The Molter Family: Joshua is one year old!

This last month has been busy and blessed! There are so many things to share. We are all doing well and hope you are too. Joshua continues to learn and grow right before our eyes. Here are just some of the many recent “happenings” in our household.

Just days after Joshua’s 11 month birthday, we got him into a children’s hair salon for his first haircut. He did so well. I couldn’t believe how much he looked like a little boy and no longer like a baby. Of course we took many pictures and kept a lock of his hair so I could make a scrapbook page of the event.

One recent Saturday afternoon, Tim and I took Joshua to a local community pool. We were pleasantly surprised to see only a few people there so we practically had the kiddie pool to ourselves. Joshua loved the water and would just relax into our arms as we would glide him through the water. We will definitely pray about signing him up for swim lessons next summer.

Joshua’s mouthful of teeth is increasing. He now has 4 teeth on the top in front and 4 on the bottom in front as well as one huge bottom right incisor tooth. Not only is Joshua growing physically but his mind is so sharp. Even though he only babbles, you can tell by the expressions on his face that he truly is trying to tell you something important. And he understands so much more than he can express. He has an animal picture book that we read together and if you ask him to point out specific animals he will. Joshua is also getting very good at problem solving. An example is that if he wants something he can’t reach he will use another toy to extend his reach and knock the toy closer to himself. Next, I guess, comes climbing to reach the toy by himself.

Joshua is also at the age where he has discovered that he has his own free will and that he has a choice to obey or disobey, to have his way or to yield to others. And boy if you have him do something he doesn’t want to do, he will certainly let you know by stomping his feet and screaming. It truly is funny but we don’t want him to see us laugh so we turn away to “ignore” his behavior. Oh goodness.

The last weekend in August we celebrated Joshua’s first birthday with a monkey themed birthday party. We were so blessed by our many friends and family that joined us to celebrate the special life God gave to us - Joshua. Joshua shoveled sugar-free chocolate birthday cake in his mouth, being sure not to miss any places such as behind his ears or in his hair. The whole afternoon was just way too much fun. And the weather outside was beautiful that day, praise the Lord! It was a great start to a very long weekend.

The following day, our church was a host location to a simulcast evangelical crusade called Harvest America. After months of prayer and preparation, everything came together and we saw over 400 people in attendance and 12 people respond to the invitation to receive Jesus. It was awesome and we look forward to next years’ event. Tim spear-headed a majority of the technical aspects of the event for our location, so it was quite a relief to him to see that everything worked semi-smoothly. Glory to God.

And if that wasn’t enough to keep us on our toes (pardon the pun) just a few short days later, Joshua started walking! For several weeks he was getting up and taking maybe 3-5 steps before sitting down but now Josh is off and practically running all throughout the house. Many people have said we’ll wish he had never started because it will be so hard to keep up with him now. But I for one, am glad he is walking simply because he is getting so heavy and hard to carry!

With Joshua’s first birthday came the time to turn his car seat around to forward facing in the back seat. I am finally able to move the passenger seat back a little and not be up so close to the dashboard. And Joshua enjoys the new perspective of seeing where we are going not where we have been.

The week prior to Joshua’s birthday, Tim took some time off from work and we were able to work on some much needed “honey-do” projects around our house. Tim was able to complete some painting and get on the roof to clean our solar panels. I was able to steam clean some stains out of our carpets. It was so nice to have some of the bigger chores taken care of that have been looming in my mind for so long.

Tim continues to work on his training with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. It is very thorough and Tim feels he is learning a lot. It’s nice to know that they won’t send just anyone out but want individuals to be well prepared and equipped to represent our Lord rightly.

After a long period in our church body without a Women’s ministry, we are hosting our first dinner soon. I am looking forward to a time of fellowship with the ladies and having a sweet time of worship and study. It will be exciting to see a fresh new vision for the ministry from the Lord.

While the wildfires in our area continue to burn, we have been blessed with unseasonably cool weather. The end of August and long into September is only supposed to be in the 80s and 90s. The weather around here is usually a scorching 100-110s, so this is quite pleasant! Maybe we will have an early fall and rainy winter this year.

Thank you for your patience in waiting for this update. The week before Joshua’s birthday party, our computer suffered a major “meltdown” in the area where we store all of our photos and videos. We were afraid we had lost everything but Tim was able to recover all of our critical stuff. Over the last few weeks, in between the honey-do’s, birthday party, Harvest America and just daily life, we have been restoring and backing up data. It has been a long and tedious process and we are considering spending the money to purchase online storage incase this happens again.

Now that Joshua has met all of his first year milestones we will not be doing monthly updates on our blog any longer but will make posting occasionally when something significant happens.