Asher's Dedication

Last month we joyfully dedicated Asher Zacarias Diaz to the Lord. We vowed before our local community of believers that we would do everything we could to train him in the ways of Jesus and we invited them into the journey. His dedication was a public promise to raise him to be all he was created to be and to love God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Asher's dedication was also special because my mom was able to be there. Our lead pastor, Dave Gibbons, dedicated Asher. We love Dave so much and are so grateful for the nearly 9 years of relationship with him and his family. I also love how Asher received this blessing but it flowed over into the blessing for all the kids being dedicated and our entire church. Prophetic? Maybe.



We also chose Psalm 146, especially verse 5, to claim over his life. The miracle that he is, we wanted to affirm his life as a blessing to be a blessing throughout the earth.

Psalm 146

¹ Praise the Lord!

Let all that I am praise the Lord.
²     I will praise the Lord as long as I live.
    I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath.

³ Don’t put your confidence in powerful people;
    there is no help for you there.
⁴ When they breathe their last, they return to the earth,
    and all their plans die with them.
⁵ But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper,
    whose hope is in the Lord their God.
⁶ He made heaven and earth,
    the sea, and everything in them.
    He keeps every promise forever.
⁷ He gives justice to the oppressed
    and food to the hungry.
The Lord frees the prisoners.
⁸     The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down.
    The Lord loves the godly.
⁹ The Lord protects the foreigners among us.
    He cares for the orphans and widows,
    but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.

¹⁰ The Lord will reign forever.
    He will be your God, O Jerusalem,^[b] throughout the generations.

Praise the Lord!

7 Whole Months

Today my baby boy is 7 months old.

These days Asher's all about talking and laughing and smiling. Some of my favorite moments are when Judah or Addise goes over to him to "play" with him and inevitably they start giggling together. It's just the best thing a momma could ask for.

This has been a big month for Baby Asher. Here are a few highlights...

• He moved from sleeping in the bassinet in our bedroom to (kind of) sleeping overnight in his crib...in the same room as his big brother and sister. Let's just say we're still adjusting.
• He's rolling over and over and over again. Belly to back. Left and right. He's on the move!!
• He's getting up on all fours and rocking. Crawling is coming soon. I can feel it.
• The two things I hear most from others are "is he always this alert and active?" and "is he always this happy?" Yes and yes.
• He's drooling like it's his full time job, but no teeth on the horizon.
• There have been valiant attempts at eating rice cereal and many varieties baby food. He acts like we're feeding him poison. He's still just a milk baby.
• He wants to be in on the action. We've noticed that when the party moves to another room without him he gets mad. We're seeing early signs of a temper. Yikes.
• His new favorite activity: the exersaucer!!!!! The boy can spend up to a couple hours a day batting and chewing and spinning and bouncing. Proof of said activity below.
• The kid doesn't do naps. Literally, he's into 20 minute power naps a couple times a day. We're currently experimenting with a new method to get him to sleep more, but he's a poor 3rd child with no hopes of a silent house for long baby naps. (sigh)
• He's also talking ALL THE TIME! His "vocabulary" is expanding as he tries on new sounds, including screaming. It's so blasted cute I can't handle it.

This is a Getz family song. A song sung to me hundreds of times when I was little. A song now sung to my kiddos hundreds of times. Asher's now heard it enough that when I start singing it to him he smiles his big, open mouthed smile - every single time!

Momma's boy!!!!

He really is always this happy.

Perfect.

Ready to take Disney by storm.

On his first Thanksgiving. Dude loves this toy! Dig his baby faux hawk??

He celebrated his 7 month birthday by taking a 3 hour nap...MIRACULOUS!

Despite what we think we needed, God knew we needed this little guy. He's bringing immeasurable joy to our family, healing to our biggies, and deep nourishment to Brian and me. We are truly blessed the God remembered our prayers all those years ago and saw fit to bring us THREE beautiful babies.

I came into our bedroom to find our three kids had conquered Daddy. I don't know what's cutest: Judah placing his Dad's arm over him, Addise as King of the Daddy, or Asher rolling over onto Daddy's shoulder.

Half Year (ALREADY?!)

I believe the cliches - I CANNOT BELIEVE ASHER'S ALREADY 6 MONTHS OLD! This is going by too fast. Way. Too. Fast. We didn't get these early months with our first two (wail and scream and cry) and we don't plan on them again, so we are truly enjoying - savoring! - everything about his infancy.

What started almost exactly 1 year ago as a shocking and terrifying positive pregnancy test has turned into our 3rd greatest blessing. Asher is perfection. Pure joy. The best baby. The most wonderful addition to our family.

We took naming our son seriously. Just a few weeks before his miraculous arrival, we landed on his name: Asher means "happy" and "blessing" and Zacarias means "God remembered". Every day I think of the weight of his name and how he's already living into it. He is truly the happiest baby (barring the most adorable pouty face he makes when he's really expressing his disappointment with life). He's slept through the night for a couple months (more or less) and he doesn't even wake up crying in hunger. He wakes up with a smile. He finds excuses to smile and giggle profusely. He flirts with all the girls - batting his long eye lashes and flashing a gummy smile. He's content with the world, loves his swing, eat/sleeps/poops like a champ. Though a preemie, he's quickly made up time in every area. Perhaps he's so happy because he gets lathered in kisses everyday by his siblings, momma, and daddy. He's so very well loved.

Asher's our little Benjamin Button look-alike blessing. We cannot imagine life without him, although a year ago we couldn't imagine life with another child. It's humbling to know God remembered our prayers from y-e-a-r-s ago and gave us this miracle. We are soaking in every moment of these early days with Asher.

Our little Harry Potter wrapped up, all clean.

Bald boys at the happiest place on Earth.

Knawing on fingers has become a way of life. So has drool.

Let's call this his Zoolander face.

Stop it. They don't make 'em cuter.

Trying rice cereal for the first time. It didn't go so well.

Spitting. Kicking. Smiling. It's a full time job.

Checking out his new "friend".

Asher Zacarias, we love you like crazy. You have blessed our life immeasurably and filled our family with joy.