Month: May 2012

Don’t Buy Stuff You Cannot Afford

Hilarious…one of my fave SNL skits. So simple, but such a difficult concept for most Americans. Both of us have always operated on this “revolutionary” model and we’ve stayed debt-free (with the exception of purchasing a home, since avoiding a home loan is simply not a feasible option in CA, unless you are a cajillionaire)! Even then, we chose a home within our means. I’m sure I’ll write more on this topic in the future…

Isaiah’s Story: A Beautiful Rescue

This is the first of many, many posts to come on the subject of adoption. Adoption is easily in my top ten favorite topics to think and talk about. It hasn’t always been that way – in fact, adoption wasn’t even on my radar until I was 23 years old. Until that point, adoption was a foreign concept to me. I have never been close with anyone who was adopted and it wasn’t (and isn’t) something I have heard many people talk about. Growing up, the only time that word ever appeared in my vocabulary was to tease my sisters that they had been adopted into the family.

Then I met Donna. Donna has one of the biggest hearts of anyone I’ve ever known. She cares for people deeply and has a special heart for those who have been marginalized in society. At the time we met, we were both in a master’s program for social work and we quickly bonded over that. In the process of developing a friendship with her, I soon discovered her heart for adoption and thus began an ongoing dialogue between us on the subject.

As I listened to her perspectives and experienced her passion for adoption, my heart quickly caught fire. I began praying about it, meditating on the subject, researching it (both theologically and practically), and discussing it in great depth with Sean. Sean’s heart caught fire just as quickly as mine, and we readily agreed at age 23/24 (one year after we got married) that the Lord was calling us to adopt children at some point. We are not there yet, but we are very excited for when that time comes and plan to adopt as many children as God allows/gives us capacity for.

I’ll go into the details as to the reasons why we want to adopt in future posts; my goal here is to simply introduce the topic and relay how zealous I am about it. In fact, I can’t hear a single person even mention the word ‘adoption’ without starting to tear up – it’s become that evocative. Speaking of emotional impact, I highly encourage you to watch the short video below about a little boy named Isaiah. I’ve seen this video countless times and I still cry (and then get a huge smile) every time I see it. If this video doesn’t make you weep, tear up, or at least make you manly men have a small allergic reaction to your feelings…there is probably something wrong with you. Lol! Just kidding, but I do hope that it will strike a chord in your heart as well, and no matter what stage of life you’re in, I pray that it might even be the first seed that opens your mind to the idea of being a part of God’s work through the ministry of adoption.

The Story of Ian and Larissa

Wow, such a powerful story. After watching the video, I suggest reading Larissa’s blog post entitled “Why We Got Married,” here: http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/why-we-got-married

Adventures in Parenting, Chapter 1: Why You Should Never Show Your Friends How to Use a Video Baby Monitor

Just for fun, we decided to create an ongoing, open-ended series called “Adventures in Parenting” to document those hilarious stories that deserve to be remembered and shared as we navigate the unknown world (to us) of child rearing.

Parenthood is a lot of things, but it is not dull. As first time parents, we are constantly finding ourselves in unexpected scenarios that remained uncharted before children. The learning curve is ridiculously high and if you don’t learn to laugh at yourself, you will probably go crazy. We will begin our “Adventures in Parenting” saga with why you should never show your friends how to use a video baby monitor.When Caleb was approximately 7 months old, our great friends Ashley and Brenton came to visit to see our new home/meet Caleb for the first time. In the course of conversation, we demonstrated some of our cool, modern baby gadgets including a video baby monitoring device. On our particular video monitor, one of the many neat features is the ability to move the camera side-to-side from a remote location. Later that evening, Sean went upstairs to give Caleb a bath. About two minutes after they left, I heard him yell “LITTLE HELP!!” in a very alarmed voice. I ran upstairs to our master bathroom to find Caleb completely covered in poop and Sean holding him at arms length in disgust. We didn’t have any wet wipes in the master bathroom, so I told Sean we should run down the hall to Caleb’s room and together we could tag team it and clean Caleb up fast. For those of you who have children, I think you will concur that “blow outs” are best tackled by two parents, not one.

Oh…here’s probably the appropriate place to mention a key piece of information – Sean was butt naked. At that point in time, it was still more convenient for him to just get in the bath with Caleb to wash him (we never did like the infant bath tubs, so awkward…plus it was good father/son bonding time). I assured Sean we would hurry and everything would be fine since I knew Brenton and Ashley were out of view in our family room downstairs. He agreed, so we quickly ran down the hall and as we were cleaning up Caleb’s blow out, a sixth sense came over me. As it slowly dawned on me that I had left the remote control for the monitor in the family room, AND that Ashley and Brenton could hear on the monitor that we were in Caleb’s room, AND that we had previously instructed them on how it works, AND that they are incredibly mischievous pranksters, I turned around to see the camera swiftly rotating from facing the crib over to the changing table where we were standing. I lunged towards the camera yelling “AH!! NO!! he’s naked, he’s naked!!” Unfortunately, I’m pretty positive they thought I was referring to Caleb since the camera continued revolving with zero hesitation.

To this day, they swear they did not see Sean’s birthday suit…but I have some serious doubts since they will no longer look Sean in the eye. Just kidding! What a great laugh though 🙂 And just in case you’re wondering – yes, thenceforth we had a ready supply of wet wipes in the master bathroom.