Entries Tagged 'Family' ↓

I often say (somewhat cautiously) that I like change. For one thing, I’m in the business of change — is there any greater change than the kind of life transformation (i.e., change!) people experience through Christ?

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (2 Corinthians 5.17, NLT)

Leaders are change agents. Christ-following leaders are called to bring about change in people’s lives. Often that involves being an agent of change in the way the church operates so that it can be more effective, and thus, bear more fruit for God’s kingdom.

I say “somewhat cautiously” (that I like change) because it’s easy for leaders to say they like change, especially if the change is their idea! The real test of their commitment to change comes when the change is someone else’s idea.

But I think I’m safe saying I like change. I get bored when things stay the same too long. Not only is it boring; worse, it produces ruts which keep us from being effective!

Now that Ethan has been with us for a while, he is teaching us some things about change. Not only have we had to change the way we do life, we’ve also paid attention to the changes he experiences through his daily growth and development. Much of that is positive. It’s exciting to watch him learn new things and develop new skills (watch for more on that in an upcoming post).

But (and this is why many people do not like change!) with change also comes loss. To begin doing new things involves letting go of other things. To do something a different way means not doing it the old way anymore.

After two weeks of taking a step here and there, all of a sudden one day, Ethan changed his preference from crawling to walking. He gave up crawling (which was working just fine, thank you very much) for walking (even though it meant having to relearn his whole concept of getting around; it also meant falling a lot, in the process).

Some of the things Ethan used to do or say, he doesn’t do or say anymore (including some of the things we listed earlier in Some of Our Favorite Things).

While we miss some of those things, we realize that change comes with the territory. It’s all part of growing up! (and I’m not just talking about the getting older kind of growing up ).

Ethan completed his first mission project just before leaving Manor Hill, with the help of the Manor Hill congregations.

At Dave and Jean Norris’ retirement dinner, there was a Mission Central “relay baton” at each table. Because of his birth date (the baton went to whose birthday was the closest at the time), Ethan received the challenge of filling the relay baton with quarters in Dave and Jean’s honor.

This challenge was not very difficult to fulfill with the Manor Hill folk around. We just passed it around the congregations and it was done!

So here’s to you, Dave and Jean! We are honored that we had the privilege to already involve Ethan in mission!

These pictures are a little slow in coming, but we couldn’t resist sharing them. Ethan was quite the helper with our unpacking.

All along, Ethan’s adjustment through this transition has been a primary concern. We’ve been here less than two week so far, but his adjustment is going quite well.

He certainly has been through much the past couple of weeks, not to mention the last 5 months: different people coming over to the house at Manor Hill while we packed, and his first “sleep over” at Grandma’s while we pulled an all-nighter to finish packing before the movers came.

Now he finds himself in a new home. He had a couple of rough nights — one night he kept waking up crying and we put in bed between us. We have never done that at home before (just when we stayed at a hotel). Even in our bed he was snuggled with my arm around him through the night, which was fine until my arm went to sleep.

But the last few nights, Ethan has been sleeping through the night well. He’s been going to bed well too. On previous nights, he didn’t want us to leave the room until he was asleep, but recently he’s been rolling right over, ready to go to sleep.

The most recent adjustment is that he’s now waking up in a good mood again. He woke up crying some at first and that’s just not like him. The last few mornings he’s been content to lay in his bed awhile after he wakes, sometimes trying out his vast new vocabulary while he lays there waiting for one of us to come and get him.

He is very clingy, though, especially toward me. At the church, he doesn’t venture very far. Sunday morning when I went in my office, he wouldn’t even let me put him down. He wanted me to hold him. That’s why it was so amazing that he went to the assistant lay leader so well during the service time.

We are sure it’s all a part of getting adjusted to his new surroundings. One person from West Side, who has two adopted daughters, said that even though he’s a bit clingy, she can still tell he’s a people baby.

I’m glad that he does as well as he does. After the two days of babysitters at West Side which changed every few hours, I said that he is going to know people quicker than I am!

Ethan attended his first night of Vacation Bible School Monday at West Side. The ages really begin at three years of age, so I stayed with him and we joined the preschool class. He did very well.

The theme is a beach theme, and during the opening songs when the kids were “surfing,” he put his hands up in the air, attempting the motions. Craft time was painting; Mommy opted out of that one. Ethan watched the kids play games and got to throw the beach ball a couple of times (with it landing right at his feet.)

Ethan sat around the table with all the other boys and girls in his own little seat, listening to the story about Gideon. He got a bottle that each night the kids will add a memory verse and trinket. I was so impressed when Ethan put his trinket, a fish, in the bottle all by himself!

He’s pictured with his fish he could bring home. The children colored their fish. Ethan tried to put the crayon in his mouth more than he tried to color, but he did color a few light strokes all by himself.

Sometimes I look at him in amazement at how he’s growing up so quickly. He is 13 months old today.

We have our first Sunday in! And all went well. I attended the Saturday evening praise service at West Side, but the SPRC was gracious in lining up someone else to preach this week. I said a few words of introduction and made the announcements and prayer concerns (good practice for Sunday morning) followed by a time of prayer. Ethan enjoyed the service with us. Last week all three of us were able to attend this service together.

West Side has an early service on Sundays throughout the summer. It is located in the Chapel in the basement of the church. I joked with Wesley Chapel when I was leaving Manor Hill, saying, “I won’t have anyone to practice on!” They were my first of three services on Sundays. But this summer I still get to preach twice on Sundays.

West Side hosted a Coffee Hour following the service so I could meet the people of the congregation. It was a very nice time and the people were all very warm and welcoming and very complementary regarding my first service. I certainly don’t remember all the names, but I am beginning to put some names and faces together.

Randy’s first service at Centre Grove went well too. They are holding a dessert and fellowship next Sunday, just before their monthly “concert on the lawn” series, so that we can meet the people there. Everyone has been very warm and welcoming of us!

Our services are scheduled in such a way that the only time we need childcare is during West Side’s 10:45 service (and/or Randy’s 10:15). The previous Sunday I attended this service in order to acquaint Ethan with the nursery. He did very well. But we don’t want him in the nursery all the time so that he knows what church is.

This Sunday the assistant lay leader kept Ethan. He had not met her prior to the service, but he went with her and did very well. He fell asleep during my sermon, as usual . It was just as though Ethan knew that this was Mommy’s time to lead worship, and he cooperated.

We are grateful to God for the day.

Hhaving brought Ethan home from Korea less than 5 months ago, we find ourselves marking a lot of firsts during this time.

Yesterday was our first Fourth of July celebration with Ethan. And, because of the move, it was also our first day off in a while, a day to catch our breath and relax a little before our first weekend in our new churches.

We grilled out for the first time this year. Ethan spent time in his new pool. And we finished the day with our first trip to the Old Town Road Dairy.

Here are some photos from the day …

Picking up where I left off in The Move 1.0, we arrived in Clearfield just before 6:30 am, Thursday, and the movers showed up a few minutes later.

Overall, it was a pretty smooth day of unloading.

But the big news of the day here in Clearfield took place at Trinity UMC, where a shooting occurred in Trinity’s basement (at about the time we arrived in Clearfield, ourselves).

The incident is being covered by several media outlets, including: The Progress, The Altoona Mirror, and WTAJ TV. According to these reports, the latest news (as of this post) is the shooting victim has died and the shooter later shot himself (after a confrontation with police) and is listed in critical condition.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and families of those involved as well as everyone in the community who’s been touched by this tragic occurrence!

Aside from the news of the day, we are glad to have the move behind us. While we have a lot of work to do, unpacking and getting settled, we do not expect to have to put in any more all-nighters!

We are grateful for everyone who has made (and are making) this transition as smooth as possible. Some people the Manor Hill Charge (as well as Joleen’s mom) watched Ethan while we packed over the course of the past week or so. Without them, we’d *still* be packing!

And here in Clearfield, members from West Side and Centre Grove are providing evening meals Thursday/Friday and Monday/Tuesday, respectively. They’re also setting up baby sitting for Ethan on Monday and Tuesday so that we can get as far as we can in the process of getting settled!

Thanks to all who are helping with our transition!

I wanted to write this post yesterday but as you’ll soon discover that wasn’t much of an option!

On Tuesday (the day before our loading day), we got up around 6:30 am to finish packing. We knew we had a good day’s work ahead of us, but we didn’t know we had *that* much work left to do!

We had planned to finish packing, then spend the night at Joleen’s mom’s house in Williamsburg (35 minutes away). Toward late afternoon, it became painfully clear that we were going to be up late. Around 7:30 pm, Joleen dropped Ethan off and her mom’s house, then returned home to continue packing.

As it turned out, we were indeed up late, so late, in fact, that we *never* got to sleep — we worked all night. Ironically, we did one final walkthrough shortly after 6:00 am. We arrived back down stairs at 6:32 am, just as the movers were getting out of their vehicle.

Needless to day, it was a challenging night. But, of course, our work wasn’t done at 6:30. For most of the day, we supervised, answered questions, and after the movers left, we had some final work to do. All in all, we were up for 34 to 36 hours (I can’t remember for sure! ), working virtually non-stop.

When we arrived in Williamsburg (late afternoon), we joined Ethan, whose nap was already in progress, and got about an hour of sleep, ourselves.

After 7 hours or so of sleep overnight, we got up at 4:30 am to drive to meet the movers in Clearfield for the unloading.

I’ll pick up there in the next post.

Less than 3 weeks ago, I wrote It’s Time to Pack. While packing has progressed fairly slowly, we have made some real headway in the last few days.

On Tuesday, Mary Ayers came to the house and spent the day entertaining and caring for Ethan while we packed. It was a cool day so we spent a lot of time going through boxes and stuff in the attic (which can be a pretty hot place sometimes). And, after dinner with Ethan, Joann McCrum took Ethan for a walk while we did some more packing before EBT (our acronym for “Ethan’s Bed Time,” which we usually use when talking about what things we need to get done after Ethan goes to bed). Anyway, Tuesday was a very productive day.

Ethan spent Thursday at his grandmother’s house in Williamsburg, so, after spending the morning preparing for Sunday, we were able to get some more packing done in the afternoon.

We have Friday through Tuesday to complete our packing. And, to get it done, we’ll have to work around several activities — a Juniata Valley Ministerium farewell picnic for us, a 70th wedding anniversary for Joleen’s great uncle/aunt, a graduation party for Joleen’s step-nephew, and some visits with people before we complete our ministries here. On top of all that, this Sunday will be our last one here. It looks to be a pretty intense several days!

We’ve got a long way to go, but, fortunately …

• Our house is filling up with packed boxes
• We are donating a lot of items that we no longer use to ES Ministries Thrift Store, a ministry that grew out of Joleen’s charge which operates in one of Faith UMC’s buildings (the one in Mooresville)
• We are throwing away a lot of other stuff that isn’t worth donating
• We will drop off a bunch of cardboard boxes (mostly shipping boxes that we’ve collected over the last several years that are too small to be used for packing) at the recycling drop-off spot in Pine Grove Mills (where we regularly drop off plastics, metal cans, glass bottles, and cardboard)
• Several larger items are sitting in our front yard with “for sale” signs on them (desk and chair, grill, coffee and end tables, and an exercise bike) with all proceeds going to E.S. Ministries

Just a couple quick observations (things that you probably already know!) …

1. It’s amazing how much stuff we hang onto that we never use (and probably never will)!
2. It’s amazing how hard it is to throw some stuff away, even stuff that we never use (and probably never will)!