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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
This is a post I was hoping *not* to repeat! Twenty-four hours after we got home with Ethan in February 2008, Joleen and I got the flu (in my case, it was the worst that I remember having). We wrote, Pray for Ethan, with the hopes that he wouldn’t get sick. And he didn’t. Yesterday, … Read more
My favorite posts to write are the ones that almost write themselves. They’re fairly short and to-the-point and they come together quickly (in fact, my favorite posts on the blog are 1,000 Words and Introducing … Sarah!, neither of which include any words, only a single photo each). This is not one of those posts. … Read more
We arrived home late this afternoon, 25 hours after getting up this morning in Seoul, Korea. Everything went as scheduled, and getting through immigration in Korea or customs in the US was a very smooth process. Sarah handled the trip very well, in spite of some pretty heavy and lengthy turbulence during the flight. Sarah’s … Read more
In A Labor of Love we tell of the DVD that Randy and I made for Ethan to watch while we are away. We hoped it would be a good thing, and not make him sad. We tried to make most of it fun, along with our bedtime routine. I’ve been staying in touch with … Read more
Much of our focus in recent days, especially since we got the call that our baby girl is ready for travel, has been on the trip and the second adoption. But as I wrote earlier, we are filled with mixed emotions because we will be separated from Ethan for several days and 7,000 miles. On … Read more
Several weeks ago, we bought a toddler bed for Ethan so that we could use the crib for our baby girl. We set up the bed in Ethan’s room and also left the crib in his room, thinking we’d have a couple months for him to make the transition from one to the other. However, … Read more