Road Trip!

During our first two months with Ethan, we’ve experienced a number of firsts. This week, we will experience another first — a road trip. Tomorrow morning after breakfast, we will drive to Asbury in Wilmore, KY where we are scheduled to defend our dissertations Thursday afternoon (Randy) and Friday morning (Joleen) before driving back Friday … Read more

Back on Mission

It’s our first day back to work (after parental leave). As we get back to the cause of leading our churches in mission, I’m thinking about an image I saw while we were in Korea. During our tour of Kwanglim Methodist Church, I saw a large wall poster of John Wesley on horseback, which included … Read more

How Was the Trip?

Whenever we return from traveling (or at the end of some important experience), we’ll commonly ask each other: How was the trip? It gives us an opportunity to reflect on things we enjoyed, things we didn’t enjoy, things we learned, and things we’ll carry with us forever. Here at the end of our 10-week journey … Read more

Round 2

Today, Mom came to our house to spend the afternoon with Ethan while Randy and I went to State College to run some errands. Round 1 involved a lot of separation anxiety, but in Round 2, Ethan had a wonderful visit with “Grandma!” They played together. Ethan had one of his favorite snacks — yogurt. … Read more

Ethan Meets the Twins

My cousin, Kevin, had twins twelve days before Ethan was born. Ethan got to meet Steven and Evin (corrected spelling!) and the family on Friday. The twins have each other to play with (or steal toys from), but this was the first time Ethan was around any babies his age. The 10-month-olds were cute together. … Read more

Separation Anxiety

Last Wednesday, Randy and I had our first time apart from Ethan. Mom volunteered to babysit while we went to Altoona to pick up our pictures at JCPenney Portraits. We had a few other things to pick up, as well (formula was at the top of the list!). And, Randy and I planned to have … Read more

Ethan’s First Professional Photos

After giving Ethan some time to adjust to his new home, we took him to a professional photographer at JCPenney Portraits a couple of weeks ago. This week, we picked up our prints. As a nice touch, JCP offers (for $5) online access to all of the pictures that were taken (including the many that … Read more

One Step Closer

Just before the local post office closed this afternoon, we mailed our defense drafts — 3 copies from each of us — to the doctor of ministry office for the members of our dissertation committees. Every step is one step closer to the finish line. Throughout this program, which we began more than 4 years … Read more

Balancing Dissertations and Peekaboo

After lunch today, we needed to split shifts between dissertation work and hanging out with Ethan so that we can mail them tomorrow afternoon. At the time I went to my computer to get started on my work, Ethan thought it was a good time to play peekaboo. So we did. Life can be a … Read more

Got Milk?

Sometime ago, a local dairy farmer/parishioner was in our home and noticed the gallon of milk in our refrigerator–something that is the norm in our house, so I didn’t think a thing about its presence, and was surprised that she had noticed! (Probably it’s like me, a pastor, going into someone’s home and noticing their … Read more