I remember how therapeutic is always was for me to blog my thoughts. I remember feeling like it was a safe place for me to post pictures of our every day life. I shared both good and bad in hopes of one day being able to have a good catalog of our life as a family. Not being a scrapbooker made this an easy alternative for me. Unfortunately, somewhere in the midst of Tim's separation from our family 2 years ago during his military training, my blog was lost. I have started and stopped blogging different posts I don't even know how many times since then. I literally have an entire page of "drafts" each one starting with "its been awhile" or something along those lines. That being said, I hope this post ends with an official "publish" button pushed! 2016 was one of our hardest years as a family yet. I wish I could have blogged during some of the really hard moments. For the few of you that actually read this, I wish even more that I could sit down with you on the couch and sip hot chocolate together and share how God has worked. It really is impossible to share it all here. I tried to write a Christmas letter this year and kept things as positive as possible but decided not to send it. However, I will post it here for those of you interested in reading it. Tim and I are both incredibly glad to put 2016 behind us and we look forward to 2017 with anticipation that it will be a better year with hopefully not as painful growth. :P If I could raise a toast with you right now, I would simply say "to new beginnings!"
Dear Friends and Family,
Greetings to you and your family this Christmas season! We pray our letter finds you and your family healthy and filled with joy as we near the celebration of our Savior’s birth!
We hesitate to even try to write a letter this year. We have said it several times, but 2016 will go down in history as one of our hardest years as a family yet. There is no way we can adequately begin to go in to detail about all that has happened and all that we have experienced this year, but we pray that by the end of our letter, you too can see God’s gracious hand in our lives and be encouraged about the work He is doing in our hearts!
On January 27th, Tim’s mom unexpectedly went home to be with the Lord. Though we have no doubt about where she is now, her absence is still painful and leaves a hole that can never be filled. The change in family dynamics has been extremely hard on the entire family and healing is still taking place in our hearts. Sherry’s death makes no sense to us, but we can see and truly feel that God had a plan by taking her before any of us were ready and we rest knowing that He is still good. We know He is using it to help us recognize things in our hearts that we are not sure we would have seen had Sherry stayed with us.
Also in January and February, we felt a tug from the Lord to leave the church we had been a part of our entire married life, 11 1/2 years. There were many events that took place that made us greatly question the leadership of the church and the lack of vision they had for future growth and development of believers. We also had strong desires to have people to share life with, especially since we don’t have any family near us, and that church was not sharing that same desire. We simply were not able to grow and be challenged in our faith at that church and left after writing a letter of explanation to the elders and pastor. Unfortunately, our leaving has caused friendships to be severed and to say our letter was received poorly would be an understatement. This has caused us much heartache and we have shed many tears over “friends” we’ve lost. However, we have been attending another church in the area whose very mission statement is “Sharing life together” and upon the first week of us attending were invited over to the pastor’s house where we heard firsthand the history of the church, the vision, the future plans and goals, and basically, more than we could have ever asked for upon a first visit to a church. We decided that we would attend until we felt led to visit other churches and so far, we have not felt any tugging to leave. We attended a membership class back in October so we could hear more specifically the doctrine that the church holds dear, but we have not yet committed to membership at this time. We are involved in a life group that meets weekly and we cherish the new friendships we are developing. We are so thankful that God worked in the way He did to lead us away from our old church because we have been nothing but encouraged each week that we attend our new church. Again, God is good!
Through all of the challenges this year, God has been so gracious to allow the kids to go through it with ease. They continue to be a joy to our hearts! They keep us on our toes and help to maintain our humility, especially in public.
Tyler, age 7, is a 2nd grader this year. He continues to enjoy sports and when asked which one is his favorite, its always the one he is currently playing. Baseball, soccer, and basketball definitely keep him busy all year round! He is excelling in school and is a mostly straight A student. If he could just skip art class, he’d be set. :) He is in his third year as a Sparky in Awana and is almost finished with all of the books. After having 7+ episodes of strep throat last year, he underwent a tonsillectomy in August. So far, it has proven to be beneficial for him and he has been fairly healthy so far this year. When asked what one of his favorite memories was this year, it was getting our puppy, Molly, back in August.
Megan, age 6, is excelling in Kindergarten and has turned out to be quite the reader! She has already finished all of the sight words she is required to learn for the entire year and is now working on bonus words. She is our little artist and is often found coloring, drawing, or creating. She is still enjoying ballet and also played her first year of tball and soccer. Though we probably won’t encourage her to ever play those sports again (as she enjoyed rolling in the dirt, making dirt snow angles in the tball field, playing in the grass, and sitting during soccer games) we are glad she was willing to push herself and persevere through the seasons. She too had her tonsils and adenoids taken out in August after repeat strep infections and we are thankful that it also seems to have helped her.
Morgan, age 4, is in her second year of preschool this year and continues to be our little drama queen. She is often found playing dress up, dancing, or singing at the top of her lungs. Shannon often says that Morgan lives in a musical. She also enjoys playing with her princesses and manages to get her little brother in on the fun most days. In April, she learned how to swim during some intense swimming lessons and is now become our little fish in the water! She can do flips and turns with ease! Though it's easy for her to get lost in the middle sometimes, her smile lights up her entire face and we are so proud to be her parents. We can’t wait to see how much she learns and grows this year!
Ryan, age 3, is stuck at home with Daddy and Mommy every day but we are pretty sure he enjoys being the “only” child, even if it is only for a few hours a day. After his super challenging year last year, health wise, we are praising the Lord for a completely normal bill of health this year! He too learned how to swim in April at the same time as Morgan and its been such a relief to have all of our children safe around the water. We anticipate that Ryan will start preschool next year, but for now, we are enjoying watching him ride his bike, play with his cars and trucks, and just being a pretty cute little adventurous boy at home with us.
As a family, we started our own little chicken raising, egg selling business back in April. We now have 18 chickens that give us and several other families delicious eggs to enjoy each day. Tyler and Megan usually handle a lot of the egg collecting, washing, and delivering, but each member of the family definitely does their own work to keep the chickens happy and laying. April keeps coming up in this letter, but it was a big month for us! Shannon quit her job as a nurse after 10 years at the children's hospital. She also closed the doors on her photography business so she could focus all of her attention on her home and family. Tim was also given a promotion in April to a supervisor position, still with PSA Airlines. He enjoyed the work, however, working second shift proved to be too challenging for our family, especially in light of so many things pulling us down, and so he will be stepping back down to a maintenance controller position in January. Tim also continues to serve in the Air Force Reserves one weekend a month in an Intel squadron.
If we were to come up with a word to describe 2016, it would probably be somewhere between “hard” and “gracious.” Though our trials sometimes simply feel hard and impossible to get through, God has been gracious to us to bring us through the stormy times so that we can grow and become the man, woman, and children He wants each of us to be. We have no doubts that God has something in store for us and our future and we are excited to see Him write our story.
Greetings to you and your family this Christmas season! We pray our letter finds you and your family healthy and filled with joy as we near the celebration of our Savior’s birth!
We hesitate to even try to write a letter this year. We have said it several times, but 2016 will go down in history as one of our hardest years as a family yet. There is no way we can adequately begin to go in to detail about all that has happened and all that we have experienced this year, but we pray that by the end of our letter, you too can see God’s gracious hand in our lives and be encouraged about the work He is doing in our hearts!
On January 27th, Tim’s mom unexpectedly went home to be with the Lord. Though we have no doubt about where she is now, her absence is still painful and leaves a hole that can never be filled. The change in family dynamics has been extremely hard on the entire family and healing is still taking place in our hearts. Sherry’s death makes no sense to us, but we can see and truly feel that God had a plan by taking her before any of us were ready and we rest knowing that He is still good. We know He is using it to help us recognize things in our hearts that we are not sure we would have seen had Sherry stayed with us.
Also in January and February, we felt a tug from the Lord to leave the church we had been a part of our entire married life, 11 1/2 years. There were many events that took place that made us greatly question the leadership of the church and the lack of vision they had for future growth and development of believers. We also had strong desires to have people to share life with, especially since we don’t have any family near us, and that church was not sharing that same desire. We simply were not able to grow and be challenged in our faith at that church and left after writing a letter of explanation to the elders and pastor. Unfortunately, our leaving has caused friendships to be severed and to say our letter was received poorly would be an understatement. This has caused us much heartache and we have shed many tears over “friends” we’ve lost. However, we have been attending another church in the area whose very mission statement is “Sharing life together” and upon the first week of us attending were invited over to the pastor’s house where we heard firsthand the history of the church, the vision, the future plans and goals, and basically, more than we could have ever asked for upon a first visit to a church. We decided that we would attend until we felt led to visit other churches and so far, we have not felt any tugging to leave. We attended a membership class back in October so we could hear more specifically the doctrine that the church holds dear, but we have not yet committed to membership at this time. We are involved in a life group that meets weekly and we cherish the new friendships we are developing. We are so thankful that God worked in the way He did to lead us away from our old church because we have been nothing but encouraged each week that we attend our new church. Again, God is good!
Through all of the challenges this year, God has been so gracious to allow the kids to go through it with ease. They continue to be a joy to our hearts! They keep us on our toes and help to maintain our humility, especially in public.
Tyler, age 7, is a 2nd grader this year. He continues to enjoy sports and when asked which one is his favorite, its always the one he is currently playing. Baseball, soccer, and basketball definitely keep him busy all year round! He is excelling in school and is a mostly straight A student. If he could just skip art class, he’d be set. :) He is in his third year as a Sparky in Awana and is almost finished with all of the books. After having 7+ episodes of strep throat last year, he underwent a tonsillectomy in August. So far, it has proven to be beneficial for him and he has been fairly healthy so far this year. When asked what one of his favorite memories was this year, it was getting our puppy, Molly, back in August.
Megan, age 6, is excelling in Kindergarten and has turned out to be quite the reader! She has already finished all of the sight words she is required to learn for the entire year and is now working on bonus words. She is our little artist and is often found coloring, drawing, or creating. She is still enjoying ballet and also played her first year of tball and soccer. Though we probably won’t encourage her to ever play those sports again (as she enjoyed rolling in the dirt, making dirt snow angles in the tball field, playing in the grass, and sitting during soccer games) we are glad she was willing to push herself and persevere through the seasons. She too had her tonsils and adenoids taken out in August after repeat strep infections and we are thankful that it also seems to have helped her.
Morgan, age 4, is in her second year of preschool this year and continues to be our little drama queen. She is often found playing dress up, dancing, or singing at the top of her lungs. Shannon often says that Morgan lives in a musical. She also enjoys playing with her princesses and manages to get her little brother in on the fun most days. In April, she learned how to swim during some intense swimming lessons and is now become our little fish in the water! She can do flips and turns with ease! Though it's easy for her to get lost in the middle sometimes, her smile lights up her entire face and we are so proud to be her parents. We can’t wait to see how much she learns and grows this year!
Ryan, age 3, is stuck at home with Daddy and Mommy every day but we are pretty sure he enjoys being the “only” child, even if it is only for a few hours a day. After his super challenging year last year, health wise, we are praising the Lord for a completely normal bill of health this year! He too learned how to swim in April at the same time as Morgan and its been such a relief to have all of our children safe around the water. We anticipate that Ryan will start preschool next year, but for now, we are enjoying watching him ride his bike, play with his cars and trucks, and just being a pretty cute little adventurous boy at home with us.
As a family, we started our own little chicken raising, egg selling business back in April. We now have 18 chickens that give us and several other families delicious eggs to enjoy each day. Tyler and Megan usually handle a lot of the egg collecting, washing, and delivering, but each member of the family definitely does their own work to keep the chickens happy and laying. April keeps coming up in this letter, but it was a big month for us! Shannon quit her job as a nurse after 10 years at the children's hospital. She also closed the doors on her photography business so she could focus all of her attention on her home and family. Tim was also given a promotion in April to a supervisor position, still with PSA Airlines. He enjoyed the work, however, working second shift proved to be too challenging for our family, especially in light of so many things pulling us down, and so he will be stepping back down to a maintenance controller position in January. Tim also continues to serve in the Air Force Reserves one weekend a month in an Intel squadron.
If we were to come up with a word to describe 2016, it would probably be somewhere between “hard” and “gracious.” Though our trials sometimes simply feel hard and impossible to get through, God has been gracious to us to bring us through the stormy times so that we can grow and become the man, woman, and children He wants each of us to be. We have no doubts that God has something in store for us and our future and we are excited to see Him write our story.
Because of His grace,
Tim, Shannon, Tyler, Megan, Morgan, and Ryan
