our home away from home...

hi everyone! we're back in ohio. we're really exciting about this, as it brings us close to family and long-time friends for the first time in our marriage. this move also brings with it the possibility of becoming first-time homeowners--something we've been looking forward to for a very long time.

at the same time, we're really sad about no longer living in british columbia. not only is vancouver one of the most beautiful places on earth, but it is also home for a great number of our friends. leaving vancouver also takes us away from regent college--though thankfully we can continue to be shaped by those within that community through books and audio courses.

with all that said, the long and difficult process of adjusting to life in the states has begun. while still carving out time for me to wrap up a few final papers, we have been feversihly unpacking boxes, painting rooms in the house, spending time with family and friends, visiting various churches in an attempt to connect with a local christian community, and looking for a job.

well, that's it for now. we'll be sure to keep you up to date on how and what we're doing as we get settled in.

p+k

5.21.07- jeremiah helping move out of our vancouver apartment (check out the 2.04.06 entry to see how much he's grown since he first helped us settle in north of the border)

5.23.07- jeremiah behind the wheel of our moving van

5.31.07- jeremiah catching some z's while heading to ohio

6.5.07- emma taking in the ohio countryside

6.5.07- jeremiah proudly showing off the first catch of his young fishing career

6.7.07- jeremiah quenching his thirst on a hot summer day

6.9.07- karen sneaking a kiss while celebrating 6 years of marriage with patrick

7.15.07- emma air-drying after a bath

heading south of the border...

hi everybody! how are you? many of you have been pleading with us to post some recent pictures of the kiddies. sorry for the long delay, but we've been frantically packing for our upcoming move.

jeremiah is really excited about heading to ohio. on a daily basis he talks about getting to see his grandparents and his cousin abbey. he also frequently prays for the safety of his toys during their long journey to his new home.

in terms of his adjustment to life with emma, he's doing really well. he loves his little sister so much and always wants to help take care of her. he rocks her in her bouncy seat, inspects her bottom when we change her diaper to ensure that we have, as he puts it, "cleaned all her cracks out," and soothes her when she cries by yelling "don't cry emma!" his concern for her well-being has even driven him to try to feed her like mommy does. as funny as that sounds, i'm not kidding--he really has tried to feed emma milk from his belly button on more than one occasion!

speaking of emma, she's growing by the second. she was big at birth, but now she's REALLY big! she weighs close to 12 lbs, most of which is carried in her cheeks. her days typically consist of eating, pooping, crying, and sleeping, with most of her time spent on the first three activities.

as for the adults in the house, we've been spending a lot of time with our friends. this is our sixth move in six years, and we've come to agree that there are few things in this world that we hate more. this is not only because of the long hours of packing it requires, but also because it requires us to leave behind people that have become really important to us.

well, that's all for now. we'll let you know how we're adjusting to life in ohio when we get a chance.

p+k

5.10.07- emma resting after a hearty breakfast

4.10.07- jeremiah and emma lounging around together

4.9.07- jeremiah reading a book about franklin the turtle

3.21.07- jeremiah making a fashion statement (in spite of his efforts, underwear hats failed to catch on in vancouver)

4.22.07- jeremiah dressed and ready to go out on the town

4.23.07- jeremiah with a big smile as he gets ready to dig into his ice cream sundae

4.22.07- jeremiah goofing around with his friend severin

made in canada...

hi everybody. how are you? we're excited to tell you that emma grace kaufman has arrived! she was born on wednesday, april 4th at 9:16 am. she weighed in at a chunky 9 lb. 13 oz. and measured a giant-like 21.5 in. in length.

emma is a name full of significance for us. first, it means “whole or complete.” it also means “healer of the universe.” it’s our hope that she lives into this name, becoming a well-rounded woman that brings healing to this broken world.

the name grace also carries a great deal of meaning for us. first, it means “elegant or beautiful.” more significantly, it means “God’s undeserved favor.” we gave her this middle name, because we believe that she’s a visible representation of that divine favor.

there's so much more we want to tell you, but as you can imagine, we're pretty tired at the moment. we love you and will talk to you later.

p+k


4.4.07- our little canadian sleeping contently an hour after making her grand entrance

4.4.07- emma and daddy posing for their first picture together

4.5.07- emma hanging out with mommy

4.4.07- jeremiah "visiting" with emma at the hospital

4.4.07- jeremiah "visiting" with mommy at the hospital

4.4.07- jeremiah taking a break from "visiting" for a snack

4.5.07- our two cuties at home together for the first time

heading home...

hello. how are you? we can't believe it's been 4 months since we last posted an update. as you can imagine, a lot has taken place in our lives since last we wrote--too much to try and pass along in just one entry. with that in mind, here are the highlights...

karen's almost 36 weeks along with the pregnancy. she's exhausted and would push the little one out today if she could. she started maternity leave in the middle of february--in canada you get a year of paid leave. this has helped a bit with her exhaustion, but she still has to contend with a toddler running circles around her each and every day.

we're excited to say that the baby has developed normally and is in great health. he/she is actively rolling around in mommy's belly, kicking her in the ribs, and smushing her bladder so she has to go to the bathroom a handful of times an hour. the baby was in the breech position (bum down) until just a week ago, so the doctors thought they were going to have to manually turn him/her into the right position for delivery. you can imagine that karen wasn't looking forward to such a painful procedure, so we're really thankful the little one finally got his/her act together and flipped upside down.

jeremiah's growing more and more into a little man each day. it's fun to watch him develop and become more independent. at the same time, it also makes us sad, because we know that our days with him at this stage of his life will soon be gone.

he's developing a great imagination--mommy and daddy have sharks living in their bedroom and spiderman hangs out in our bathroom. he still loves to read books. he also loves sports--football, baseball, basketball, and soccer. daddy plays soccer with him inside the apartment, and mommy has taught him to hit the baseball off the tee.

finally, i'm excited to say that i'll be done with my masters in may! at that point, we're going to pack up and head back to columbus, ohio so i can find work. we're really excited about this move, because it will bring us close to family and friends for the first time since we got married.

well, that's all for now. hope to hear from you soon.

p+k

the only thing that's constant is change...

hi everybody! how's it going? we've been thinking about/praying for you, and hope you're doing well. as for us, we've been going through an exceptional amount of change of late. though nearly all of it's been good, it's nevertheless been stressful around here. in spite of it all though, we're hanging in there.

what's so different these days, you ask? first off, karen's pregnant! some of you already knew this, but for those of you that are hearing about the good news for the first time, let me catch you up: we found out about baby kaufman on august 17 (the day we got back from our trip to ohio); she's 18 weeks along so far and is due april 13 (the last day of final exams); she had a horrible first trimester--much worse than with jeremiah--but thankfully is feeling pretty good at the moment; we've heard the baby's heartbeat twice now and we go in for our first ultrasound tomorrow (our doctor said that we've got an 80-90% chance of being able to determine the baby's sex, so we're keeping our fingers crossed).

jeremiah is really excited about the baby. he frequently goes over to mommy to kiss her belly. he also yells "goodbye! love you!" to both of them when they head off to, as he puts it, "r-bucks" for work. although we'd like to say that he fully understands what's happening, it's clear that he's still in the dark quite a bit on this issue--he occasionally comes up to me to kiss my belly, and we've even caught him walking around the apartment with his shirt pulled up, rubbing his belly and saying, "baby! baby!"

since we're on the subject of jeremiah, he's changing a lot too. his vocabulary has exploded over the last few months and he's now beginning to string words together. he can count to ten (most of the time in order), sing half of the alphabet song (once again, most of the time in order), and identify a handful of colors. he continues to love to read and frequently hits the local thrift stores with daddy to add to his personal library. finally, he's now sleeping in a "big boy" bed, and after a couple weeks of late night trips to check in on mommy and daddy, he's sleeping through the night again.

another big change is that we've moved into a new apartment. although we liked our old place and the family we rented from, the idea of having to share that tiny one-bedroom suite with another living being was just too much for us to handle. but since vancouver is such an expensive city to live in, it wasn't just a matter of packing up and moving out--on the contrary, we spent months looking for a place that was affordable, in a good location, had the space we needed, and was owned by a landlord crazy enough to rent to a family like us (why people weren't interested in renting to an unemployed grad student, his pregnant wife, their energetic toddler, and large slobbering dog is beyond me!).

well, all of our searching eventually paid off and we moved into our new place on october 1. it's a bit further from school and work, but it's certainly worth the extra ten minutes of commuting! we’re excited to say that karen and i once again have a bedroom that doesn't double as our living room, a bathtub so jeremiah doesn't have to take baths in the sink anymore, and a huge fenced-in yard so the pooch can run around and stretch his legs.

as for school, change has occurred there too. this year has been a lot different for me--i'm only on campus twice a week instead of daily, i'm taking a weekend course for the first time, and i just started a year-long internship at our church. it's taken me quite a while to get fully adjusted and into the swing of things, but in spite of it all, classes are going well and i'm still really enjoying being a full-time student.

this term i'm taking "intro to preaching and worship", "intro to counseling" (karen is taking this one too), and "reading the bible with the 'damned.'" just to shed a bit of light on why that last class has the title it does, it's taught by a professor/pastor who works with inmates and migrant workers, both of which he says wrongly "perceive themselves as condemned to poverty or permanent exclusion, beyond repair, unable to change, in bondage--in short, 'damned.'"

well, thanks for laboring through this long (and long overdue) entry. we miss you and will talk to you later.

p+k

8.15.06- jeremiah and his cousin abbey riding a cow at young's dairy in ohio

10.1.06- jeremiah getting ready for his first night in his "big boy" bed

11.02.06- jeremiah "refusing" to take a nap

10.11.06- jeremiah helping daddy document his weak attempt at growing a beard (by the way, the beard is long gone now)

10.23.06- jeremiah showing off daddy's drawings of his favorite sesame street characters, to include "burp-an-ernie"

10.6.06- jeremiah fully enjoying a bowl of pasta

10.6.06- jeremiah and mac testing out his new tricycle in the backyard

10.31.06- jeremiah all dressed up for halloween (check out those broad and burly shoulders!)

10.31.06- jeremiah holding the pumpkin he helped mommy carve

11.9.06- jeremiah trying with all his might to put on daddy's socks and shoes

a man of few words...

hi everyone! how're you doing? although i've got much to write about, i thought i'd give my fingers and brain a little bit of rest for this blog entry (with the start of fall semester less than a week away, i'm still attempting to recooperate from the loads of writing i recently had to do for my final two summer courses). so, while i can still choose to avoid the often lengthy and difficult process of placing my thoughts on paper, i'm going to do so and instead let a bunch of pictures tell the tale of some of our most recent adventures.

p+k











7.7.06- jeremiah preparing the yard for some new sod

6.18.06- jeremiah playing in his "indoor pool"

6.15.06- jeremiah goofing around in his crib after a nap

6.18.06- jeremiah and mommy out on the town for dinner

6.14.06- jeremiah and daddy during their first trip to a mcdonald's playland

7.1.06- jeremiah sleeping during a mariners ball game

7.28.06- jeremiah and daddy sporting their batting helmets

8.1.06- jeremiah enjoying some one-on-one time with his furry friend, gapper, during his first cincinnati reds game

on our way home...

hi everyone! how are you doing? things in vancouver are crazy as usual--i'm wrapping up my second of four summer classes, karen is up to her eyeballs in frappuccinos with the onset of the summer heat, and jeremiah is playing hard and getting bigger with each passing day. i wish i could pass on some exciting news about mac, our dog, but other than sleeping his days away on the cold bathroom floor, going for an occasional jog, and pooping in our landlord's house, he hasn't been up to too much of late.

before i go on, i've got to say that i realize i frequently use the word "crazy" to describe our life as a family. don't take that to mean that we're miserable, discontent, or even that we think our life together is busier or more hectic than yours. on the contrary, we're loving life and are thankful for all that makes it so chaotic--we've enjoyed going through the graduate school experience together, vancouver has been a great place to live, and we've made some really great friends along the way. i simply use this word, because i've yet to find any other that quite describes this fast-paced, messy, stressful, (at times) painful, and certainly fun and exciting journey that we're on.

well after saying that, i must point out that the crazy-meter seems to be especially high right now. this is because on top of all we normally do, we also find ourselves preparing for a trip home. that's right, everyone, strike up the band, dust off those welcome signs, stock those refrigerators, and get those guestrooms ready, cause we'll be seeing a lot of you very soon!

i can't say enough that we're really looking forward to being back home for a couple weeks. we hope it's filled with plenty of chances to catch up with a lot of you through conversation over coffee, a meal, or during an evening of playing games/cards. we also hope it gives us a chance to tell you more about what this last year has been like for us--a lot has happened in our lives and this blog has only communicated a bit of what we've done and learned, or how we've grown and changed through the process. finally, it’s going to be nice to simply be away from school and work for awhile (even though both of us still have a bit of course work to take care of while we're gone).

well, i better go--i've got a hungry little boy fighting for my attention. if you're going to be in/near dayton or columbus from aug 1-16 then drop us a line so we can meet up! hope to hear from a lot of you soon!
p+k

7.1.06- the craziness of life on full display at a seattle mariners baseball game