Entries from November 2009 ↓

I have noticed a number of commercials from Fidelity Investments lately. They’re the commercials with the green line on the ground that offers guidance and direction. Last week, one especially caught my attention.

In the commercial, the financial advisor encourages the client that the plan they worked out for his retirement “makes sense” and that he should “just stay on track.” Shortly after leaving the Fidelity office, the client stops to look at some expensive cars. Back down the street, the financial advisor from Fidelity calls out, “Stay on the line!” The client smiles, gets back on the line, and moves along.

The commercial caught my attention because that’s not the message we’re accustomed to hearing in commercials. Granted, it was a commercial from an investment firm, not an advertiser for a product they’re trying to convince us we need.

But the message is a good one — have a goal, a purpose, stay on track, and don’t get distracted along the way.

You can see the commercial on YouTube.

The first time we were in Korea, we ate at one really nice Korean restaurant, another middle-of-the-road restaurant, and had one home cooked feast in someone’s home. We also ate at places like Starbucks (about the only thing open our first morning in Seoul due to the Lunar New Year holiday), Outback, and Bennigan’s (taken there by Korean tour guides from a local church).

This time around, our trip was shorter so we didn’t have as much opportunity. Our only actual traditional Korean meal was on the Korean Air flight to Korea (we had Bibimbap). We would like to have eaten at a traditional Korean restaurant, but it didn’t happen. The first half of our time was a little rushed as we spent half of our first day traveling to/from the foster home and spending time with Sarah. On the second morning, we made a quick trip to a shopping mall before picking up Sarah in the afternoon, then it was a matter of survival till we left Saturday morning.

And we like Korean food. In fact, since we’ve been to Korea the first time, we’ve tracked down authentic Korean restaurants whenever we travel and have been to good Korean restaurants in Pittsburgh, Carlisle, and Chattanooga, TN.

Interestingly, though, while we didn’t eat at a traditional Korean restaurant in Korea, we did eat at a French pastry shop, an Italian coffee/sandwich shop, a Mexican restaurant, as well as some Western establishments (McDonald’s and Krispy Kreme).

That’s not much different than how we eat in the States (when we eat out).

In our theological education, we learned the phrase “already, not yet” to describe the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is “here,” it’s “at hand,” it is “among us.” But there is also the sense where the kingdom of God will be fully realized or culminated at some point in the future. It’s already here, but not yet fully here.

That’s sorta where we are in the adoption process with Sarah, legally. She is already here, already ours. But she’s not yet fully ours (i.e., the adoption is not yet final). A year and a half ago, we wrote what the rest of the process would look like after we brought Ethan home. It’s pretty much the same: three post-placement visits within six months, then go to court where the adoption will be finalized.

In the meantime, we’re already calling Sarah, “Sarah,” even though that doesn’t become her legal name until the adoption is finalized several months from now. And, legally, Americans for International Aid and Adoption, the adoption agency, would make any medical-related decisions (although we can make decisions in emergencies, but would need to contact AIAA as soon as possible).

It’s an interesting state to be in. Sarah’s already here, she’s ours, but there is more to the legal process to make her fully ours.

Feeling like we needed to get out for a day, we decided at the last minute (the night before), that while the weather was still decent, that we’d go to the Pittsburgh Zoo on Monday.

It was a nice day, upper 50s and sunny. The zoo was not very crowded, and due to the more comfortable weather, some of the animals were more visible than when we were there during the heat of the summer.

It was also a chance to get out with Ethan and Sarah, the newest member of our family. We stopped at Panera Bread on the way to the zoo to have lunch with Trish, Joleen’s longtime friend from college. It was our first experience in a restaurant as a family of four.

It’s funny how those kinds of firsts are so memorable. After we brought Ethan home, it took us three weeks to go out for the first time. Making that first experience at Backyard Burgers even more memorable — but something we only partially wrote about at the time — was that Joleen had taken Ethan into the restroom for a diaper change. Ethan hated diaper changes in unfamiliar public places, and he screamed rather loudly.

The part we didn’t share was that moments later, as we were eating our lunch, I noticed a police car parked outside with an officer looking toward the restaurant (we were seated next to the window). A few minutes later, it was parked elsewhere, but still looking toward the restaurant. I think the police car eventually went through the drive-through, but the whole thing seemed odd. At the time, I wondered if one of the workers had called the police (or maybe I was just paranoid!).

Fortunately, Monday’s experience at Panera Bread was a pretty uneventful.

Well, I recently (prematurely) said that Sarah was handling the car seat well so far, although I acknowledged that she hadn’t been in it much. She handled the two-hour trip to Pittsburgh pretty well (sleep helps), but after sleeping half of the trip home, she cried for the last hour of the trip home (which we thought Ethan handled very well, by the way).

Sarah was quite happy once we got home, but we probably should have introduced her to the car seat by taking shorter trips. The first 3.5 trip home from Dulles International Airport didn’t really count since it was her nighttime and she slept the whole trip home.

Our understanding is that Sarah has been accustomed to being held a lot, and being strapped into a car seat, one that is rear-facing (according to state law), is not exactly conducive to accommodating the kind of response she’s accustomed to.

Part of our getting to know each other is learning the communication signals. We learned on the way home that Sarah, who was able to cry for an entire hour without much of any break, is very persistent!

Anyway, it was a nice day away (minus the last hour).