Our Christmas Letter

So, our printer has been giving us fits lately! It ran out of ink and also kept having paper jams and unknown errors. We put in new ink but it printed very fuzzy! We couldn't figure out how to fix this or buy a new printer before we needed to send out our Christmas letters so we just decided to put the letter on my blog. Hope you don't mind. I guess this is more environmentally friendly. :) Enjoy!

Ps. It is my plan to post a bunch of pictures from the last several months and to start posting blogs more regularly after the new year.

Beautiful Blessings of 2013

God has blessed us so much this year. One of the biggest blessings this year has been the surprise news of another little one joining our family, biologically! And... it’s a girl! She’s due April 4, 2014.

Our boys bring us great delight. Wesley Joseph has such contagious laughter, a wild imagination and an inquisitive nature, is extra-extroverted, has boundless energy and an iron will. He loves to make all kinds of noise, talk, have people over, plan parties, create new train track configurations, and do anything that requires running, jumping, hiding, climbing, throwing, swinging and pedaling. Lately, we’ve had wonderful conversations about Jesus, the gospel, God, sin, and the Bible. What a blessing!

David Elliot’s personality has blossomed. He’s a laid-back, quiet, stubborn thinker - a little shy, but terribly cuddly and sweet. He loves his blankies and thumb, music, puzzles, books, trains, cars, animals, stacking blocks, hiding things, lining things up in perfect rows including his peas and noodles, and stuffing small things into other small things. He mostly does his own thing but also enjoys people and still smiles with a sparkle in his eyes. 

Last year, God gave Melanie a desire to gather women from church for fellowship together and mutual encouragement. This has resulted in a few small gatherings for prayer and book discussions (In the Land of Blue Burqas and Battling Unbelief) which she plans to continue. Lately she’s really been especially burdened for young moms and is praying for direction in that area. Along with this, God has rekindled in her a passion for children’s development and education and has been reading many books, blogs and articles on these topics. She also still enjoys doing crafty things and preparing whole, unprocessed food and recipes.

Eric has continued to work as a mechanical engineer at Black & Veatch, and achieved his first promotion!  Along with this 8-5 job he continued to serve as a pastor/elder at Cross Fellowship Church.  It has been greatly challenging and rewarding for him to serve in this role; both from the standpoint of developing an organization together with others that previously didn’t exist, and most greatly in knitting our lives together with our brothers and sisters at CFC.  In his free time (does that exist any more?) he worked on projects around the house, designed and built the boy’s playground (with a lot of help from his dad!), fixed a few things on his new truck (1997 F150 4x4 manual transmission...yea baby!), and squeezed in a few good books and movies.

We enrolled Wesley in a 3 year old class in a homeschool co-op that meets once a week and Melanie teaches part of this class. This co-op gives Wes more social interaction that he loves; Melanie gets a creative outlet for teaching.  Though it makes for an exhausting day, it has been a huge blessing to her because of the parenting wisdom she’s gleaned from all the more experienced moms she regularly gets to interact with there. 

This year has not brought much outward turmoil or struggle, other than being more busy than we can handle sometimes, but we’ve faced some definite inward challenges that have pushed us beyond ourselves. With the challenges that parenting brings and the responsibilities of work and church planting combined, we are often confronted with our own sin. Time and again we’ve been reminded of God’s beautiful grace that sent Jesus to take away the guilt and punishment of our sin and of His assurance that He loves us and doesn’t want us to stay like we are. We’ve also been reminded through other people’s suffering of how big God is, how unjust is the sin in our world that causes pain and suffering, how precious life and family and friends are, how much we waste on worthless things and bad attitudes, and how beautiful and strong is the body of Christ far and near. All these things that come to our lives are for a reason, pleasant or unpleasant, to draw us to the Lord, to push us to rely less on ourselves and make us more like Him. Through these truths God has taught us greater joy and satisfaction in Him alone, to be worshipful throughout the day, to seek out how He’s working knowing that each day is purposeful for Him and His glory. This is so, even in what seems the mundane things of life. All of these things are a great blessing indeed! 

2013 Highlights

Winter - Eric traveled to the middle of the Indian Ocean for work and also had lots of time for snorkeling, a 5k run, golfing and eating fresh fish while Melanie and her sister shoveled out loads of snow as two huge snow storms passed through Kansas in four days. We gave a facelift to our unfinished basement to give the boys a space to run around in during the long, frigid winter months. What a blessing!!!!!!

Spring - Eric passed his Professional Engineering exam!!! Hurray!  Melanie was delightfully involved with a few others in choosing a new children’s curriculum for our church. We both thoroughly enjoyed doing premarital counseling with another couple and learned a lot about ourselves and each other in the process! What Did You Expect is the best marriage book ever! 

Summer (VERY BUSY!)

• We were again involved in another huge neighborhood garage sale with our church. 
• Our church hosted a backyard Bible club for the first time. Great fun! 
• After several weeks of physical therapy to push him along and correct a very awkward gate, David learned to walk! 
• Melanie’s parents visited. We learned that to give Wes a regular size hot fudge Sunday is not a good idea. 
• On Mel’s big 4-0 birthday, we found out we are going to have another baby!

- Melanie visited a dear friend in Oklahoma

• We trekked across America to GA and Florida to visit family and friends and have a little vacation at the beach. Wesley enjoyed body surfing and David just mostly wanted to walk up and down the beach - once he learned to walk, he didn’t want to stop!  
• The boys enjoyed many days going for walks, riding tricycles and playing on their new swing set.
• Went family camping in the backyard for the first time!  Wes and Eric roasted marshmallows over the Coleman!

Fall - Eric joined a men’s bible study through work.  Melanie and the boys started teaching/attending the homeschool co-op. Wesley learned to ride a bike (with training wheels). Melanie discovered and devoured the parenting book Don’t Make Me Count to Three that has been a huge help in biblically training our boys to love, be kind, share, obey and be respectful. We are so thankful to have found this very practical jewel!

Prayer Points - 

• Big picture direction for the short and long term future
• Better time management skills and a oneness in prioritization
• A safe and easier pregnancy, i.e, no bed rest!