New Year's Greetings 2010

Dear friends,

Paul and I want to take this opportunity to wish each of you a Happy New Year filled with the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ! The last year was one of many changes for us, and I invite you to go on a quick pictorial journey with us as we recap our last year and look ahead to the new year unfolding before us.  With all of the adjustments and changes of the last few months, I haven't written nearly as often as I would have liked, but Lord willing, I will be adding to this blog much more frequently in 2010!

Josiah (9), Micah (6), Sarah (6), Isaac (4)

The year 2009 began with Paul at home for his two week R&R from Iraq. We had a wonderful time as a family, and we dreaded the good-bye that came all too quickly.

At the airport when Paul arrived for his leave

On January 8, Paul again journeyed back to Baghdad for another five months, and the children and I resumed our daily activities. To say that God was active in our family is an incredible understatement. There were many days that I got to the end of the day, positive that the only thing that had sustained us was the limitless grace of God.  I can definitely look back and say that I tasted the sweetness of Christ like I never had before, and I came away from the year of deployment having learned much about God as an ever-present help and refuge.

In March my mother-in-law came for two weeks, and then my sister came with her two girls for two weeks.  My mother-in-law even found time to paint murals on the basement walls!  Both Heather and Betty were a great help, and their company was a great gift.  Again, the Lord met my needs when I was very weary!

As April arrived, I have to admit that I've never been more excited to see spring come in all my life!  The children and I began preparing for Paul to come home at the end of May, and on May 29 we left for Fort Benning, Georgia to meet Paul as he arrived home on the 31st.  What a joy to be reunited as a family, and what a gift from God!

From Georgia we began a very long, very exciting road trip-- 8,134 miles to be exact!  We drove from Georgia to Florida and spent ten days on vacation.  We went to Disney and Sea World and loved every minute of being together.  From Florida, we began a 4-day, cross-country drive to Seattle so that Paul could out-process out of the Army at Fort Lewis, Washington.  After a week in Seattle, we drove to Denver for a few days with my parents, and then drove back home to Michigan.  The kids are fabulous travelers, and we had a wonderful trip!  We were gone a full month, and Paul was very glad when we finally drove back into his beloved Michigan!  He was finally home for good!  I posted numerous pictures of our long road trip earlier, so if you would like to see those, go here!

The rest of the summer was spent adjusting back to our life together, growing a garden, playing a ton of backyard whiffle-ball, and enjoying being together.  Paul and I celebrated our 10th anniversary at the end of July, and his mom came to stay with the kids while we went to St.Ignace/ Mackinac Island and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for five days!

The kids spent a lot of time foraging in the garden for sugar-snap peas and strawberries!

Paul and I at Mackinac Island

On August 1, Paul left active duty after more than eight years.  The Lord made it clear that our time in the Army was finished, and we are excited to begin a new chapter in our marriage and family!  Paul applied to transfer his law license from Colorado to Michigan, and in November, he opened his own law practice here in Rochester, Michigan!  The Lord seemed to lead in this direction, and we are looking forward to seeing what he has for us in the years ahead.

I am in my fifth year of homeschooling our children, and I find my days filled with school, our homeschool group, and tasks at home.  I am also directing the adult choir at our church.  The choir is one of the sweetest groups of people I have ever known, and they are truly passionate about leading our church family God-ward as we provide a musical picture frame around the face of Christ!  It is such a joy to be involved in this ministry.

Josiah is in the 4th grade now, and he loves books and animals.  He just received an aquarium for Christmas, so he is the proud owner of some new tropical fish.  He is a great student and is making wonderful progress in his education.  I see the Lord doing much in his life right now!

Micah and Sarah are both becoming great readers, and they are doing well in 1st grade.  Micah loves Legos and math, and Sarah loves dancing, singing, and writing.  Micah is daddy's boy when it comes to sports, and Sarah is my constant little companion in all things girly!

Isaac is our spoonful of sugar!  He loves Legos and Wii bowling, and he tries very hard to keep up with the big dogs (his brothers)!  He will start Kindergarten in the fall of this year, although he has already caught a lot just listening to me teach the others.

As I look back on 2009, I have learned three main lessons.  First, whether I can always see it or not, the Lord is active in the lives of each of His children.  Sometimes it is easy to imagine that He hasn't done much lately, but when I was forced to look to Him more than I ever had, I found Him in even the tiniest details.  Even when so many refuse to recognize His sovereignty, He is orchestrating every detail of life for His glory.

Second, I learned that I cannot calculate without God.  The instant I started to imagine what might happen, or "forward-fear", I would lose sight of all of the ways God had been so near to me in the past.  I had read many things about difficulties post-deployment, and while Paul and I had some adjustments to make, things really did get back to "normal" pretty quickly.  We found that two people seeking to glorify God can overcome many obstacles with His help.

Third, I learned how very blessed I am to have my precious husband and children, extended family, and dear friends to link arms with on this journey heavenward.  While Paul was deployed, he videotaped daily devotions for our children using a wonderful book called Training Hearts, Teaching Minds.  He would mail me the tapes, and we watched them almost every night.  I believe strongly that this made the deployment and subsequent adjustments so much easier for our children.  They heard their dad pray over them almost every night, even though he was half a world away, and they knew that God watched over all six of us.  Our family and friends came around us to "hold up our arms", and I can't praise the Lord enough for blessing us so abundantly.

The completed paper chain that grew around our kitchen while Paul was gone!

I don't know what this new year holds for our family, but I know that God is living and active and present.  With much thanksgiving, we bless Him for caring for us in 2009 and look forward with expectancy to what He will do in 2010.  We are thankful for each one reading this greeting, and we pray that the Lord will make His name great in all of our lives for His own glory.

New Year's Greetings

Happy New Year!  Greetings to our family and friends in the name of Christ!

This has been a very difficult year for us, yet we have tasted the sweetness of the Lord like never before.  We praise Him for His goodness to us-- both in sending Christ and in taking care of our entire family.  We pray this greeting finds all of you well and experiencing the new mercies given daily by the Lord.

Paul with the kids at the airport on Memorial Day.

Paul was deployed to Iraq on Memorial Day, and the year has been one of intense loneliness, stress, and adjustment for our entire family.  Our church family has truly upheld us through this time.  Paul's aunt, Jessica, has also come regularly to help me despite having her own large family, and my own parents spent two weeks here around Thanksgiving, supporting and encouraging me immensely.  We are so thankful for all of them.

I approached this Christmas season very weary, yet I am constantly encouraged by the little things the Lord does to remind us that He is intimately acquainted with every detail of our lives.  I could write pages and pages about the ways He has shown Himself to be more than enough.  God has grown our marriage abundantly as we have had to rely solely on Him for comfort when our mate was so far away.  He has increased our friendship with each other in ways we never would have dreamed, and that is a very great blessing indeed.  

I am able to talk to Paul often and we e-mail regularly-- not all Army wives have such luxuries, and I am very thankful.  The children love to e-mail him as well, although the younger three dictate their message to me as I type, and then they spend much time punching in "x's" and "o's" themselves before clicking "send".  Paul always writes them back right away, and it is just precious.  Paul has also done a tremendous job of continuing to lead our family spiritually.  He videotapes daily devotions using a great resource based on the Westminster Shorter Catechism called Training Hearts, Teaching Minds by Starr Meade, and then he sends the tapes to me.  I play "Daddy's devotions" at night before the children go to bed.  Having Paul's continued leadership despite being so far away is a gift beyond description, both to the children and myself.

We are all thrilled to have Paul home for two weeks over Christmas and the New Year!  Please continue to pray for Paul as he serves the Lord in Iraq.  The days are long and lonely, and I know he misses us very much.  Cards and e-mail are a great gift to him.  Lord willing, he will be home the end of May 2009.  We do not know where the Army will send us next, so we are waiting and trusting that the Lord knows every detail yet to come.

Heidi and Isaac in September!

The children have done fairly well, although the stress of deployment has taken its toll at times. I am still homeschooling-- this year with three students!  I also have the joy of directing the adult choir at our church this year.  I always have visions of completed photo albums and completed sewing projects, but for now, we are plodding along by God's grace day by day.  The projects will just have to wait for another season of our lives.

Josiah-8 years old!

Josiah is now 8 and in the 3rd grade.  He has become an excellent swimmer this year and also spends much time curled up with a book.  He worked his way through some unabridged classic literature like Swiss Family Robinson and Treasure Island this past fall!

Our twinnies are 5!

Micah with a model truck he built!

Micah is 5 and is loving kindergarten!  He has also become a great swimmer!  He is very precise and affectionate, and loves K'nex and Legos especially!

Our "Curly Girly"!

Sarah is 5 and loves Kindergarten and swimming too.  She also took some gymnastics classes this year and is a great helper around the kitchen.  She is more of a free-spirit, dancing and singing all over the house!

Isaac at swimming lessons!

Isaac, our little laughter, is now 3 and LOVES to make us laugh!  He likes anything in the "potato chip and cracker" food group, and he is a real snugglebug!  I enjoy that a lot!

The kids and I at family camp!

The children and I spent three weeks on the road this last summer, covering 2600 miles, as we went to family camp at Scioto Hills Baptist Camp and then traveled on to Myrtle Beach to spend two weeks there with Paul's parents.  They were a tremendous encouragement and generously did everything they could to lighten my load and give us a nice vacation, despite Paul's absence.  We then had the opportunity to meet up with Paul in Virginia for a few days in early November when the Army sent him to America for a class.  The children are all great little travelers, and the Lord carried the five of us and Paul more than 15,000 miles total that week without a single problem-- yet another evidence of God's grace!

Just a few weeks ago, as I wandered around a store trying to gear up for Christmas shopping, I was struck by the thought that a thing far, far worse than living without Paul here for so many months would be living without Christ.  You are all very dear to us, and we pray that He will make His name very great in your life as we all plod on toward Heaven.   May Christ be more than enough for you now and throughout 2009!