A View of Adoption from the ‘Brother’ Side

I’ve posted a number of things about our adoption of Max, some bumps in the road as we have pursued adoption, and experiences through adoption that have changed us.  Recently, one of Max’s brothers wrote about how adoption has impacted him.

Max, along with the siblings in his birth family, gained three brothers and a sister when he joined our family.  A few years later he welcomed a sister-in-law.  One of his brothers, Austin, is a student at Johnson University and shared how a class project on the book of Psalms brought to the surface how adoption has changed him.

This semester, I have had the opportunity to take a course at Johnson University that delves into the Psalms. During this course, we have discussed many different things, ranging from the structure of Hebrew poetry to the implementation of the Psalms in modern worship.

One thing that we focused on heavily was a paradigm proposed by Walter Bruggeman. Bruggeman claims that Psalms can be classified into three groups: Psalms of Orientation, Psalms of Disorientation, and Psalms of New Orientation…

Read the rest of his post on Austin’s blog, Vintage

When My Brother Visits

Every other month or so, depending where his travels take him, I’ll get a call from my brother that he is in the area. Anytime he is close by, he is welcome to stay. He drives all over the country making deliveries in his yellow van. His most recent visit was due to the fact he had a drop in Tipp City. He is back on the road headed toward Pittsburgh. You just never know when the yellow van might be pulling in the driveway.

It’s always a good time when my brother visits. We get caught up on what is happening in his life, where he has been and what places he has seen. We talk about our family, what’s new with us and just have a good time talking. It’s funny, now that we are older, we just enjoy hanging out.

My kids like it when Uncle Andy comes to visit. He is always good for a laugh and keeps everyone entertained. A few months ago we were all together at my niece’s wedding and Uncle Andy kept my daughter stocked with updates for her Twitter feed.

After his most recent visit, I felt compelled to create a blog post about it. I guess he is the subject of other blogs and I didn’t want to be left out.

Looking forward to the next time the yellow van pulls into the driveway.