Greetings to you all!

It’s time once again for our annual Christmas letter. I hate following the crowd on this one, but there are so many that are so busy; this is pretty much the only time of year we’re able to connect!

Life for the Kuiper clan this year has been anything but easy. We’ve tried to think of it more as an “adventure” of sorts—always looking to see what God was going to do next (though most of the time we really couldn’t see). In January, we closed the door on our condo in Colorado Springs, started up the moving van and headed to Denver to live with my parents. We were sad to leave, but we knew that we had to do it. Between then and now we’ve been through a miscarriage in June at 9 weeks, two job losses for Ben within a month of each other, almost three months without health insurance, as well as some other major financial setbacks. Now I stand here twelve months later in awe of God’s sovereignty and grace. Right in the middle of everything, when we had pretty much been stripped of everything we had, God began to show us the promises He had in store for us—promises of blessing and restoration. We had nothing else, so we held on for dear life and let Him work out His plan. At the end of October, after a rather slow and discouraging period of unemployment, Ben was offered a 1-year contract-to-hire position with Barclays Bank—get this—IN COLORADO SPRINGS!!! Barclays is one of Britain’s largest banks, and is the 4th largest bank in the world! They have an office of about 400 people in Colorado Springs, and they’ve contracted him to do maintenance programming on some of their systems (which is what he did for a year an a half before the lay-offs). Looks like the days of working for tiny start-up companies just might be over! And since the contracting firm who hired him is paying mileage, the 120 mile a day round trip won’t have any impact on our budget—talk about a blessing! And if God wills, we’ll be moving back to Colorado Springs sometime at the end of next year!

Otherwise, we’ve all been doing well. Adriana turned two years old on December 2nd, though her “terrible two’s” started sometime this summer. She loves to count to ten, sing her ABCs and read books with Daddy. She also enjoys trying to ride Rosie like a horse, but we try to discourage that. She’s definitely a challenge, but her sweet smile and loving spirit make it all worth it.

I’ve been keeping busy trying to make our little space in the basement look somewhat like home. And when I’m not cleaning, doing laundry or chasing after Adri, I’m in front of my MacBook working on my latest addiction—digital scrapbooking! It’s less expensive than traditional scrapping, and MUCH lessmessy—I’m ALL for that! I even designed our Christmas cards this year! Hopefully soon I’ll be ableto post some of my pages on my blog or our website.

I leave you all with this verse from Zephaniah. Someone prayed this verse over Ben and I earlier this year and it was a great encouragement. It is our prayer and blessing for each one of you.

The LORD your God is with you,
He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
He will quiet you with his love,
He will rejoice over you with singing."

Zephaniah 3:17

Love to all,
Ben, Brandi & Adriana

Our Family Christmas Letter

Just incase you just can't wait to get our letter in the mail (or if I don't have your address or ran out of money for stamps...), here it is!


Greetings to you all!

As you can see, I’m getting our Christmas letter out AT CHRISTMAS this time instead of three months from now like last year. I think this year was just as eventful as last year, but without all the medical complications—and definitely less expensive. Our year started out learning how to live with a newborn, and it’s ending with us learning how to live with a toddler! We just celebrated Adriana’s 1st birthday yesterday with my family here in Denver and will celebrate with Ben’s family next Sunday in Colorado Springs. It’s been amazing watching her grow and learn. She’s blowing kisses and giving hugs and will be walking before we know it! We’ve got a few doctors to see in the next couple of months, and I’m REALLY not looking forward to more Clomid, but we definitely can’t wait to have another one!

We had a bit of a rough start at the beginning. Ben was laid off from his job at the end of February. It was a real faith building experience for both of us. But as always, God was more than faithful, and May 1st he was hired as a programmer at Area 101, a software company in South Denver at an even higher rate of pay than he was making before. The job has its challenges, but he’s taking every one of them head-on and thoroughly enjoying it.

This year also brought a lot of travel. In May Adriana and I and my parents drove to Idaho to attend my oldest niece Risa’s graduation. Then in October while Ben went to Washington DC on a business trip to do software training at World Bank, Adriana and I flew to the United Kingdom to see my friend Kim. We were there for two weeks and tried to see everything we possibly could in that time. We spent three days in Edinburgh, Scotland, two days in Stratford-upon-Avon (the birthplace of Shakespeare), spent a day touring the city of London, and then we took a day trip to Leeds, Dover, Canterbury and then a short river cruise up the Thames. I think the only time Adri cried during the whole trip was when we took a picture with one of the Beefeaters (guards) at the Tower of London. For some reason she didn’t like his hat. If he took it off, she stopped crying, but the second he put it back on she would start all over again. All in all, it was an experience I won’t ever forget!

November and December have been spent getting our belongings packed up and ready to move into storage. We decided earlier this summer that with the price of gasoline and Ben’s 120 mile-a-day commute to and from work, we needed to bite the bullet and move to Denver. We’re still waiting on our condo to rent so that we can be done with our lease, but if not, it’s up at the end of January, so even then it won’t be long before everything is living in the same city. Until then, my parents are enjoying having granddaughter number five with them 24/7.

Love and blessings to you all!

We had family pictures taken at Sears on Saturday, and I just thought I'd post a few of my favorites.


Ben, Brandi & Adriana


Just Ben & Brandi


Adriana in her Christmas dress. We bought this dress the day we found out we were having a girl. And believe it or not, Sears didn't put this portrait together—I did! Yes, I love being a Photoshop guru *grin*

Check Out Brand's Blog!

Brandi and Adri are currently in the UK for two weeks. Click here to read all about their adventures!!

We're all moved!!

Okay, well KIND OF moved. We are now officially living in Denver (with my parents), but the majority of our things still reside at our condo in Colorado Springs. Adri's crib is all set up, and Ben and I will be driving to CS tomorrow morning to load up our bed and a few odds and ends that I wasn't able stuff in the back of my Dad's truck today. Then I'll drive to the Springs twice a week to finish packing everything up and getting it ready for storage. Our email addresses will be the same, but our snail mail address is as follows:

4772 S Newton St.
Littleton, CO 80123

I'm relieved to finally be here, because my parents' health has been steadily going downhill, and they could really use some in-house help. Not to mention the fact that my sister (she's a nurse and is managing their medical care, running errands, etc.) could use a break too!!

The month of October is going to be crazy for us both. Ben and Adriana and I all leave DIA on October 16th--Ben to D.C. on a 3 day business trip, and Adri and I to visit my best friend in London for two weeks!!! I'll try to post some pictures while I'm there.

I must needs get back to my unpacking. Love to you all!

Ben & Brandi Are Moving!

Because Ben's job is in Denver, we are finally making the move from colorado Springs to Denver. We're not going to be able to get out of our lease (which isn't up until the end of January), so rather than make a 5 day a week commute to work, we're going to move the majority of our belongings (what we need to live for the next 6-9 months) to my parents' house in Littleton, and then I'll come down to Colorado Springs twice a week to get the rest of our stuff packed and ready to put into storage until we get our debt paid off and find a house of our own. We'll be making the temporary move at the end of September (which will save us about $150 a month), and then make the move permanent at the end of January when our lease is up (which will save us about $300 a month!!!!). We'll post our new address in January when our current one is no longer...uh...current ;-)

Her First Cold

Well, Adriana is on the tail end of her first cold. Por thing—a 100.8 degree temperature in the middle of summer!! I can't believe how good she was, though! There was only one night that she didn't sleep well, and that was the night her first tooth broke through too. The Ora-gel helped her tooth, but it didn't help her stuffy nose and cough. So after a few days on Dimeatapp and benedryl, she seems to be a much happier baby. Her appetite still has much to be desired, but she's at least taking more than five ounces twice a day.... And now we know officially that benedryl makes her sleepy, so we will be able to use it on our trip to the UK in October.

I was hoping to head home tomorrow. I still might, but I'll be coming back down toward the end of the week for a funeral. We got word Sunday morning that my cousin, Doug Moseley, died of a massive heart attack Saturday. No one knew that he even had heart trouble, so it was even more of a shock. Though when we do head home, it will be to start packing up the house to get ready to move. My parents both said they were okay with us moving in toward the end up September. We won't be able to get out of our lease, but even so, we'll still be able to save $400 a month by moving in September. Then I'll just go down to the Springs a day or two a week and work on packing until our lease is up at the end of January. By then, I should have everything packed and cleanded and ready to move to the storage unit.