Abe's world tour begins

Well, this week marked the beginning of Abraham's public life. Last Sunday, we had a "meet the baby" shower and cookout at our house so that students, leaders, and families could meet the little bugger. We had around 80 people show up, eat hot dogs, shake Abe's hand, play frisbee, and just hang out. It was a great time!

Wednesday night we had Cell-e-bration. That is our end-of-the-year cell group party for all of our Bible study groups. Usually, we have this at the church, but this year we did it at the Greek Theater on the University of Arkansas campus. It was amazing! We had a great time of worship and had quite a few baptisms. Kerrie came with her cell group and brought Abe along. It was really cool to see the students and leaders light up when they saw him. Chicks dig him, guys want to hang out with him. He's already a heartbreaker.

We've been saving the money that people have been giving us to get Abe a jogging stroller. I've been taking him out walking around the neighborhood with Riley in his regular stroller, but I wanted to get a rugged stroller that we could take on trails and everything. I finally found one that I think will work great. It's called a BOB. Dang, it's got everything...shocks...pegs. We'll be able to talk it off some sweet jumps. I can't wait to get it! Abe will be stylin' in his new wheels.

Abe and his beautiful mama, Kerrie. Dad is the most blessed person in the world! 

Hanging out in the swing with his bear. 

Here's Abraham "A-Jacks" Archer kickin' it at the cookout with one of his best friends, Thomas "T-Dogg" Vaught. Proud papas Matt and Christian are providing support in the background. 

It's Official!

Monday, April 18th was the day we officially adopted Abraham into our family. What a great day! The adoption was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but the judge's office called and asked to reschedule it to first thing Monday morning.

It was actually a very strange ceremony. I thought that we would be sworn in and everything and I would be asked questions like "Why should you raise this child?" and stuff. They told us it would start at 8:30. So, we got to the courthouse around 8:15 and the attorney who was helping us went in to the judge's chambers to let him know we were there. He came out a minute later and said, "Well, we're done. The judge was in a hurry, so he just signed the papers." I gotta say it was a little bit of a letdown. But, you can't argue with the result! To celebrate, we went out to breakfast at Cracker Barrel with some of our closest friends who had come to support us.

"Cracker Barrel--the official restaurant for travelers, old people, and post-adoption celebrations!"

The whole family! 

Here's our great friends who came to the courthouse with us! 

Blue Steel 

He looks like he's getting ready to punch the cameraman. I think he's getting a little tired of the paparazzi.  

Riley and Sancho aren't sure what to think of this whole thing...but they're good babysitters. 

Taking care of a new baby just wears them out. 

Bundled up like a cute little eskimo. 

Our week-old boy

One week down...many, many more to go! Everything's just rolling along here at the Archer House. Abraham is such a good baby! The only hard time we ever have is arguing over who gets to hold him and feed him.

We went to the doctor on Monday for his first check-up and it went really well. Most baby's lose weight for the first couple of weeks, and then start putting it back on. But, not old Abe. He weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces! He's well on his way to becoming a Michelin baby.

Anyways, here's some of his latest pics. Thanks for your prayers!

Here's Abe in his little bouncer. He's such a stud. 

Here's one of lil squeaker's many daily feedings. He eats about every 3 hours and around 3-4 ounces at a time. 

Chillin. 

He's already got more hair than his dad. 

A.J. is here!

It is my greatest pleasure to announce the birth of Abraham Jackson Archer! He was born Wednesday, April 6 at 1:22 am. He weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces and was 20 3/4 inches long.

Kerrie and I just got home from the hospital with Abe a couple of hours ago. We've been at the hospital since Monday evening. The doctor's decided to induce labor on Tuesday morning, and it took a little time, but little Abraham arrived in great shape.

He's the greatest little man in the world! He really never cries--which is amazing. He does like to squeak softly to himself, though.

Why the name Abraham Jackson, you ask? Well, a few reasons. First of all, we really liked the name Abraham. It's got the "cool old man" vibe and it's one of those unique names that gets better the more you hear it. Secondly, we love the story of Abraham from the Bible. (Read Genesis 12: 1-3) Third, my great grandfather's name was Abraham, my grandfather's name was Abram, and my dad's middle name was A. So, we just decided to keep the family name and just un-abbreviate it. Also, we've always liked the name Jackson, but there are so many people lately naming their kids Jack. We just wanted to be a little different. And there's the fact that if a person has a name like Abraham Jackson Archer, he's got to be pretty cool and probably famous.

And the final reason is this--I'm all about the nicknameability of a person's name, so I figure the possibilities are endless with Abraham Jackson. We've already got Abe, AJ, Jack, and AJacks. My grandmother's name for him is Abrajack, which sounds like some sort of fish. It's impossible to weigh the importance of a good nickname.

Anyways, I've been up pretty much since Monday night, so I think I'll end this little rant and take a nap with my 36-hour-old son. Thanks for your prayers and support!

Here's our little boy! He doesn't open his eyes much yet, but here's a rare moment of him checking everything out. You'll notice he's also wearing some rocking little monkey mittens. They're like little boxing gloves. 

Proud papa with the little yawner. 

We brought him home this afternoon and Riley's still not sure what to think of him. All Riley knows about him so far is that he makes noise and he has some really cool toys. 

You think he's adorable, don't you? 

OK, seriously. Being completely objective here...he's the cutest baby in the world. 

Kerrie got to go into the nursery right after the birth while they cleaned Abraham up and did their initial tests. She took about 150 pictures and 20 minutes of video in there. The nurse was pretty surprised because she'd never had to do all that stuff with the mother looking over her shoulder! 

Here's Grammy with the lil' bugger!