December 22, 2006

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

Adia Faith arrived at the beginning of this year and what a blessing she is. After a lot of walking and some wheelchair lifting, she arrived 2 weeks earlier than her due date. Sometimes I think we should have named this little girl JOY because she’s full of it and she’s brought so much of it into our lives. We were voting for a boy but when I saw the ultra sound, I immediately fell in love with her. God has sure been good to us.

Hope turned 4 earlier this month and has she ever grown up since Landis started school. She’s becoming a big helper, making her and Grace’s beds, putting her folded clothes away and putting clean silverware away. She’s a hearty eater and has been very, very healthy. Hope is our most affectionate child and although she doesn’t know it, she’s teaching me about unrestrained and unreserved love and affection.

Landis is a handsome and clever 6-year-old. He’s busy reading, writing, adding and subtracting and he loves school. Landis helps me the most at this point and I’m so grateful for him. He puts dishes away, moves Grace, vacuums, dusts, makes his bed and folds his own clothes. He’ll make some little girl a very handy husband some day. Just kidding and don’t worry, he’s very good at running around outdoors through the grass, mud and stones, climbing trees, catching bugs and toads, fishing, pounding nails and jumping from high elevations…he’s all boy!

Grace is doing very well in school. That wasn’t the case in October and November. She was getting very frustrated because the communication techniques she was learning at Vanderbilt were a little different from what they were practicing at school. So Grace and I, the Special Ed teacher, and the speech therapist from school, all went to Vandy for an appointment with the speech therapist there so that everyone could get on the same page. Grace has been happy about going to school ever since. She's getting good grades again and is cooperative. As a matter of fact, following the Vandy appointment, the teacher warned me that Grace’s spelling words for the week were very difficult. Grace also had a Social Studies test that same week. She scored 90% on both tests AND she frequently scores 100% in math. That’s my girl!

Bobby is still working for Three Rivers Contracting and is looking ahead to a good year for singing, his passion. As much as Bobby has been gone from home with singing, activities at church and his day job, God has always made sure he was home for the birth of the children. He impressed me so when Faith was born. As labor intensified, he methodically gathered the things we needed as if he’d done it 100 times. He joked about knowing exactly what he was doing. I thank God for this man He brought me to. He’s the most patient, gentle and kind man I’ve ever known and I’m slowly but surely learning how to love him.

I had a hard time getting started with this letter. After reading all of the wonderful letters coming in the mailbox and email inbox about how wonderful everyone’s lives are and how it sounds like they have it all together, I thought, "Nobody wants to read my letter. Besides, it’s not that interesting." But once I got started I found myself sitting up straighter and getting excited about what I was writing. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you everything or I’d be up all night writing and that would make me a lousy mom the next day. And, fortunately, for you, I’ve condensed everything to one page. We’re very grateful and when you stop to think about your life and what God has done, you realize no person and no event is insignificant. I’m always amazed at how He weaves our lives together causing our paths to cross at the appointed time in order to bless and encourage each other. God’s goodness and mercy follows hard after me every day and I haven’t even begun to fathom just how blessed I really am to know Him!

My hearts’ desire for 2007 is to walk closer to the Father in order to be a better friend, mother and wife. But most of all to be a better witness of the love of Jesus. I’ll be praying this next year for you and me that our passion for the lost would become fervent, that our hunger for the things of God would abound and that our faith would rise to a new level so that we would expect to see His miracle-working power manifested in our lives.