Christmas 2010
We wish you all a joyous Christmas and an awesome New Year 2011!
The year 2010 was a very busy year for our whole family. For some reason, having another baby boy is not twice as much work, as you might expect, but more like ten times as much (shows you how much babies and toddlers know about math!). Jenni has been a great blessing to all of us, shouldering the burden of almost all that needed to be done with the kids so I could get most of the sleep I needed to work long hours at my contract job downtown. This was no small task on her part and it stretched her past the breaking point more than a few times. Weekends and some weeknights, I tried my best to help out with cleaning or cooking so Mom could occasionally get a nap, but it was nowhere near enough.
My contract job with NeuroVista was scheduled to end at the end of June, so I started looking for good companies in the medical device field that I thought I might like to work for, but by June, NeuroVista offered me a permanent full position with the company – and just in time as my subsidized COBRA was coming to an end. God is good indeed – Praise Him! He helped us with an even better job in a downturn economy – guess He does not need to read the Wall Street Journal.
The stress of contracting caught up with me in July. On the July 4th weekend I was telling Jenni how good it was that I hadn’t had a migraine since February – I get those occasionally, but after that weekend I started getting many migraines, often daily. Fortunately, Jenni suggested I see a chiropractor just before our planned camping vacation to Alta Lake, WA. He diagnosed misaligned cervical vertebrae that were causing pinched nerves (the ones that control eye motion) and that were triggering my migraines. We had a great vacation at Alta Lake and stayed two nights at Leavenworth on the way back
The second part of our vacation was at Rosario Resort on Orcas Island. Jenni’s Mom, Dad and brother met up with us there sailing their sailboat from Bellingham.
It has been amazing to see Michael and Matthew grow this year. Michael likes to tell stories, whether they’re true stories or make-believe, sing songs, sometimes making up new words or medleys. In between sibling rivalry, he’s starting to show responsibility as a big brother to Matthew and even preventing an accident by yelling to Mommy from the back seat ‘S’ ‘T’ ‘O’ ‘P’ means “STOP”!!! when Jenni was about to run a STOP sign.
Matthew has started to say many words (most of them only once and never again…) and started feeding himself with a spoon (and actually getting some food in his mouth) and finally accomplished the fine art of walking.
And now we look forward to Christmas with our boys and think of those of you who are far, far away – indeed too far to visit. And we pray that even though we may be far removed in location, that sometime through this Christmas season we might think about each other and be close together momentarily in each other’s prayers and thoughts. And God-willing, in the not-too-distant future, we hope to be able to do some travelling and visiting to show our boys where their parents and grandparents came from.
Christmas Blessings to all!!! Happy New Year 2011!!!
Jenni, Marion, Michael, and Matthew