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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
Today marks our 14th our wedding anniversary. Over the course of the past 14 years, God has led us on quite an adventure! We’ve spent about a third of our marriage in a doctoral program (that we’re trying to finish up!). That’s on top of beginning our marriage while we were completing a Master’s program. … Read more
Shaping culture. That’s what we’ve been thinking about lately as we prepare to bring Ethan home in a few weeks. So far, we’ve talked about shaping a God-centered culture and a learning culture. Next up, we want to shape a high AQ culture. Behind this idea of a high AQ culture is an excellent book, … 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
Regular readers of our blog will know that we are thinking a lot about parenting these days as we prepare to bring Ethan home from Korea. Part of our thinking recently has been about how best to pray for him — now and in the years to come! Randy recently posted several prayers for the … Read more
What kind of culture or environment do we want to create for our child? That’s the question we’re asking ourselves as we prepare for parenthood. So far, we’ve talked about cultivating a God-centered culture. Another component of the culture we want to create is a learning culture. We believe that all of life is a … Read more
As you can imagine, we’re preparing to bring home our (first) child from Korea in early 2008 (sometime around February, possibly). In addition to practical things like getting a crib ready, we’re also thinking about the kind of environment, or culture, that we want to create in which to raise a child. “… one of … 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
I wrote about parenting as character building a couple days ago. Since then I’ve reflected more on this and I’ve been thinking about the work of character building as the work of shaping a heart. The backdrop for this idea is Reggie McNeal’s book, A Work of Heart: Understanding How God Shapes Spiritual Leaders. God’s … 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