A Final Hurrah for 2013!
It has been a long time, too long since I wrote anything on
this here blog. And now I am finding it really hard to sit down and write a
post as I have too much to share. So I am just going to dive in and start and
eventually I’ll find a way to get everything said. I think this year I will
challenge myself to sit down and write at least 2 posts a week. If I can
squeeze one in, I’ll be thankful, but I met someone a few weeks ago who also
blogs and she said she just schedules the writing time in and makes a point of
sitting down and putting her thoughts to paper (or screen as the case may be)
and I want to get into the same type of habit.
So bear with me and feel free to nag me a bit if I am already slacking
by mid-January J
We had a most amazing time with Darin’s folks. In one hour
they’ll be boarding a plane, heading back to Minnesota. It will be a long
journey for them and I hope they can sleep a bit as they’ll have to hit the ground
running with work and family obligations. Grandma Karen was with us for 6 weeks
and Grandpa Rick for 3. We are so thankful that they were willing to spend so
much time with us, especially over Christmas as they had to give up spending
time with a lot of other family and friends over the holiday season. I’ll write
more about our time with them and post pictures too.
My brother Josh and his wife Yoojin had their first baby on
the 28th of December. A little girl, Katelyn Dajung, which means
friendly according to the internet translation we found. Now we have 3 nieces
and 1 nephew that we have never met, all having been born right before we moved
or sometime after. We are hoping and praying that God will make a way for us to
journey back to the states to meet these 4 little ones and catch up with the
rest of our family and friends as well. We are tentatively planning a trip home
for June/July 2014!
Tyson and Jori are enjoying their school break. They both
finished their school years well. Tyson will be heading from 3rd
grade into 5th grade. We spent a lot of time talking with his
teacher, principal, each other and also with Tyson and feel that skipping a
grade will help him both academically and socially. Tyson still struggles to
fit in and hasn’t quite found his place. Please pray for him as his school year
starts on the 15th of January. Jori flew through 2nd
grade and will soon be a big third grader. Where Tyson struggles to find his
way in social situations, Jori flourishes. She makes friends at school, at the
mall, on the playground, wherever we go. Sometimes our little miss can be a bit
too full of herself, so please pray that she will show love and kindness to
everyone and remember that her inward beauty is of much greater value than her
outward appearance.
We are still settling into our new house. We need to get
some cupboards/closets soon so we can move stuff off of the floor and into a
proper storage spot. I know Darin would like his shirts to reside somewhere
other than a clothes basket at some point, but we have learned to be flexible
over the last 2 ½ years! Overall, we are really enjoying our new digs, but I am
still trying to figure out a balance between being on our own and still being involved
with the day to day managing of the main house. I think this will become a bit
easier once our kids are back in school and we return to a more “normal”
routine.
We have a pet! This is really big news because although I
LOVED having pets as a child and always swore I’d grow up to have a house full
of animals, these feelings kind of fizzled away once I was in charge of
cleaning my own house and taking care of two children. However, we were given
the opportunity to take over ownership of a bird, a budgie or parakeet if you
will. We have christened this bird Perry the Parakeet (named after Perry the
Platypus from the show Phineas and Ferb). We hope to have a lesson on
wing-clipping this week and then I will start teaching the kids the proper way
to hold a bird. Fun times for the whole family, minus Darin who is still saying
he never agreed to have the bird in the first place. Poor Darin.
Tomorrow is the first day of a new year. If it is anything
like 2013, we will be thrilled. We have seen the power and provision of God
again and again this year. We have learned a lot about each other and ourselves.
We have met wonderful people, traveled to amazing places and been reminded over
and over again of how truly blessed we are.
Happy New Year to you all. You’ll be hearing from me again soon…
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