A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer...

Last Friday, Alicia, Kari, Isla, Minsu and I went up to Woodburn to do some tulip sniffing and outlet perusing. We managed to go on a beautiful day with and the flowers welcomed Isla's ready nose. When we first arrived, she was on sensory overload...smelling every flower she turned to. Oh how we love the cheesy, squinty Kyle-esque smile. Minsu can be helpful now and again....he told me later that he is going to miss Isla when he goes home in June. My favorite flower of the day....look for these next spring in front of our new house!! Our attempt at a posed photo. Isla was more photogenic in the candids, but Kari is beautiful! No, she didn't pick the flower, I promise! It was broken on the ground, and she held onto it the rest of the afternoon. A little B & W in a storm of color. Minsu's handiwork at the Nikon helm. Nice work getting Isla's attention! Minsu was camera shy, but I made him pick his favorite flower to take a photo by. THE END.....I used my new ...

Here at the Bernard house, we have two very opposite children. One is a 12-year-old boy (Minsu) who plays video games in his room literally ALL day (taking breaks when I yell, "Dinner Time!!"). The second child is a 17-year-old girl (Lauren) who likes to socialize, but forces herself to do homework in her room all day when she's not at her SAT tutor. Today after church, Lauren went over to her guardian's house, to wait for her tutor. Always the student, she had her homework out studying away, while she warmed herself near the fireplace. She noticed that the fire was going out, so she reached over to stoke it with some scraps of paper. With the flames reignited, Lauren turned back to her homework. Flipping through her worksheets and papers, she couldn't find one sheet she needed. All to soon, yet all too late, Lauren was mortified to look past her stack of papers, into the fire, where she could see her homework sheet curling in flames. In short bursts of high-pitch...

With Easter last Sunday, we at Corvallis Korean Church had a special baptism service - 10 people got dunked! We knew a bunch of the people too, including those pictured below.... This first one is of Super. Super and his wife Jane came to the U.S. in August, from China. They are both new Christians and ended up at our church because of some friends they had in China that have a connection to Bryan. They actually came to the U.S. with no plan of a place to live, and they stayed in our guest bedroom their first night here! Quite the adventure! They now live in a rental pastor found for them in Corvallis, and Super goes to school at OSU. Jane works as a middle school helper in 180 and is actually going on the mission trip with us this summer! Next is Eddie, a high school junior, who has been attending CKC for over three years. He just recently decided to turn his life over to Christ. He was a handful for us in the beginning years, so the change is definitely miraculous. He was pretty emot...