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On our first trip to Korea (when we went to pick up Ethan), we bought Ethan a set of children’s chopsticks and soup spoon (two common utensils in Korea). While we were there, we learned that children in Korea commonly begin learning to use chopsticks around age 3. On our second trip to pick up … Read more
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
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
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
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
Last year, I wrote about my first year of playing fantasy football in a new league at Centre Grove UMC. We’re playing again this year, and I’m learning that some of the tips for playing fantasy football are also good life lessons. Do your homework. Doing your homework begins in the preseason. A numbers of … Read more
In the days and weeks leading up to our first trip to Korea — and to becoming parents — we wrote about the kind of culture we wanted to create in our home and family life. Part of that included Shaping a Servant Culture. To help our children become servants and givers, we want to … Read more
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
In the last few weeks, we have intentionally tried not to make (or at least not to write about) too many comparisons between the early transitioning experiences of Ethan and Sarah (in terms of their personalities because (1) that may not be fair to them and (2) we’re still getting to know Sarah’s personality). But … Read more
I have long been interested in the subject of creativity, and as a pastor/leader and a parent, how to cultivate creativity in others. In the past, I’ve written about creativity through a review of the movie, “The Astronaut Farmer” (see “The Astronaut Farmer” and Creativity). I also wrote about creativity when we were thinking about … Read more