We put together a slideshow for the reception time following Sarah’s baptism a week and a half ago. You can watch it here …

As any parent knows, learning to share is a challenging process. We’ve been pretty laid-back about it because it’s something that will develop over time. However, bringing Sarah into our family has brought it to the forefront a bit more!

Sharing is one of those things that’s difficult for all children to learn. In fact, it’s even difficult for adults to practice! It’s just that it’s more obvious with children and adults are better at hiding it!

The earliest Christ-followers, after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, set the sharing bar really high …

They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. (Acts 2.45)

We all have room to grow!

Well, I posted some of Ethan’s phrases recently (Ethanisms 1.0 and 2.0). A phrase that’s stood out this week has been a sharing-related one.

Last Monday evening, at a gathering of area United Methodist pastors, Ethan reached over and grabbed some food from my plate (nothing new there!), and said, “I’m sharing with you!” The next day, took a toy from Sarah (nothing new there, either!), and after walking away from Sarah with the toy, he said again, “I’m sharing with you!”

Well, he doesn’t quite have the concept just yet, but at least it’s on the radar!

Last Saturday, Sarah was baptized. Saturday evening baptisms are unusual, but we scheduled a time other than Sunday morning so that both of us, as well as people from both of our congregations, could attend (Ethan’s Baptism took place on a Sunday afternoon).

Sarah did well. Ethan was wired, thanks in part to skipping his daily nap. As I wrote in Ethanisms 2.0, he was overheard saying, at the outset of his nap, “Hmm. Should I go to sleep? No. There’s someone else in the house.”

Both Ethan and Sarah were sent home with us from Korea with gifts of hanboks (“Korean clothing”) from their respective foster families. Koreans wear hanboks, traditional Korean clothing, for special occasions (prior to the influence of Western clothing about a century ago, they were commonly worn).

Sarah wore her hanbok for the first time at her baptism just as Ethan had done. Ethan wore his for the second time last Saturday, nearly two years after his baptism (both hanboks were big; Ethan’s still barely fit). Actually, we weren’t sure he’d actually wear his hanbok. For almost as long as we’ve had Sarah, he’s associated pink with Sarah’s clothes!

There were similarities with the service we planned for Ethan’s baptism, such as the use of the statement of faith of the Korean Methodist Church and a song called, “I Was There To Hear Your Borning Cry.” Also, in both cases, we asked someone else (our respective district superintendents) to officiate so that we could be parents, not pastors. For Sarah’s baptism, Rev. Dr. Pam Ford, State College District Superintendent, offered the message and conducted the baptism.

There were also a couple differences, thanks to Ethan. One of the songs we chose was “You Never Let Go,” one of Ethan’s favorite songs (it was the music we used for the music video we made for Ethan for our trip to Korea to get Sarah last October).

And more significantly, Ethan got to help in Sarah’s baptism by dipping his hand in the water and touching Sarah’s head. Even though he was wired and very busy, when it came time to help baptize Sarah, he was focused and on task. Ethan enjoyed it. We learned that he told people in Sunday school the next morning, “I helped baptize Sarah!”

Here are some photos from the special evening. Thanks to Russell Unick for taking these photos!

Today, I caught bits and pieces of the free online leadership event from Leadership Network called, Sage. The event involved a number of brief videos from seasoned leaders, each dealing with the question of what they’d do differently if given a do-over. I tweeted some of my favorite quotes.

Since I only caught bits and pieces, these reflections are preliminary, but there were still some areas that particularly challenged me.

Michael Duduit talked about preaching. He said …

Clear is better than clever.

This certainly agrees with the one-point preaching approach.

Duduit also said …

Effective messages send people out not praising the speaker but the Savior.

I appreciate Walt Kallestad. We had the opportunity to hear him teach as part of our Asbury program a few years ago. Walt made several important memorable statements, including …

Keep it simple, like teaching people to love the Lord with all your heart, and that relationships are central to building community.

Walt hit on the importance of prayer and said now …

I pray more and work less.

One of the major themes was caring for yourself and your soul, including spending time with God. Joel Hunter challenged listeners to get into God’s Word. He said …

Read the word of God every day. I can‘t believe I get to learn and help others understand it.

But from what I could tell, by far the most common theme from these seasoned leaders, which many learned the hard way, was FAMILY.

I didn’t write down a lot of the statements, but a couple include Joel Hunter’s comment …

Enjoy your family.

I was more impacted by Hunter’s heart and authenticity than the actual words. (By the way, Hunter is one of the members of President Obama’s so-called “spiritual cabinet.”)

Gene Getz also highlighted the importance of family. Speaking of his regrets, he said …

You can’t make up for what you didn’t do!

I will need go back and watch the videos again, especially the ones I missed when they are posted on Leadership Network.

Finally, I really enjoyed Chip Ingram’s presentation, which unfortunately was cut short due to technical difficulties. But before the lights went out for several minutes, I loved what Ingram, who talked about lifelong learning, said …

God’s number one agenda is to work in you before he works through you.

Interestingly, I think this will shape my message this Sunday. I’ve been in a series on “Life in the Wilderness” (i.e., those times that are unplanned and unexpected and difficult!). This week, I’m talking about preparation and after today, may do so in the context of forgetting the past and preparing for the rest of our lives. What do we want to do differently? What do we need to do to make the most of the rest of our lives?

Yesterday, the first day after the 2010 HealthFlex HealthMiles Challenge (a program of Virgin HealthMiles through our health insurance program), I experienced an “adrenaline hangover” (I’ve written before about a pastor’s hangover, which is probably a form of an adrenaline hangover).

I was able to hit the daily limit of 30,000 steps/day for each day of the 29-day challenge, as I did last year. But I think I went into last year’s challenge with a higher daily step average (around 16,000/day last year compared to maybe 13,000 this year) so I’m not sure I was as ready this year, but I was able to endure.

Like last year, I thought it was more of a mental challenge than a physical one due to having to keep constant checking of the pedometer and pacing myself throughout each day to make sure I was staying on track.

I got up just about everyday between 5:00 and 5:45 and walked for about 75 minutes. I usually had to do at least one more walk before the end of the day (sometimes after the kids went to sleep at night). The most challenging days were the four days went spent in Washington D.C. for the General Board of Church and Society seminar. Also, the final week, I could tell I was starting to drag a little as I seemed to cross the daily finish line a little later each night than usual.

As I said at the beginning, I wanted to do it just to see if I could. I also think it was a good (endurance) discipline to “run (or in my case, walk) through the quit!”

There was more of an emphasis on the team competition this year instead of the individual competition. Out of 33 conferences/teams (totaling more than 3,300 people), our conference should finish in sixth place (similar to last year, I believe). Our team looked like one of the larger teams.

Waking up yesterday morning, though — the first day in a month that the adrenaline didn’t help me get up and moving — was tough. I felt pretty rough all day!

It was a good experience, but I’m glad it’s over. I’ll rest for a few days from exercising before getting back to it. I expect my exercise/workouts to be more intense but much shorter!

While Sarah’s language development is just getting started, Ethan’s is taking off. A week ago, I wrote about Ethan’s language development, but since then, I have remembered and/or caught several new ones.

Yesterday, Ethan, who will be three in less than a month, sensed the excitement in the air regarding Sarah’s baptism last night (which we’ll write about soon, by the way; waiting on photos and we need time to process and recover from the weekend!). Joleen’s friend from college, Trish, had arrived earlier in the day and we were expecting other family and friends to join us for dinner prior to the evening service. Ethan normally sleeps and naps well, but occasionally/rarely, he’ll be too wired to sleep. Yesterday was one of those days. Trish saw and overheard Ethan standing at the end of his, saying, “Hmm. Should I go to sleep? No. There’s someone else in the house.”

Ethan usually eats one of various kinds of cereal for breakfast. We try not to give him too many choices (although some control is a good thing) but lately he prefers Mommy and Daddy’s cereal, which may have more fiber and/or more sugar. So, after rejecting two or three more kid-friendly cereals, we’ll let Ethan have one bowl of our cereal (he’d eat more, if we let him). Yesterday morning, when asked if he wanted our cereal, Ethan said (as he has at other times), “Yep! That’s what I needed!”

One time Ethan was humming. He said, “I’m singing in my mouth!”

A couple months ago, Ethan picked up my wallet from the table and started going through it. He eventually pulled out the cash and said, “Ohhh, this goes in the plate!” (as in offering plate).

Several weeks ago, we went through a car wash. Ethan didn’t like it. Often, when we get in the car now, Ethan asks if we’re going to the car wash, or he may point to it if we’re driving by. Sometimes when Sarah is fussy in the car, Ethan will encourage her, “Sarah, we’re NOT going to the car wash!”

Joleen mentioned it yesterday in her baptismal prayer post that sometimes Ethan will say, usually in response to my attempt to get Sarah to say certain words: “She’s a baby. She can’t remember words!”

Ethan might tack on the line “if you want to!” at the end of a request. If he’s not sure what you said or what you mean, he might say (a little demandingly, at times), “What did you say?” (or, “Hey, what did you say?”). When Ethan thinks you did something right, he might say, “That’s-a-way!”

Now, I really, really love listening to Ethan’s language development, but I must say, my favorite Ethanism is, “I love you, Dad!”

Sarah is at the point where we’re expecting hear the transition from babbling sounds to words. Recent experiences have reminded us of something we learned when we welcomed Sarah into our lives in Korea.

In Korea, we were told that Sarah’s foster family played peek-a-boo in Korean and they told us the Korean version of the phrase. In the earliest days (weeks?) while making the transition home with Sarah, we (mainly Joleen) used the Korean word/phrase occasionally. Since then, we’ve used the English phrase, “peek-a-boo.”

However, in the last week or so, I was with Sarah and she was playing peek-a-boo with me, but she said what sounded like the Korean phrase. On another occasion, Joleen also heard her use the phrase.

Amazing!

It’s funny. During our two adoption journeys, a number of people have asked us what language the kids speak. Well, because they were so young when we brought each of them home (around 8 months), they really didn’t speak any language (although, Korean was the language they were used to hearing, at the time).

But we have always wondered what impact the language/culture transition during infancy has on a child’s language development (does it delay because they have to learn all new sounds and words?).

Ethan has very strong language development (which continues to develop, daily, of course; I wrote a little recently about Ethan’s language development and plan a follow-up post in the near future), and we’re looking forward to watching/hearing how Sarah’s language develops!

I am currently doing a sermon series on “Life in the Wilderness.” The wilderness represents those times when life doesn’t go according to plan, when something happens that we aren’t expecting.

Everyone goes through the wilderness; no one is exempt. And the wilderness changes us — no one comes out on the other side unchanged by what we’ve experienced. Either we are closer to God or we have moved away from God.

Last Sunday, I talked about trusting God in the wilderness. I think trust is connected to surrender. Sometimes we even use the language of “trusting Christ as Savior,” which essentially means we’ve surrendered our lives to Christ. When we trust God, we surrender our lives to God. If we don’t trust God with our lives, we won’t surrender.

I’ve been reading Secrets from the Treadmill by Pete Briscoe and Patricia Hickman, a book about finding God’s rest in the midst of a busy life. The book mentions a sign seen behind the counter at a restaurant which reads …

The answer is “Yes.” Now, what’s the question!

I believe that’s the motto of a surrendered follower of Jesus.

It’s also a statement of faith that is a little scary to say. But what’s the alternative? Perhaps, “The answer is, well, I’ll wait till I hear God’s question, then decide if the answer is yes or no.” If we’re going to be fully-devoted and surrendered followers of Jesus, we must say yes. And if that’s true, then why not say yes from the beginning?

Surrendering to God is usually a process. But the process goes much better when we’re committed to a life of surrender from the beginning!

Not saying it’s easy. Just saying it’s what surrendered Christ-followers aim for!

Ethan and (especially) Sarah are usually beyond the point of being ready for naps after church on Sunday mornings, but we did manage to take a photo yesterday just before lunch.

It’s fun to hear Ethan’s language develop. In our home, we call them Ethanisms (someday, we’ll start a list of Sarahisms).

I’m sure most families have their list of favorite things kids say. Here are some of our favorite Ethanisms (at least the few we’ve written down!).

One day at meal time, I asked Ethan how he was doing. He usually says, “Pretty good,” but this time, he said, “Not good.” I asked him why, and he said, “I don’t like good.”

One late afternoon, I went to his room as he was getting awake from his nap. He seemed a little sad and said, “But we have to wake up one more kid” (referring to Sarah who was still asleep).

Once, I was trying to give Ethan some advice on going to sleep for his nap after lunch (he was a bit wound up). I suggested he lay still and close his eyes. He said, “I can’t close my eyes.” When I asked him why, he said, “Because I can’t see.”

Ethan has picked up some phrases either directly or indirectly from us, like, “What’s your plan?” (as in agenda for the day). Sometimes, Ethan hands us an imaginary seed-sized object between his thumb and index finger, and says, “Do you need an idea?” to which I usually reply, “Yes! I need lots of ideas!”

Whenever I take a multivitamin, Ethan wants to look in the bottle. One day, he asked why I take them and I said something about them helping me stay healthy. Now, to understand Ethan’s response, you have to know that Joleen’s back had been bothering her and I occasionally have trouble with my lower back muscles tightening up. So, in response to my comment about vitamins helping me stay healthy, Ethan said, “M&Ms help my back feel better.”

Somewhere along the line, I started adding “yes or no?”to the end of my questions, indicating that I needed a yes-or-no answer. Ethan caught on and after a while, he went through a stage that whenever he’d ask for something, he’d say something like, “May I have some milk? Yes or no? Yes?” (suggesting the preferred answer). He doesn’t seem to do that as much lately, but last week, we attempted to feed the ducks at the river in town. Ethan asked the ducks, who didn’t seem too interested in our bread, “Do you want some bread? Yes or no? Yes?”

Over the weekend, a bumblebee buzzed around Ethan in the backyard. I told him not to swing at it but just let it fly away. After it took off, Ethan said, making sure the bee could hear him, “Thank you, bee. Thank you, bee. Thank you for letting me go!”

Also in the last couple days, Ethan laughed at something I said or did, and he said, “You make me funny!” (he did use the word “laugh” in the next phrase, but I don’t remember how, exactly).

Lately, Ethan has noticed that I’m getting a lot of extra steps, due to the current HealthMiles challenge. This morning, after I left for church at Centre Grove and just before he went to Sunday school at West Side with Mommy and Sarah, Ethan started walking around, as if on a mission. When asked what he was doing, he told Mommy, “I’m getting my steps!”

Fun stuff.