Never a Dull Moment is the third rendition of the Johnson-McCormick Family Blog. We posted our first blog post on October 11, 2006. Our blogging journey – much like our life journey – has been an adventurous, and every once in a while rocky, ride. Like so many things, we could never have anticipated all that it would be.

We are Heather, Braydon, Kyle, Owen, and Meera Johnson-McCormick. We  (Heather and Braydon) got married in 2001, and knew even then that we wanted –someday– to form our family through adoption. We began the adoption process in January 2004, as our first-choice-way to start a family. Our twin boys, Kyle and Owen, were born on May 8, 2004 in Cite Soleil, Port au Prince, Haiti. They spent the first eight months of their lives in an orphanage in Haiti. We became a family forever when we traveled to Port au Prince to bring our babies home on January 31, 2005. For the first year-and-a-half of our family life we had all we could do to keep our heads above water! But once things were solidly on track (or, at least as on track as we’ll ever be!), we started blogging.

When we began blogging Kyle and Owen were rambunctious, mischievous two-year-olds and we had a lot of stories to tell! Originally we conceptualized our blog as a place to update those close to us on our goings on. We imagined that maybe a handful of our friends and family would take a look at it from time to time to see what Kyle and Owen were up to. But, as a total surprise to us, it quickly took off, and lots more people than we ever could have imagined started reading along.

We became a “Party of 5” when Meera Grace was born to us on May 28, 2008. By that point we had several hundred readers who were following our journey. Baby sister’s addition to the mix gave us even more stories to tell. For 3.5 years our original blog was public at johnson-mccormickfamily.blogspot.com.

On March 14, 2010 we made the move to a “private” blog with a new title — Five Free Spirits. During our move to a private blog, we took a few hundred of our most loyal and loved readers along with us. For six months we kept our blog private. Going private had its pro’s and con’s. One of the biggest benefits was that it gave us some time to re-think our blogging. Apparently lots of other people re-thought our blogging during that time too!—we received lots and lots of emails telling us all the reasons we should go public again. What we came to realize was that our blog was something that had kind of taken on a life of its own.  It had become bigger than us. It was meaningful and inspiring to people in ways that we had never fully realized. Ultimately we came to the decision to re-open our blog and embrace our blogging in a fuller way. On September 18, 2010 we opened up Never a Dull Moment to the blogosphere.

This blog started as a sort of scrapbook of our kids’ lives. Over time it became that plus a journal of our personal journey. And it has morphed into not just a scrapbook and a journal, but also a space for freely sharing certain aspects of the way we live. Blogging has become, in addition to everything else, a real outlet and a source of solace for us. So, the point of this blog is three-fold: 1) to keep family, friends, and our “blog-reader-family-friends” posted on K, O, and M’s goings-on and our life, 2) to create an historical scrapbook/journal of this wild ride, 3) to be out there in the blogosphere — loud and proud — doing what we can to support other adoptive/inter-racial families and dual-career families in their journeys.

We have a crazy, fun-filled life with 3 bambinos and 2 big careers all under 1 roof. Living life as an adoptive, inter-racial, family is a core to our identity. Family food is a central focus of our daily life (most of the good stuff of our family’s  good vibes, questions, and conversations happens around our dinner table; good food = good love). Oh, and we love to travel.

We have ups and downs, highs and lows, struggles and triumphs. Thanks for reading!