Our Modern Family

A New Father's Views on Adoption, Family & Relationships

Archive for the tag “adoptive parents”

The Last Great Adventure (pt.1)

It’s hard to fathom that in 5 days Nolin will be turning two years old. As exciting as this milestone is, it is going to throw a severe wrench into our travel habits.

Since children under two are able to fly for free as a lap baby, it has made picking up and going somewhere a pretty easy decision. That will all change now as road trips become the more economical option (and I have to admit that a lot more thought will have to go into a 13 and 18 hour car ride up North versus an easy 2 hour flight). We also realized that although he is not even 30 lbs (we will find out the official weight on Monday), he has already left quite the carbon footprint.

In Nolin’s 707 short days on this planet he has already amassed over 38,860 air miles and over 3,200 road miles on trips. When I added it all up, I began to think that there may be some truth to the fact that both Jenn & I’s parents think we are crazy. Nolin’s travels equates to approximately 7.75 metric tons of CO2. This means that it will take approximately 30 years and 7 trees (or possibly 1 year and 210 trees) to reverse the impact that Nolin has made in a such a short period of time…It looks like Pap Pap & I are going to have a lot of digging to do. Read more…

Thanksgiving Blessings

Amid Black Friday sales and stampedes happened to fall a little known holiday called Thanksgiving.  At the core of the celebration is the idea that individuals should take a step back (and maybe not spend a week camped out in front of a store for a $200 TV) to spend time with their family and reflect on the things that they are thankful for.

I can easily say that there is no way that I can do justice for all of the many gifts that I am thankful for, but in keeping with the season, I tried to wrap it all up into 3 main blessings: Read more…

National Adoption Awareness Month 2011

November is National Adoption Awareness Month and a time to celebrate all of the families whose lives have been changed by adoption as well as pray in anticipation for those who are still waiting to meet their child.

There has been a lot of talk in the news lately about adoption with several celebrity adoptions as well as the story of Steve Jobs’ and his childhood.  If you have ever thought about or questioned adoption, I think this video says it all…

Read more…

God Found Us You

Friday night we were excited to be able to attend the fundraising event A Triad of Love for Catholic Charities’ Adoption Program in Lakeland.  If it were not for this program and these people our lives would be drastically different and I dare say not near as complete.

Again it was Friday night after work and a bit of a hike, so we made our way as fast as we could and arrived about an hour and a half late.  This meant that we walked in just as the silent auction was ending.  They had a bunch of really great items including an autographed Miami Dolphins’ Jason Taylor jersey that my sister (aka Aunt Elmo) and her friends generously helped us secure for the event.

I am a big fan of silent auctions and although I didn’t get a chance to make it all the way around the table before they started to close the auction, I quickly made a last-minute bid and left feeling a little disappointed that I would probably walk away without anything. Read more…

Parenting 101: A Few Lessons Learned

So last week I posted my 100th blog entry.  If this were a TV Series, I could be syndicated now.  I unknowingly started this blog a few hours before Nolin was born.  Almost 15 months and 100 blog posts later, life has become more exciting than I ever imagined.

I don’t think as a parent you are ever actually ready…much less when you only have three weeks to prepare.  I had always been nervous about being a father because I just didn’t think I would be good at it. Nolin has made it easy and looking over some of my favorite posts, I realized I have learned a few bits of good parental advice along the way…

  1. Sleep is completely overrated and sometimes difficult to achieve
  2. Nothing sticks with you longer than your first defining moment.
  3. In the beginning there are learning days and growing days and it can really suck when they happen at the same time. Read more…

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