book signing. We waited almost two hours in line to meet him, but it was definitely worth it. As soon as he saw Caroline, he commented on how beautiful she is, asked how old she was, and wanted Lori to bring Caroline around the desk where he was sitting for a picture together. Because there were so many people still in line, and he had to leave soon to catch a flight, he couldn't take much time to talk with people or take pictures, but he was the one to make a special request to pose with Caroline. So we were very impressed by Coach Holtz, and we will remember this day for a long, long time!

One Month Old

Today, August 10, makes exactly one month since Caroline was born. She is healthy and growing normally, for which we are so grateful. We have had our moments where we were concerned about a sleep pattern or a crying spell, but she has not had those daily, hours-long episodes of colic that can be so trying on everyone. It has been amazing to us that so many things we had read in books during the pregnancy have become true. Mainly, we have discovered how accurate it is that the early weeks can have moments both of frustration and of joy, and that this is to be expected. The main issue for Galen has been to cope with crying that has no immediately discernible reason, and the main issue for Lori has been to stay rested and get her strength back. Because our life together has been only the two of us with no relatives nearby for many years now, we have grown accustomed to relying exclusively on each other, and that is certainly paying off now as we are dividing up the responsibilities for the baby and still becoming even closer to each other every day. We both are so happy and blessed when we can hold Caroline, pet Winston, lean on each other, and feel that our family is complete. We know that we have a lot of growing still to do ourselves in terms of learning how to entertain and educate Caroline as she gets older, and then to get used to traveling with her. Also, Galen will soon have less time to give to baby duty as he returns to work for the start of the new college semester. But when we see Caroline's beautiful face, in which we see reflections of each of us, we thank God and smile and know everything will be okay. We have added to this post some of our favorite baby poses from the past month. Thanks as always for taking a look around.

Caroline Goes to Church

On August 6, Caroline went to church for the first time. She was very good, and everyone was delighted to see her. Lori was also glad to feel better enough to be back in church. Caroline wore a pretty yellow dress that one of the church members gave to her, and she also posed for a picture on a white blanket that another church member made for her. When we got back home, Caroline changed into the outfit that sports her favorite Bible verse, 1 Corinthians 15:5: "Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed."

How's Winston Handling Everything?

A lot of people have asked us how Winston has reacted to Caroline's presence; after all, for almost eight years, he was the only baby we had. He has actually been very good. He does not bark when she cries, and he has not been aggressive around her at all. We are careful not to allow him too close to her just to be safe, and that will probably remain so for a while, but they have been on the same couch and bed together with no worries. As you can see from the top picture, for now Winston may be getting more use out of Caroline's toys than she is!