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Parents, in particular, will recognize these three words: Some assembly required! We’ve already gotten a little taste of them, too, as we prepare to bring Ethan home. We both put a crib together a few weeks ago, and my latest project was putting together a stroller. Actually, I took on the task of choosing the … Read more
In my journal this morning, I wrote a prayer related to the time crunch we’re currently facing. We are expecting to receive a call to go to Korea to pick up our baby anytime within the next few weeks AND we are actively (frantically?) working toward finishing the first complete, 5-chapter rough draft of our … Read more
We just received the notice of approval of relative immigrant visa petition from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which is the *final* step in the process on our end. Now, we’re just waiting for Korea to grant approval for the baby to travel. Once that happens, we will be informed that he’s … Read more
Today in our worship gatherings, we announced that we are both receiving parental leave upon our return from Korea, where we will pick up our adopted son. Here’s the announcement … News About Randy & Joleen’s Parental Leave As you know, we are adopting a baby boy from Korea. We expect to travel to Korea … Read more
After a lot of deliberation, we have finally settled on a name for Baby Willis. That’s a good thing, because as someone pointed out to us, he probably wouldn’t want to be called Baby Willis forever. 🙂 Anyway, his name will be called: Ethan Quinn. The photo here was taken when he was almost 5 … Read more
Everyone keeps telling us that our lives are going to change dramatically when we bring our child home from Korea. We’re sure that will indeed be the case and we’re trying to “get our house in order” before we become parents. By that we don’t only mean setting up the baby’s room. We mean getting … Read more
Ever since we received the photos of Baby Willis we’ve had this image in our minds. And even before the referral, this message from the future Baby Willis has been a big motivation for us this year. What a year it has been! We went to Asbury in January 2007 to take a dissertation-writing class … Read more
As we’ve talked with many people over the last year about our adoption process, we’ve received two primary responses: 1) excitement about the prospect of an addition to our family, and 2) certainty that our lives are going to be turned upside down. 🙂 Well, with our adoption process nearing the end, much of our … Read more
God certainly has perfect timing. We received our referral on a Tuesday, while at Asbury. Wednesday we went to visit with Randy’s family in TN. Upon arrival one of the first questions was, “What’s your theme?” We had no theme. We had decided not to do any preparations for a nursery until we had our … Read more
While at Asbury for proposal hearings earlier this week, we received an unexpected phone call from our adoption agency informing us that we have a referral for a child! The call was a surprise because we were told to expect a referral much closer to Christmas. The call came on Tuesday, a day after Randy’s … Read more