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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
I have noticed a number of commercials from Fidelity Investments lately. They’re the commercials with the green line on the ground that offers guidance and direction. Last week, one especially caught my attention. In the commercial, the financial advisor encourages the client that the plan they worked out for his retirement “makes sense” and that … Read more
The first time we were in Korea, we ate at one really nice Korean restaurant, another middle-of-the-road restaurant, and had one home cooked feast in someone’s home. We also ate at places like Starbucks (about the only thing open our first morning in Seoul due to the Lunar New Year holiday), Outback, and Bennigan’s (taken … Read more
In our theological education, we learned the phrase “already, not yet” to describe the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is “here,” it’s “at hand,” it is “among us.” But there is also the sense where the kingdom of God will be fully realized or culminated at some point in the future. It’s already … Read more
Feeling like we needed to get out for a day, we decided at the last minute (the night before), that while the weather was still decent, that we’d go to the Pittsburgh Zoo on Monday. It was a nice day, upper 50s and sunny. The zoo was not very crowded, and due to the more … Read more
We arrived home with our baby girl one week ago today. And Sarah seems to be making the transition to the Eastern Time Zone pretty quickly! Overall, it’s been a pretty smooth transition. But we expect one of the biggest challenges ahead to be related to Sarah’s sleep (as it was for Ethan). In addition … Read more
It’s been a fun week with Sarah in our family, albeit it challenging one (due to cultural, sibling, time zone adjustments). Our first week together at home included Halloween. One of Joleen’s concerns as October neared was that we might miss Ethan’s first experience of trick-or-treating. Ethan was with us last year for Halloween 2008, … Read more
We’ve been thinking a lot lately about the effects of growing our family from three to four. Bringing home a child is a tremendous joy, of course, but because it also brings change, there is always some loss which results in grief. It’s sorta strange to use the word “grief” to talk about the joy … Read more
During our few days in Korea last week, we took well over 100 photos. Below are 18 of them. For more, see the the photos we posted from our recent trips to Korea (2008 and 2009). Since we had taken photos during our first trip, we tried to take different photos this time around, including … Read more