The day I got married, one of my closest friends looked me in the eye and said "God has many wild and wonderful things ahead for you and Jeremy."

Being called mom by 7 kids is definitely wild. Each day I look for the wonder in it all...and give thanks.

Partnering with my husband in life, parenting, work and serving is definitely wonderful. He is my favorite.



Monday, February 1, 2016

Christmas letter a little late

Most years of my married life I have sent out a Christmas letter or poem or something that hopefully let's you know what's up with us without sounding boastful or boring. And since I've had a blog, I usually post it here too.  I let all of December and January slip by without taking the time so here's what's up with us for 2015:


I started a new kind of list not too long ago.  Inspired by Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts, I began naming gifts in each day—big and small—and giving thanks.  Here are a few I will share with you.

Jeremy and I sharing 20 years of marriage.  All the “remember when…” moments, the laughs, the struggles, the victories, the changes.  I don’t want to take for granted our days, our life together.  He is my favorite.

Katerin getting her driver’s license.  What is amazing about this gift is not how she can help drive her siblings to activities, although that is AWESOME, but how she completed the online class totally independently after learning English only the year before.

Emily making new friends in school.  You may not realize how hard this has been for her over the years.  But this year Emily has grown A LOT -- becoming more confident to be herself and to open up to others.

Marian donating 11 inches of her haircutting off 11 inches of her own hair!  What you may not know is that Marian values her hair maybe more than anything.  What I love about this gift is how this outward thing shows a beautiful inward transformation.

Wesley sharing all kinds of sports facts with me.  As I listen I am amazed that he thinks I care about these things and that I should know them.  I love how he offers these facts about any sport and my response of “uh huh” is acceptable.

Omar showing his creativity.   It’s the detail he adds to a Lego creation and what he comes up with in sculpting plastilina or even wiki sticks.  It won’t be just a boat or a plane, it will have something to it that causes me to not just say “uh huh” but “That’s cool, Omar. “  I’m fascinated by his ideas and what he finds around the house to make the cool factor happen.

Saimon providing lots of laughter for all of us.  He makes honest observations and asks questions that crack us up—like “Was I born close to my birthday?” What’s even better is that he is starting to enjoy laughing about the things he says with us.

Savannah loving to read.  So much so that her teacher had to call me after school one day to tell me she will have to take Savannah’s books from her at the beginning of class, and she will only get them back when she gets her work done properly.  And because of her reading, I get interesting facts about sharks and questions like “Were you alive during Hurricane Katrina?”  that only require an “uh huh” from me.


The way our friends love us.  We have friends that pray daily, bring a meal, invite us over (we are a lot to invite over), host us overnight…even at short notice, know our faults and lean in anyway.  These are the kind of friends that remind me of Jesus.
 
Jesus and how He saves us.  How He came to us and for us.  The gift of His salvation would be gift enough.  Yet He gives us so much more.