Our Spot: 2007

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Our Year in Review

As we wind down from our Christmas celebrations, we have been looking back over an amazing year for our family! I normally write in a journal around major holidays and events, but I thought I would type it out here and print it for our journal so that we can share with all of you - especially those of you that we have not seen as much as we would have liked!

As we started 2007, we were in the middle of the process of becoming licensed foster parents. This was a process that was sometimes tedious, sometimes stagnant and sometimes painful (literally!). We were also finishing up W's kindergarten year homeschooling as just generally watching K grow from our little toddler to a little girly-girl. B was still commuting many miles to his job that left us wondering if there would be a job about every 6 months as contract renewals were discussed.

Around the middle of the year, everything happened at once! W had his kindergarten graduation, our licensing process was finally complete and we actually welcomed our first baby the day after Memorial Day. Just a couple of short weeks later, B accepted a job in an industry he had previously worked in and started a new job without the constant uncertainty of contract renewals. His work days seem so much longer (especially to me!) since he is not returning home until about 6 each day. At his old job he left well before we were awake and returned by 4. His commute has shortened a small bit - although in exactly the opposite direction. We do get to have breakfast with him most mornings before we start our busy day here. The new job made it impossible for him to go on the mission trip to Venezuela that he had been preparing for since November, but we are certain that all of the timing was for a reason. He is now embarking on a new adventure as the head basketball coach for the W's basketball team "The Rockets" for the upcoming basketball season.

We did some traveling during the year, including a trip to the beach with Nan & Pop and a trip to Atlanta in August. The kids loved Atlanta - even more than Disney World they said! The summer was filled with trips to our local amusement park and the pool in a nearby neighborhood.

W had a really big year. He played in his first basketball, baseball and football games - making his first goal, homerun and touchdown - all in one year! He also attended his first Major League Baseball game and his first college football game. He learned to swim very well - even jumping off the diving board and swimming to the side in the deep end of the pool. His love for all things sports related is sometimes overwhelming to me. K and I frequently have to escape for "girl time" as she calls it. He is doing so well in school in spite of my sometimes feeling inadequate for the task of being his primary teacher. He is very happy homeschooling and even begged us not to send him to school next year when we were considering a private school for him. He has memorized more Bible verses that I can count and enjoys Bible Time each morning when we read his Bible together before we start school. I can really see the fruit of this in his generous spirit. We were so proud of him when he decided on his own to forgo birthday gifts for himself at his birthday party and instead collected toys and other items to fill 7 boxes for Operation Christmas Child to be sent to children all over the world. He faithfully prayed for children we knew who faced illnesses during the year and helped to serve children in a housing project downtown with a Christmas party just for them. He is such a help to me around the house and does his weekly job of collecting trash from trash cans around the house, putting away his laundry, feeding the cat and occasionally vaccuming. He is a great help when we have babies.

K has seemed to grow up before our eyes in the past year. She is so tall and so smart that we sometimes forget that she only just turned 4. She taught herself to write - which was quite a surprise to me. She also seems to be learning to read by just being read to, which is a huge blessing. It is hard to believe that she won't even go to kindergarten for another year and a half. She started ballet this fall and absolutely loves it. It is so much fun to peek in her classroom and watch her. She loves her friends and church and made a wonderful new friend at the pool. She is so loving and sweet - it is hard to be annoyed with her when she jumps in the bed with us at 6AM each morning (just about 30 minutes before the alarm clock goes off) giving hugs and kisses like she hasn't seen us in years. The word to describe her is probably passionate. She is as fierce with her wrath as she is generous with her love - and her poor brother is usually the object of that wrath. She has several life philosophies that have developed this year that have cracked us up - "only cool dudes can go to Wall Street - not cool like air, cool like nice clothes". Also "if you are bad and you are sorry, Santa will still bring you presents, but if you are not sorry - no presents - and I was sorry that I pulled my brothers hair and made him cry for no reason".

As for me, I am working about 40 hours a month on a great client that allows me to work from home and teaching Becker a few Saturdays a year. With work, homeschooling, teaching our 4 year old class on Sundays with B and a Wednesday night class at church, keeping everyone here clean, clothed and fed, and caring for the occasional baby (we had 3 this year for a total of 6 weeks) we thought we needed a little something else just to keep us busy. So, we are now planning to put our house on the market in a couple of weeks. We hope to move a little closer to where B works to get his commute down from almost 2 hours a day to less than an hour. I am not sure I am up for the task of keeping the house ready for showings at a moment's notice, but I will do my best and we will see what happens.

We are praying for another year that is peaceful and full of new adventures. We hope that our home (wherever it is) will be filled with laughter and joy. The kids are always looking forward to a new baby coming and K really wants a girl for a change. They were so blessed to be able to celebrate the holidays with 2 Great -Grandmothers, a Great -Grandfather, 3 Grandmothers, 2 Grandfathers and numbers great aunts, great uncles, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. We are praying that all of our family with continue on in good health for the coming year.

W's 2008 Baseball Schedule