Motherhood

Best Advice and Tips for a Healthy and Happy Marriage

Today, we are diving into the best marriage tips to help you create a happy, healthy, and successful marriage. We certainly don’t have it all figured out but we thought it would be fun to share what we have learned along the way. We have been together a long time, 22 years to be exact.

Tips for Navigating Tech and Phones with kids

Motherhood· Simple Tips & Solutions

In today’s world, technology plays an important role in our everyday lives. With the rise of smartphones and other electronic devices, it’s easy to spend too much time on our screens and not enough time interacting with our family members in real life. Sound familiar? You aren't alone.

10 Simple Lunar New Year Activities

Adoption· Seasonal Activities· Winter

After adopting our son (born in China), we have been learning more about Chinese culture and incorporating some of their traditions into our home. In China and other Asian countries, the Lunar new year is the most important holiday of the year. Chinese or Lunar New Year is a two-week

7 Best Adoption Book Ideas for Parents

Adoption

When I first had the inkling to adopt, one of the first things I did was scour the internet for adoption book ideas. I wanted to read alllllllll the adoption stories I could. Reading adoption books confirmed in my head what my heart already knew, we were meant to adopt. I get asked all the

Yearly Adoption Gotcha Day Gift Ideas

Adoption

One year ago, we walked into a stuffy, sterile office building in the bustling city of Hefei, China to meet our son for the first time and welcome him into our family by adoption (you can read more about that day here). While that moment looked different than how most people meet their

The Surprising Visit That Changed Everything

Adoption

We pulled up to the compound gate. Large imposing concrete walls on all sides and a guard waved us through. We drove through the streets of building after building. We had just entered the social welfare institute of Hefei city where they kept the orphans, the disabled, the mentally ill and the

China Adoption Trip | Gotcha Day

Adoption· Family Memories

Our train pulled into Hefei and we were struck with miles after miles of apartment buildings. Not just 5 story buildings, skyscrapers. Miles of them. Quincy's town was larger than we could have imagined and the smog haze prevented us from seeing the sun. It's known as the "smog city" and located

China Adoption Trip | Beijing

Adoption· Family Memories

Many of you followed our adoption trip on Instagram (follow Simple Purposeful Living here) but I thought I would share more of the details of our trip here! So let me begin with our 3-week adoption trip with the first week spent in Beijing, China! If you are just getting caught up on our

International Adoption Process Q & A

Adoption

Lucy, our youngest daughter, was just 5 months old when Scott's sister and brother-in-law brought our nephew home from China. We had walked with them through their international adoption process. Never in a million years at that moment, did I think we would walk through it ourselves. Yet, here we