Christmas Letter 2020

 

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and shall call his name Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14

700 years before Christ is born, Isaiah tells us His name. His name is Immanuel. God with us.

In a time when we have been quarantined and isolated, His name is still the same. GOD WITH US.

This is our story in 2020. We made plans to finally redo our kitchen and dining area. This reno would also give the front of our house a nice face lift. January and February zipped by! With much excitement, we started to tear down the right side of our house in early March. We had the midsection of the house “secured” with plastic and plywood and about 1/3 of our house GONE when (PSA: Plot twist!) the Pandemic was declared and lockdowns ordered. Would we be able to work? Would we be able to get materials? Now everybody is coming back home and we are missing part of our house!

God with us.

Fortunately, we were able to continue working and surprisingly, 2020 has been our busiest year yet. We had more hands to help and more time since our kids did not have to go to school. Sounds wonderful right? The plot thickens because we quickly tired of working on the house and we were definitely tired of each other.

God with us.

Our favorite contractor, aka Dad, became overwhelmed with paying jobs, so he wasn’t very available to work on our house and tell us what to do. Although Saimon might run Evermon Homes someday, even he will admit (sometimes) he isn’t quite ready to run the remodel project. So the good news is that we hired many of our subs to come get the work done (Or at least get it substantially complete….by Christmas).

This was the kitchen window over the sink

We tore out the kitchen and moved it to the right

And made a new front entrance

Welcome!

And here’s the climax: As I reflect on 2020 and our remodel, I can’t help but think that we have had some demo and reno in our hearts too. I didn’t love it when we tore out sheetrock from the ceiling and old insulation and rat poop fell around us. Just like I don’t love it when the walls I put up are ripped away and the selfish ambition and pride is revealed. We saved some of the original shiplap from the roof and had to carefully pull each piece apart, remove nails, and clean it up. Jeremy hung it in the new breakfast room. It’s not unlike our family this year as we had to learn to talk through some hard things, give space and reaffirm the importance of sticking together always—especially as our kids get older and move on. We still have knot holes and splinters but as we fit together, we have a story to tell--kind of like that wall in our breakfast room.

Looking into the new breakfast room from the back

God with us.

Katerin graduated from UMHB on December 11, and she is looking for a job (get in touch if you know of something!) 

Emily is making it on her own in College Station. 

Marian just moved out to her first apartment and is working full time and starting Fire Fighting training. 

Wes is thriving in his Sophomore year at College of the Ozarks. 

Omar is happy to be the only Evermon at THS this year as a freshman. 

Saimon and Savannah look forward to joining him there next year. 

And all of us adore our two new additions to the family, Cocoa and Hiccup, the cutest boxers you will ever know.

Conclusion: Through the good and bad, and we have had a lot of good this year, God is with us. We hope you recognize His presence in your 2020 too. How have you experienced God with you this past year? His name is the same, from the first time Isaiah told us, to Matthew’s reminder when Jesus was born, today, and tomorrow.

That’s what makes Christmas so merry!

Lessons from my East African Sister

I found this draft that I had started in April 2018 on my blog. I don't know why I never posted it--probably just got interrupted by the daily busyness and never got back to it. This was written when we shared our home with a family of 7 for 11 months...

Maddie Madeline

Thanksgiving Day 2019

You chose us January 11, 2011. From the moment I saw you I knew you were ours. You came free. Although Dad would argue you weren’t free with the added fencing we put in the backyard and new vet bill.

Even though we labored to keep you in the backyard when you went outside, your free spirit always found a way to escape. You would run like a deer and we would call your name in hopes to stop you from getting out. You would stop and lock eyes with us for a brief second, and then you would BOLT.

That look was stubborn. 

That look was determined. 

But that look was also like a promise. 

You knew you were ours and you knew you would come back. After a half hour, or sometimes a few worried hours on our part, of freedom and frolicking and exploring, you would always come back. If we had to leave you out, we would come home to find you in the front yard, like you were securing the premises. I compared you to Hank the Cowdog because you acted like you were the Head of Ranch Security. And Ranch Security included our property, the cow field next door, the neighbors’ chicken coop, and Spring Creek Park.

You were a survivor. We thought we lost you more than once. You got hit by a car (actually you ran right into a moving car), bit by a coral snake (as you slung it around by your mouth), and we sure disappointed one young couple that had loaded you up into their jeep until we stopped to ask if they had seen you. 

You were ours. 

One stormy night around 3am, we got a call from the gas station on Hwy 249 more than a mile away. Somehow you had gotten that far during a heavy thunderstorm. I don’t even know how you were gone. But you were ours. And God made sure you came back home that night, shaking, wet and cold in my car at 3am. 

I think we wanted to believe that you would always survive and you would always come back.

I’ve had just a handful of dogs in my life but you were my favorite. You didn’t shed. You didn’t have a tail that could whack a small child off their feet. You would follow me around the house, finding a spot to curl up close by, until I left the room and you had to come with me. You endured the kids’ costumes and headbands they found for you. You gladly slept on their beds as they not so fairly took turns taking you.

You got spoiled to Pawpaw feeding you from his plate these past few months when he lived with us. With Nana and Pawpaw came Memah who was your best dog friend by far. The two of you would get on couches and dig holes in the yard and politely share your food bowls. We wondered how you would get along without each other when Memah moved, but that turned out to be just one week.

You were healthy and active and then you were not. That last night we had you, none of us had any idea. You put your chin on Katerin’s lap at the dinner table. You hung around as we decorated the Christmas tree. You were laying under the table while we played cards above you. You jumped up when Saimon called upon you to scare the cats back to the back. You had learned to behave with the cats. You were a good dog.

Our last night with you

We miss you, Maddie. Finding pictures of you on my phone and seeing all the videos and pics Katerin and Wesley are posting bring tears. We had no idea you would go so quickly. But I’m thankful. I’m thankful that you were ours from January 11, 2011 to November 30, 2019. I’m thankful we did not have to watch you suffer long. I’m thankful all the kids were home and got to tell you goodbye. I’m thankful we were with you when your heart stopped beating….that you felt our love to the end.

Dad said it best when he wrote on your burial box, “Thank you for choosing us!” You will always be missed. I am reminded every time the door is left open and I want to hurry to close it before you get out. But you are no longer to escape. Emily said you have made "your greatest escape."

We will love you forever, Maddie Madeline!

Come on in

Welcome. Come in. You may use the front door to my house the first time you come over but after that you'll know everyone comes through the side door.

When you enter my house through the side door, you see pieces of our lives all over that first room.  We call it the "front room" although I have no idea why.  It's walls include the front and back of my house.  It used to be a garage for previous owners, but it was closed into the house long before we got here.

The front room holds unorganized lockers for my kids, desks filled with papers to sign or save or just be recycled, an extra refrigerator, a wall full of artwork and projects from my young artists, recycle bins (that also hold artwork at times), and a large dining table and chairs on a beautiful rug.  The dining table and rug do not seem to fit in this cluttered room, but then again they do.

Wow look how clean that table is.  It was Christmas.

Welcome.  Come in through the side door and pass through our clutter and stay a while.  This is how we live.  We invite you in.  We give you access to our lives, our imperfect lives, and hope that by gathering we may grow more.

Grow more like Jesus.

This is not how we live just at home, but this is how we serve.  In everything we do--whether it's work or ministry or parenting.  We don't know how to do it any other way.  We are not perfect.  We are not always equipped.  We can even bumble our way through sometimes pretty bad.  But when we bumble, we ask for forgiveness and we pray and we try again.
 
We have recently opened our home like never before--welcoming a family to come live with us.  We are learning a lot and have only entered kindergarten in the school of "Doing Life Together."  You may be wondering how we all fit now that there are 15 (YES even 16 when Katerin comes home) of us together.  That's for another post.