Being Mr. Mom...

Hello, friends!

Greetings from beautiful Portland, Oregon! Seriously, y'all, it's really pretty out here.

You may be thinking to yourself, "self, what is Adam doing in Portland? That's really far from Missouri!" Well, you would be right and thanks for asking a great question!

My lovely wife Megan is actually part of the National International Student Ministry (ISM) Team for InterVarsity. This team is 16 staff from all over the country who focus on ISM and are leading our movement in how to care for international students and equip staff to care for international students. Meg is perfect for the job and I couldn't be prouder of her. This week the National Team had its team meeting in Portland so the 3 of us took a trip. We stopped in California for a few days (more on that later) then made our way up to Portland for 4 days. Meg was in meetings all day so my job was playing Mr. Mom and watching Ezra from 8-6.

First of all, let me say this: Portland/Oregon is BEAUTIFUL. We did a little bit of sightseeing and the views are just amazing. There are mountains, waterfalls, rivers, and a really cool skyline. When the rain stopped it was really quite pretty.

Of course, you're not here to read about my trip to Portland (unless you are... then you should probably email me because I'm going to stop talking about it now). You're hear to read about my adventures of doing the Mr. Mom thing. Here are a few things that I learned:

- Long term babysitting is a game of mutual endurance. I've watched Ezra for 4 hours before by myself and it was fine but 3 days of 6-8 hours meant that the chance of us getting bored went up considerably. The house where we were staying was about an hour outside of Portland proper so we weren't going to be taking any trips into the city. Instead, we played a LOT of pick-a-boo, read a LOT of books, and took a LOT of naps. The hardest part was seeing who would crack and get bored of our current activity first. I have no problem telling you that I am the undefeated champ of "Let's do the same thing for a long time" but it was a good match all around. =0).

- Multi-tasking is a myth. Well, at least it was for me. I wanted to be fully present while watching Ezra, which meant that getting work done wasn't really going to be happening. He could play by himself for a little while but unless he was asleep, I wanted to give him my full attention. His naps were sporadic and for varying times so getting a good stretch of work done was a struggle. I'm not complaining, it's just the truth.

- Conversation with a 7 month old is a lot of fun. Ezra has no words. He makes noises, flails his hands, and can laugh but he doesn't have any command of the English language. Just don't tell him that. A lot of our time together was talking to each other. I'd ask him a question and he'd "answer" back while trying to suck on my hand or scratch my face. We didn't solve any of the world's problems but it was really fun to see how much he has been developing over time.

All said and done, it was a really fun experience. I was happy to bless and serve Meg as well as spend some quality time with Ezra. Father/son days are the best...

Have an excellent day!

~Adam