I doubt very seriously that I’ll be awake at midnight so here is a short recap of 2005:

January

I was home sick when 2005 arrived and did not enjoy the festivities.

February

Eliana turned 3 on the 20th.

March

I turned 42 on the 14th.

We surprised Carmi’s mother by paying for and, of course, accompanying her on a cruise to the Bahamas. This was a birthday present because she had never been on a cruise before.

April

Carmi turned 42 on the 19th. Is it OK to talk about a woman’s age??

May

I led a team of five to New York City on a mission trip over Memorial Day weekend.

June

I began serving as interim Worship Leader at my home church on the 15th.

Eliana was officially potty-trained on the 24th.

July

I led a team of 16 on a mission trip to the Caribbean island of Antigua from the 16th to the 23rd. This was the first international mission trip that I personally organized.

August

Southern Sanctuary’s final concert was on the 16th at the Citizen’s Center. Laura from Lincolnton sang Alto and I flew Sarah in from Missouri to sing Soprano.

September

We decided on the 16th to begin the process of adopting our second daughter from China.

October

We went to Portrait Innovations in Huntersville for our annual family portraits on the 29th.

The 3rd anniversary of ‘Gotcha Day’ for Eliana was on the 30th.

November

We celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary on the 15th.

We went to the Bi-Lo Center in Greenville, SC on the 18th to see ‘The Wiggles’.

I launched an online project called DadBloggers on the 30th.

December

I led my first cantata on the 18th. The Sanctuary Choir performed ‘An Old Fashioned Christmas’.

Since Eliana comes within about 2 inches of filling up her crib, we decided it was time to move her to a day bed.

Plus she needed more room for her stuffed animals and dolls. What you see in the picture is only a part of her collection.

Plus her little sister will need a bed of her own.

The Empress has actually been sleeping in the day bed for several weeks now but this is a new comforter that Carmi bought her for Christmas. Beneath the comforter is a Dora sheet.

Around mid-afternoon I braved traffic and took a road trip down to Charlotte with a guy from church who plays the drums in our praise band. We walked into a store called Sam Ash and exited an hour later with a brand spankin' new toy. I purchased for the church a Roland TD-3SV compact electronic drum set. Can't wait to hook this bad boy up tomorrow and give it a workout.

I took the afternoon off so I went by the daycare provider's house, picked Eliana up and we headed over to Gran'mommy's for lunch. Afterwards there were a handful of errands I needed to run.

One particular errand was a stop at the bank. As soon as the Empress hears the work 'bank' she asks, "Can I have a sucker"? No teller with half a heart can resist such a request from a child so of course she walked away with some candy...and the tongue to prove it.

From China Daily...

As soon as I brought Eliana home after work, she headed straight for her little yellow table in the living room and began to color. I headed straight for the kitchen and began preparing supper so we could eat when Carmi came home.

Before long, she began to lightly sing and I stopped what I was doing to listen. The tune was unrecognizable at first because her voice was so soft but as I strained to hear through the wall, the words from our Baptist hymnal shortly made sense to me:

Standing, standing
Standing on the promises of God my Savior
Standing, standing
I'm standing on the promises of God
There is something very peaceful and reassuring about hearing Eliana sing, which she does quite frequently. Some would say that singing indicates a happy child. I hope they're right.

Word to the wise...don't fall asleep when Eliana is around with a page full of stickers...