Coffee With Joshua

If you know me at all, you know of my love for all things Caribou Coffee and espresso drinks, in general.  I attribute this love to Jill, who introduced me to coffee while we were dating (yep, the things we fall for).  Funny thing is, I'm still not a regular 'black' coffee guy, just one who likes my coffee made from 2 shots espresso, milk chocolate syrup, a few pumps of toasted marshmallow syrup, whip, and marshmallows with chocolate shavings on top (I just described my favorite drink at Caribou:  the Campfire Mocha - tastes just like a s'mores out of the campfire.  Amazing!)  One of the things I look forward to is when I can have a coffee chat with Joshua at Caribou.

Having had great conversations and discussions of my own at Caribou with others, I look forward to the day of being able to sit across the table, me & my Campfire Mocha, Joshua with his.....fruit smoothie (?), and having some good discussion.  Until then, I wait with anticipation.

Given our love for coffee and our love for Joshua, Jill and I thought - "why not combine the two together?"  Alas, Coffee with Joshua was born!

As a way to help raise some additional support for our adoption, we've partnered with Just Love Coffee Roasters to help out our cause.  With every purchase made from Just Love Coffee using our unique link (here or on the sidebar), a portion of the proceeds - starting at $5 for every bag of coffee sold - will be applied to our adoption fund to bring Joshua home.

Just Love Coffee is a family business in TN that has a great heart for families who are in the process of adopting.  Giving back to these families is one of their values and desires (along with hand roasting some good, fair-trade coffee).  Check out all the variety of coffees they offer and tell us what you think!

In short - if you're a coffee lover....consider having your next cup with Joshua in mind and help us move one step closer to bringing him home!

Adoption Dinner Update!

Hey Friends and family -

We're getting excited about our upcoming adoption dinner next Saturday night and wanted to put out a last reminder call and invite to anyone who hasn't responded to us yet.

You're invited to join us for a great dinner and short time of hearing from us about our adoption process and where we are currently at in the process of adopting Joshua.  We'll also share a few ways that you can support us as we continue going through this journey of bringing Joshua home.  Click here to read more about the details of the dinner.

We're also excited to have Pastor Mark Balmer from Park Hills EFC in Freeport, IL join us (Eric's home church).  Mark will be sharing a message about God's heart for orphans and our response to it.  Not only is Mark the lead pastor at Park Hills, but he's also an adoptive dad, with his wife and children feeling called to adopt two children from Ghana a few years ago.

We've got an exciting night planned, and don't want you to miss out!  We still have room at the table for you - so please let us know if you can join us.  You can email, call, or leave a comment below this post and we'll reserve a seat for you.  We even have a few specific areas we could use some help in for the dinner (set up, clean up, etc) - if you'd be interested in helping us in this way, we'd love it!

See you next Saturday!

Tony Dungy, the Super Bowl, and Adoption

Pop Quiz:  What do Tony Dungy, the Super Bowl, and adoption all have in common?

The Answer:  They're all coming together today to help advance the cause of adoption around the world!  Read on....

With the Super Bowl being played today in Indianapolis, where Tony Dungy coached the Indianapolis Colts for a number of years (and has his own Super Bowl ring from coaching them to a win in 2007), it's the best combination to highlight Coach Dungy and his desire to raise awareness of adoption to the millions of people that will be watching the game today. 


Being an adoptive dad himself, Coach Dungy has partnered with The Adoption Journey Project to help raise awareness of the current orphan crisis and to encourage families to consider adoption.  The 30 second PSA will air on the electronic billboards at Lucas Oil Stadium as people arrive to watch the game, and has the ability to reach an even broader audience through the website and video links.  For people or churches who want to take it even further, there are a number of online resources and follow up discussions that can help people think through their own response to adoption, begin the journey themselves, or support others who are in the process.

Check out the 30 second PSA version below (and a separate, extended version available to download or show at your own party or event):



Here's a separate, extended version of a video by Coach Dungy and his wife talking more about the orphan crisis and call to adoption.


Super Bowl Winning Coach Tony Dungy Halftime Video for AdoptionJourney.org from Adoption Journey on Vimeo.

Enjoy the game!

Diversity Is.......

This past Tuesday night we attended an awards ceremony that honored a number of students in our district who participated in the annual "PTA Reflections" program.  This is a nationwide program in many schools that encourage students to use their artistic talents in drawing, writing, dance, music, or photography to reflect a certain theme or idea.  Teachers at Nathan's school encouraged students to participate and Nathan wanted to write something for this year's theme, which was "Diversity Is....."

Nathan, receiving his medal from his principal

We received word a few months ago that Nathan's writing piece was chosen to advance to the district level and was later given "Honorable Mention at the District Level" (an honor only a few received).  He was invited to attend this ceremony on Tuesday to receive a certificate and medal from his principal and our School Superintendent, as well as have part of his entry read.

Although we know Nathan is very excited about having a little brother join our family soon, it was really fun to see him express it in his writing and to see how it fit so well with the theme of diversity.  Here's what he wrote:

Diversity is great!

Diversity is different people.

Diversity is being friends with Joy from China.

Diversity is good!

Diversity is adopting my little brother YS from South Korea.

Diversity is great!

Diversity is speaking a different language like Spanish or Tagalog.

Diversity is cool!

Joy is a good friend of Nathan's who he originally met in preschool, and still gets together with for playdates.  Tagalog is the language spoken in the Philippines, and, thanks to our dear friend Rachel who is currently a missionary in the Philippines, Nathan's learned a few fun Tagalog phrases and songs too!

Congratulations on your accomplishment, Nathan!  We're proud of you!  Diversity is cool!

P.S.  We recently just announced our upcoming adoption fundraising dinner to help us raise support to bring Joshua home.  Click here to read more about it and to RSVP - we'd love to see you there!

Adoption Dinner!

You're Invited!

We're hosting an adoption fundraising dinner to help share the excitement and joy of having Joshua join our family.....and we'd be honored if you would consider joining us!

Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012

5:30-7:30pm

at 
Grace Bible Church

398 Eggleston Ave., Elmhurst IL

After enjoying dinner together, we'll share our own adoption
story and hear a message about God's heart for orphans.

Although there is no charge to attend, we will be receiving 

freewill donations to help support our adoption expenses.

If you are able to attend, please RSVP (in the comment section below) by Feb. 17
with the number of adults and children (under 10) that will be attending.

We hope you can join us!

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!