First 100 Days with Sarah

While singing “Great is Thy Faithfulness” this morning at Centre Grove, for some reason it struck me that we should be right around the 100 day mark since we’ve had Sarah. And sure enough, yesterday was day 100. In Korea, families traditionally celebrate a child’s 100th day (from birth) because the first 100 days were … Read more

Checking in on Sarah

As you may recall, we are required to complete three visits with our caseworker in the first six months that Sarah is with us (after which we can move toward finalizing the adoption). Since our caseworker (Cindy) is in Carlisle, we made plans to connect on our way home from the Bishop’s Retreat yesterday afternoon. … Read more

Family Leave Report

Our family leave (8 weeks plus 2 weeks of vacation) ended Sunday, and Monday was our first day back to work, so we thought it might be a good time to write an update on how things are going with our bonding and adjustment. It’s been a little while since we’ve posted an update. For … Read more

Bonding the Second Time Around

We’ve been home almost six weeks and it’s hard not to compare our current bonding experience with Sarah to our first one with Ethan. Some of the differences are no doubt related to the differences between Ethan and Sarah, but beyond that, they’re just different experiences. With Ethan, he was pretty much our sole focus … Read more

Ethan’s Role Playing

As our family goes through a period of change there are times that really bring a smile to our faces. This is one of them. Our mealtime habit has been to feed Sarah first and then sit her on the floor with a toy while we eat. One morning as I prepared Ethan’s breakfast (and … Read more

The Night Before We Went to Korea

We’ve written some about Ethan’s transition in the past month with the addition of Sarah to our family. We even started writing about his transition before we went to Korea. We also discussed our mixed emotions about going to Korea while leaving Ethan behind at home. One thing we never wrote about, though, was the … Read more

Routine & Familiarity

We think the current transition of our family is difficult for Ethan not only because there’s a new baby in the house but also because the previous routines Ethan has known have been thrown into a state of chaos (of course, the new baby in the house is a major reason for those lost/changed routines). … Read more

Fluid Situation 3.0

Sunday marked one month since we received Sarah in Korea. It’s also been about a month since we arrived home. For Sarah’s part, the transition into our family is going well. For Ethan, it’s still a struggle (more on this soon). But in case you missed them, you can read/review our earlier reports here and … Read more

“Did you preach?”

Both Joleen and I are halfway through our 10-week parental leaves (which has included 2 weeks of vacation time to cover the trip to Korea and post-trip time zone adjustment). Ethan has apparently noticed that things are a bit different around here these days. A few times, Ethan has asked one of us, “Did you … Read more

Fluid Situation 2.0

We we arrived home from Korea three weeks ago, and it’s been almost that long since we wrote about Sarah and Ethan’s adjustment. It was, and still is, a fluid situation. Overall, Sarah is doing well, but we have our moments — mainly related to sleeping and the car seat (occasionally). These two areas were … Read more