Entries Tagged 'Family' ↓

It’s been a while since we’ve posted photos. Last month, we posted a “photo of the day” each day of our vacation in West Virginia. Here are a some more photos from vacation plus a few taken since then.

Following up on previous posts (1.0 and 2.0), here are some of the latest Ethanisms we’ve recorded.

Several weeks ago while pulling into the church parking lot at Centre Grove, Ethan said, “That was bumpy. It made me wiggle.”

You have to watch the use of idioms, which don’t always make sense when taken literally, the way kids understand them. Once, while finishing up dinner, I said to Ethan, “Wrap it up!” He said, “What, wrap me up?”

Ethan has picked up on the current phrase, “How cool is that?” (sometimes inserting other words like “pretty” or something).

When Ethan needs help, he will often say, “A little help, please!”

While riding in the stroller a while back and walking toward the setting sun, Ethan said, “The sun is being mean to my eyes!”

And a couple days ago, Ethan closed the gate at the bottom of the stairs and said, “I’ll close this gate so no Sarahs can come up.”

Fun to listen to. It should be even more fun once we start adding Sarahisms!

It has been fun to watch (or hear) Ethan’s repertoire of worship songs develop over the last 13 months.

At Annual Conference in 2009, I happened to be holding (then two-year-old) Ethan at the beginning of an evening service (giving him break from all-day childcare) as the band opened with “Trading My Sorrows,” a modern worship song. The song stuck and has been a staple in Ethan’s repertoire ever since! Ethan can often be heard singing, “Yes, Lord, yes Lord, yes, yes, Lord! / Yes, Lord, yes Lord, yes, yes, Lord! / Yes, Lord, yes, yes, Lord, Amen!”

Funny thing, though, it’s only been very recently that he’s gotten one of the verses right. Instead of “I’m trading my sorrows / I’m trading my shame / I’m laying them down for the joy of the Lord,” he’d sing, “I’m trading for our sorrows” (not quite the message we were going for!).

A few months later, Ethan said in a somewhat panicked voice, “Oh no!” So I taught him the chorus of Matt Redman’s worship song, “You Never Let Go” …

Oh no, you never let go / through the calm and through the storm / oh no, you never let go / in every high and every low / oh no, you never let go / Lord, you never let go of me!

And again, ever since, he’s been singing the chorus of this song (it was the song we used in the music video we made for Ethan when we went to Korea to get Sarah last October). In the last few months, Ethan has started singing other parts of the song. Once during a meal recently, Ethan surprised me with a line from the song: “I can see a light / that is coming / for the heart that holds on!”

One other time (nearly a year ago?), Ethan sang part of another song that we’re not sure where he heard it (we didn’t have the song and hardly knew it ourselves). I finally tracked down the song a few months ago and it’s now one of Ethan’s favorites: “My Savior Lives” (the video of the song, recorded live, that we downloaded can be viewed here on YouTube).

When Ethan came home from Sunday school a couple weeks ago, he had a sticker on his shirt that said, “I know I can say kind things” (or something like that). I asked him what it said and he said, “I know … that my Redeemer lives” (words from “My Savior Lives”).

A couple days ago, while on vacation in West Virginia, we were in a playroom at the hotel. At first it was just the four of us. But soon another group of adults and children entered the room. Moments later, Ethan, who was working on a puzzle, started singing, “I know that my Redeemer lives / now I can stand on what he did / my Savior, my Savior lives!” and “Jesus, you are the only way!”

While traveling on vacation, Ethan has asked several times, “Can you get ‘My Savior Lives’?” Yesterday, while on the road, we went through the Ethan’s songs (a playlist on my iPod), which now includes eight songs, twice (apparently, it wasn’t good napping music, though).

Since Ethan seems to be good at learning song lyrics, we’re starting to memorize scriptures, verses from My First Read And Learn Favorite Bible Verses, which we’ve been reading with Ethan (and now Sarah) for almost as long as we’ve had Ethan.

We believe that we are formed by our practices and we hope that learning worship songs and Bible verses, as well as devotional practices, will shape both Ethan and Sarah (and us, too) into the people God desires us to be!

This is something we’re fairly intentional about. But it’s not something we *always* do well and I’m sure we could do better.

What practices are forming you? If you have children, what practices are forming your kids?

Ethan was the first to spot a deer during a picnic lunch today. It stuck around long enough for a few photos, including this one …

The internet went down here sometime yesterday, so we’re posting our favorite photo from day 3 (our second full day here) a little late.

Unfortunately, we didn’t take the camera on the hike in the morning due to the heavy fog / light drizzle. I carried Sarah on my back for the 2-mile hike and Ethan hiked the entire distance on foot. The trail was listed as an “easy/moderate” trail but I’d say the only reason the word easy was used is because of the fairly short distance (1 mile out, 1 mile back). For a 3-year-old, I’d think it was “strenuous” (and the wet conditions only made it more challenging; we didn’t really get wet because of the thick tree coverage, but the ground was a little wet/muddy). It took us about an hour and a half.

This photo was taken from the upper deck during an evening boat ride on the lake.

Yesterday, we went to Carlisle for a 3:00 p.m. hearing where Sarah’s adoption was finalized at the Cumberland County Courthouse. With Carlisle nearly three hours away, it was an all-day event!

Yesterday’s finalization was the final step in the legal process. It not only marks the end of Sarah’s adoption process, it also marks the end of a chapter in our lives that began four years ago. In the summer of 2006, we attended an informational meeting by Adoption Horizons in Carlisle, followed by the submission of a formal application to pursue international adoption six months later. Thirteen months after that, we flew to Korea to get Ethan (February 2008).

Toward the end of 2008, we started making plans for a second adoption, and in October 2009, we flew to Korea to get Sarah, whose adoption was finalized yesterday.

The hearing was short and sweet. It involved answering a series of questions after which the judge signed the order formalizing our adoption of Sarah. The final questions essentially asked if we knew what we were getting ourselves into and if we still wanted to move forward (although it was asked with a bit more elegance, I suppose). Among other things, the action changes Sarah’s name from her Korean name to Sarah. She also becomes an American citizen.

Judges tend to enjoy adoption hearings because there’s no opposing party and nobody walks away unhappy. It’s also a photo opportunity. We posed for a photo with Judge Masland (a United Methodist, we were told) after the hearing.

One of our favorite moments was when Ethan, just before the photo was taken, leaned over and tapped on the judge with his fist and said, “Knock, knock!” It’s generally not a good idea to hit a judge, but in this case, the judge didn’t seem to mind!

As we did for Ethan’s finalization, we went to Spring Garden Restaurant to celebrate afterward. Every time we go to Korean restaurants, we seem to get extra attention (as well as unsolicited parenting advice ).

Well, this final legal step is the end of a chapter. But the journey certainly continues. As does our gratitude to God!