16 Months

As I logged in today to write up this next blog entry, I was quickly reminded by the little date stamp thingy how quiet it's been on here since we've posted an entry.

And, well, that pretty much reflects the same number of updates and new information we've received about our adoption - zero.  <sigh>  It's been a dry 1.5 months for us with any new adoption news, and we have found ourselves waiting with many other families adopting from Korea to see if and when the process would pick up again for when we can bring our little guy home.  There are a number of reasons for the delay, some that we understand, some that we don't understand, but all of which are beyond our control at this point.  The communication has been muffled and utterly silent, leaving us anxiously awaiting even just the smallest glimmer of news to let us know how things are coming and of any idea when our phone call may be coming to travel to Korea.

We're still waiting for *THAT* news (and are coming to accept the fact that it may be longer than we had originally expected), but we did get some new pictures and updates that brought more than a few fun smiles and giggles to the family.

Joshua was recently in for his regular 16 month medical check up and his social worker sent us some pictures and a short medical update.  In short:  everything is looking good.  It's fun to read about his progress and notice some of the changes from his 1 year check up.  He's now enjoys bathtime (a plus), is walking around, and appears to be doing his fair share of jabbering!  We also noted that he's showing signs of being a night-owl, since his normal bedtime is around midnight.  Daddy was beginning to like the idea of having another night-owl in the family to hang out and play with, but Mommy was seeing things a little bit differently (ie. "Daddy takes nighttime duty").  Hmmmm.....we'll see about this one.

Beanie Babies and more!

What made these pictures extra fun for us was that Joshua just opened a care package we had sent over for him.  We prepared a few things to be delivered by another family that recently traveled to Korea to pick up their child.  It was really fun to see Joshua hold the little frog Beanie Baby that Nathan picked out, the little lion that Brooke chose, and see him play with the little cell phone that we recorded a message on, and the soft handmade blankie Jill made for him.  Needless to say, it brought us a little extra excitement to see that Joshua was enjoying his new gifts!

So, despite the fact that we have no new news on the possibility of travel, getting a 16 month update was probably the next best thing we could get! Now if only our next update from Korea was an invitation to travel.... 

C'mon, Korea....let's get it moving!

The Family Update

Although we've been a bit quiet on the blog lately, we've continued to be working on a few different adoption-related projects that have kept us busy.

One of these projects has been to set up some ways to help spread the word about our adoption, let people know where we are at in the process, and offer ways for them to support us, if they desire to do so.  Being one who appreciates good communication, here's hoping we can do that in a few different ways as we continue to wait for the call to go pick up Joshua.

So, we decided to write a letter giving all of you a short overview of our adoption process, where we are at, and how you can help us out.  If you'd like a copy of it, you can download it here.

We're excited for the upcoming days, even though we don't know when we will be able to travel to South Korea.  Thanks for your partnership and support as we work to bring Joshua home!

What's In A Name?

A few weeks ago we played a little game with you to see if you could identify YS’s American name that we had given him.  It’s been pretty funny to read some of the responses that people wrote (name him after some White Sox players....really?), but surprisingly a few people actually guessed correctly - Joshua!  Oh, what would we be without Google Translate, right?  Nice going Elsa.....the Choco-Pies are on their way!

But maybe the bigger question is, “why Joshua?”  Joshua has always been a name and a Bible character we like, and so one we were considering for our little guy.  Then, when we received the paperwork for him back in July, we noticed his Korean name meant “reign” and “crowd”, with the intent of the social workers who named him that he would become one who would reign (or lead) the crowd.

Although we have no way of knowing what he will grow up to be, we do desire Joshua to be one who will be a leader of sorts, as he follows the leadership of Christ.  As we look at the life of Joshua in the Old Testament, we see someone who was humble, eager to learn, and had a deep desire to grow in his understanding of God.  One account shows Joshua remaining at the Tent of Meeting (where the Lord met with Moses), even after Moses left.  (Exodus 33:11)  Joshua had a craving to develop his own relationship with the Lord and present himself as one with a teachable spirit and attitude. 

This teachable spirit allowed God to put Joshua into more leadership roles as the years went on.  Joshua, along with Caleb, were only two of the twelve spies who brought back a favorable report of the Promised Land, and by faith believed that God would give them that land (Numbers 13-14).  He later was anointed leader of the nation of Israel, and ultimately given the task of leading the nation of Israel into the land of Canaan.  (Numbers 27:12-23)  Joshua’s humble, teachable spirit, combined with his faith and trust in the goodness of the God he served, allowed him to be a powerful leader among the people of his day.

One Bible study guide wrote, “Joshua was available to the Lord, for the task the Lord had, with the people God chose.” 

In short, we desire and pray the same for our Joshua, that he would have a desire to know Christ personally, and that his heart would be humble, teachable, and desirous of learning how God wants to use him during his lifetime.

Will you join us in praying the same?

Receive First. Give Second.

Last weekend I (Eric) had the opportunity to take 49 of our high school students & adult leaders on our annual fall retreat.  For the past 5 years we have been going to a great camp named Timber-Lee Christian Center in East Troy, WI.  The camp itself is beautiful, with a number of different activities and things for us to do while we are there. 

But what makes this retreat different from most retreats I plan for our students, is that this is designed specifically as a service retreat, where we serve the camp by giving a full day (Saturday) to work projects or jobs that the camp staff have determined for us to do.  A bit odd or unusual for students to get excited about?  Well, if size is any indication, this was our largest fall retreat yet.  In the past, we've helped Timber-Lee clear brush, demolish summer cabin interiors, rip up carpet, paint luggage carts, split wood, rake leaves, and move bunk beds and mattresses, just to name a few.  One year we even helped cater an amazing mother-daughter banquet they were hosting, and had a blast dressing up as waiters and waitresses.

This year was no exception, as they had us working in a few different areas of camp.  We helped them split wood, rake leaves, clean fenceline, and clear some large areas of land that became overgrown with invasive species and brush that crowed out some of the natural prairie landscape.  The bonus of being a part of the brush clearing project was being able to build the largest pile of brush and then watch it go up in flames.  I only wished someone would have remembered to bring the hot dogs and marshmallows to roast!

Our Saturday work projects and service was put in the context of helping our students see the need and value of serving others as a way of expressing Christ's love to others.  On Friday night, I challenged our students to think about the idea of love more deeply.  As much as the world tells us about love (and our need for it), it has no ability - or authority - to give us the power to love.  The power and ability to love can only come from Someone who is love - Jesus Christ himself.

"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." - 1 John 4:9-10

"We love because he first loved us." - 1 John 4:19

In order to love, we need to first understand that God himself is the source of love.  He defines love - by the actions he’s taken.  And he proved it by sending his son on the cross for us as a sacrifice.

It's a principle that author Max Lucado calls:  Receive first.  Give second.

When we have chosen to receive and live in God’s love - through a relationship with Christ - then we have the ability to draw from that love and express it to others, which God calls us to do.

Receive first.  Give second.

Sounds like a simple concept, doesn't it?  But yet how hard it is to put into practice!  The encouraging news is that because Christ lives in us, we have been given the ability and power through Christ to live out this love on a daily basis.

And this past weekend our students demonstrated this love to the camp and to one another through their actions.  It was a great weekend of fun, hard work, little sleep (hey, it is a retreat, after all), and great food.  But in the end, it was all about living out the calling to love others, because Christ loved us.

I'm proud of our students and adult leaders for their willingness to sacrifice a weekend and serve others in this way.  My prayer is that this principle of "receive first, give second" will continue to take root and lead to lives that have personally received the love of Christ and are committed to give that love to others in tangible, practical ways.

(click here if you can't view the video above)

The Name Game

Although we are unable to share YS' Korean name, which we will keep for his middle name, we are able to share his American name. This weekend we had the opportunity to go to a Korean event at our adoption agency. It was a joy to learn more about Korean culture, and see lots of little children adopted from Korea, and their families. It was fun to think about going next year, with our little boy! Nathan and I also tried our hand at Korean writing. I wrote YS' American name in Korean!

So here is the Name Game Challenge: Look at the Korean name below, and figure out what it is in English! Then make your guess. If you need a little help, you can look at the second picture below, which is "Nathan" in Korean! (On the bottom right corner the sweet Korean ladies from the adoption agency, who taught us, put their signature.)

P.S. We have some Korean 'Choco-Pies' for the winner!

If A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words.....

....then we could write this post for a long time!

This past week we received an unexpected surprise in the form of some new pictures of our little guy, YS at his one year old check up.  Our case worker at the agency emailed them to Jill (at home) and me (at work) so we could both enjoy the chance to see some updated pictures of YS.

Although we can't post pictures of him yet (security and privacy issues prevent us), we can tell you he's looking very healthy and doing incredibly well.  His pictures have him playing with some toys, walking around, and even sitting on the lap of his care giver looking content and at ease.  But I couldn't help but be drawn to my favorite picture - one of him sitting on the lap of his care giver getting hugged and tickled.  Looking at the picture you see his eyes are almost completely shut because the smile on his mouth is so big and wide.  His mouth is wide open with delight, giving a good look at his teeth and tongue, as you can almost hear the giggles and squeals coming out.  Ahhh!  How much longer do we have to wait until WE can give him hugs and tickles from US?!!  Either way, it's obvious to me that he is being taken care of and loved on very well by everyone at the agency in S. Korea and his care giver.....and for that I am thankful.


Needless to say, there was a long pause in my work day to take in these new pictures and see my son growing and having a fun time exploring his world.  It didn't take too long for me to set these pictures as my screen saver on my computer, even though it caused my productivity at church to go down at various points of the day....like, every 3 minutes when my screen saver came on  = ).  And yes, shortly after that updated pictures were already being developed at Wal-Mart and being brought home to share with the family (to much joy and excitement).

We were also given an updated medical report for him, which was fun to see how he has grown and developed since just a few months ago.  From all accounts he appears to be progressing well for a 1 year old!  We found out he's added a few more teeth (now has 4 on top and bottom), able to speak some simple words, is climbing all around, waves "bye bye" to people, and responds to his Korean name.  Unfortunately, it doesn't look like he's a fan of bathtime, but I'm sure Nathan and Brooke will have no trouble showing YS how much fun bathtime can be here in our house!

Unexpected updates like this are always welcome at our house!  What will the next one be?

Happy 1st Birthday!

So the news on the adoption front has been a bit quiet lately, most in part to there not being any new updates or news to share.  We're in our next phase of waiting, while we have completed and sent off more paperwork to the many different agencies and departments (both here in the U.S. and in Korea) that will be processing and handling all the details of finalizing our adoption.  Korea did confirm that they received and have looked over our paperwork, so that's good news!

But, we had cause for a little celebration this past Friday when we had the chance to celebrate YS's 1st birthday!  Even though he isn't officially a part of our family and is still in S. Korea, we still wanted to celebrate his birthday, sing for him, and give him a few presents, and oh yea, eat some cake too.  We also wanted to take lots of pictures and videos so when he gets older, he'll be able to see how much we loved him and celebrated him.....even before he was ours.

If you know Nathan and Brooke at all, you know they LOVE the idea of having a party, and this was no exception.  The party planners started a day ahead of time and hung streamers all throughout the living room.  Then they grabbed balloons and started blowing them up and hanging them everywhere - finishing with a multi-colored balloon bouquet hanging down in the middle of the living room (think disco ball hanging from the ceiling), all while listening to Veggie Tales and happy birthday music on the stereo.  What an afternoon!  If you are ever in need for some party planners, Nathan & Brooke are your go-to people!  Jill also made an incredible (and elaborate) teddy bear birthday cake (see pic), complete with birthday hat and candle.

When Friday came and we were ready to celebrate, we even had the joy of having Grandpa & Grandma Rasmussen join us, as they were coming home from a trip out East.  It was a lot of fun to celebrate with our family!

After dinner, we opened a few gifts that Nathan & Brooke had picked out for YS, which they showed everyone - a few books, some toy blocks, and soft balls.  Nathan and Brooke are anxiously waiting to read and play with you when you come, YS!  We also have one other gift that we left wrapped up until YS arrives, and can't wait for him to open it up and enjoy it.

All in all, it was a fun night to celebrate our little guy's first birthday.  Although we haven't met him yet, he is very much a part of our family and we are excited that he is our own.  Despite the miles that separate us right now, YS, know that we love you and talk about you on a daily basis, and can't wait to have you as part of our family.  We're looking forward to celebrating your NEXT birthday here with us!