Our First Walk

Wednesday evening, we finally did something I'd been looking forward to for a long time, we took a walk together on a beautiful spring evening. We pushed his stroller through the GEHS parking lot, along Madison and down to Cornerstone Park. We took him out of his stroller at the park for awhile but he just wanted to go back to sleep. The pushing the stroller thing was as fulfilling as I'd thought it would be.

First Dr.'s Visit and First Shots

I'm slow writing about it but I had a significant moment the first time we took Dawson to the Doctor. It was his two week check up and we were sitting in the waiting room when a couple with a newborn came through the front door complete with car seat and all the newborn's gear. When I saw them come through the door, I was happy for them. This may not seem like a big deal but for years, when I saw a couple with a baby my heart hurt with sadness. But sitting there with Dawson and Erin, I realized I finally had a contentment my heart had been missing for a long time.

Yesterday was Dawson's 2 month check up and his first round of shots. He's completely healthy and weighing in at 12 full pounds, which explains the fat rolls developing. The shots themselves weren't as traumatic as I thought they'd be. The nurses were lighting quick and Dawson cried for only about 30 seconds or so. We gave him some food and he passed out in his car seat for the next few hours. When he woke up at around 3 however, the baby Tylenol had worn off and he was in a lot of pain, he'd cry out every time he moved his legs. We were able to get him to go back to sleep and a couple hours later, he woke up and was just fine.

Dawson is a generally happy baby, he cries only when there's something obviously wrong. Even when he feels the pain of shots, it doesn't take long for him to go back to what I call "happy baby" mode. He's tough and happy, that's a good combination.

Dawson's Dedication

As pastor, I've had the privelege of dedicating and baptizing a lot of kids, never my own kid, though. On Easter Sunday, however almost our entire family along with Dawson's birth family gathered to dedicate Dawson to Christ, it was a beautiful moment. I didn't notice at the time, but as I was showing him off to the congregation, he was waving to everyone.

The following is what we said for the dedication:

In presenting Dawson for dedication, Erin and I signify not only our faith in Christ but also our desire that he would, from an early age, know and follow the will of God. That he would follow Christ in this life and spend eternity with him in the next.
In order to achieve this holy goal, we are committing to teaching him early to respect the Lord, we will watch over his education, to direct his young mind to the Holy Scriptures, and his feet to church. We will help him avoid evil relationships and habits, we’ll do all we can to bring him up in the nurture and knowledge of a relationship with Christ.
Erin and I make this commitment before our entire church family, by saying we will.
I now ask all of you, our church, will you commit to supporting and encourage us in our effort to fulfill these responsibilities and to assist Dawson by nurturing her spiritual development?
If so, answer, we will – WE WILL
Our loving Heavenly Father, we dedicate Dawson Patrick Miller in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Prayer – Danny Miller

It ended with a very tearful prayer by my dad.

I've tried to upload the video to youtube but I think the file is too large.

Our Journey

On my personal blog, I told our whole roller-coaster ride of becoming parents. Since that journey lead to what this blog is about, I thought I'd catch people up. Here are some links to those stories.

Being diagnosed with infertility

Losing the first boy we were going to adopt

Announcing our decision to adopt Dawson

Dawson's arrival

Dawson's birth mom

There are more adoption posts on my blog as well. You can see the entire list here.

Daddy loves it when...

I love it when I put Dawson on my shoulder to burp him and he snuggles into the space between my shoulder and my neck. I love hearing his tiny squeeks when he's that close.

I love it when the corners of his lips curl up (probably from gas) giving him a Joker-like smile.

I love it when he's so happy, he coos over and over.

I love seeing his eyes light up when he catches sight of his life-saving bottle.

I love it when people tell us what a beautiful baby we have (which is all the time).

I love it when he instanlty falls alseep after a middle of the night burp.

I love watching him give Mommy kisses.

First Sunset

Last night was a perfect spring evening. I took Dawson out in the yard and carried him around in his carseat while pulling dandelions. I was giving some great life lessons but he eventually fell asleep.

But before sleeping, I held him up to the tree in our front yard to show him the red of the blooms on the trees. He was enthralled by the red. I pointed the carseat toward the sunset to show him his first sunset. I don't think he could focus on a sight that far away but the setting sun cast a beautiful glow on our beautiful baby boy.

Crazy Fingers!

As he grows up, Dawson is gaining control of his bodily movements. They're becoming slightly more intentional and less random. About a month ago, he did something I can't figure out whether it was random or unintentional.

Despite his protests, we placed Dawson in his swing. He needed to wait a bit longer before we fed him. Well, up come his little left fist and from that fist came a little middle finger. He pointed is "one finger salute" at mom for quite awhile before the finger finally relaxed. At least we knew where he stood with being put in the swing.

Daddy's Preaching

A couple weeks ago, I was preaching this message on sex and ended the message by sharing how God uses what we believe to be our biggest mistakes and turns them into something beautiful. For months, Dawson's birth mom believed God was punishing her until she came to see the joy that Dawson was about to bring into our lives. She then came to realize the blessing that Dawson is to the world. While sharing all of this with the congregation, Dawson had a big smile on his face.

A couple weeks later, I preached a funeral. Erin was holding Dawson in the back and I heard him squeeking, which warmed my heart. Erin said when I started speaking, Dawson heard my voice and started squeeking. Not a bad feeling...

Inner clock

Football coaches say QB's need an inner clock in their head so they'll know when their pocket protection is breaking down so they can get rid of the pass. I've never been a QB (though I've tried to provide pass protection for our QB) but I've learned the art of the inner clock; I'm counting while I change Dawson's diaper. I know that if I go too long, he's going to pee all over everything.

One day I was holding him up so as to wipe his behind but I was taking too long, so my time limit expired and the cold air made Dawson pee. Unfortunately, becaue I was holding up his bottom, he was pointed right at his face. Yes, I made my son pee all over his face. At that moment, Erin came into the room, which is good because I was so horrified by what I made Dawson do, I had to take a break. I'm sure Father of the Year awards are given the dads who make their sons pee all over their face!

First Blow Out

I'm trying to get some memories on here so we don't forget them. One of which is Dawson's first blowout. We were coming home for a family shower in Des Moines and while I went in to order food from Wendy's, Erin took Dawson out of his car seat to change him. I ordered the food and sat down to wait on them. I waited and waited. I could see the car from where I was sitting and through the car window could see Erin from the shoulder up. Her shoulders were moving frantically. I kept thinking "she's almost done" but after 10-15 minutes, I finally went out to check on her.

Well, Dawson had exploded all over the place, even getting poop on his head! Erin was traumatized by the whole experience. I found it funny, which she didn't appreciate.

Erin had to use all but the last wipe of the wipes we'd packed. I remember saying as we packed the wipes, "I guess you should bring all of those though there's no way we'll need that many."

Yeah, I'm learning...

Mr. Mom

Erin went back to work today so I'm now taking care of Dawson during the day. Erin's spent 85% of the time with Dawson so far, so considering it was my first time with him all day, I did pretty well. We've been working to get him on the feed / waketime / naptime schedule from Babywise. It's a lot of work, but we're seeing progress. I got a brand new appreciation for all the work Erin's been doing the past 8 weeks. Next week, I'm going to have to somehow figure out a way to spend time with him when he's awake but get work done while he's napping.
- Donnie

A Quote

"Before you were conceived, I wanted you. Before you were born, I loved you. Before you were here an hour, I would die for you. This is the miracle of life."
MAUREEN HAWKINS