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!