Happy New Year, friends! 2008 absolutely whizzed by and I do hope to take a little more time in '09 to appreciate all the day-to-day blessings. Kendal has resolved to do some serious hiking this year (the entire Ouachita trail if possible) and I've resolved to... well... that's still a little unclear! One thing I do hope to do is take some time to just be "still" and simply enjoy the kids as they enter such a curious, busy stage!
We decided to skip the baby-sitting search for New Year's Eve and host a family-friendly party at our house. We celebrated New Year's "London Time" (6PM CST) with a bunch of Arkadelphia friends. We had tons of great food (Cadbury from the UK, fish 'n chips, beer cheese and ale biscuits, cucumber sandwiches - yum!) and had a good time. Carlisle and Jackson had fun with their friends - sharing Christmas toys was a bit challenging at first, but they soon warmed up to the joys of being a kind host! The best part of the night - and how sad is this - was that everything wrapped up by 9 p.m.! Kendal and I enjoyed a little reflection time before heading off to bed before midnight and enjoyed the entire day immensely!
We've had such a wonderful week at home on our first-ever "stay-cation." We still hate missing our dear friend Kimberly's wedding in Ohio, but this precious time with the kids at home has been a time of refreshment and rejuvenation. Our best day was Sunday - for the first time ever, our family went to church together in our own town! Kendal is always out the door to church by 6:45 a.m. on Sundays so the kids and I have our own Sunday routine. This one day, we were able to hang out all together as a family, take our time getting dressed (Kendal learned that Sunday clothes are a LOT tougher to wrestle onto the kids than regular togs!) and drive to church in one car! We visited a local church that has a great nursery for the kids and enjoyed the service together - it's a rare treat to get to sit with Kendal during a service, as well as for him to not be in charge! We then had a great lunch at a local mexican restaurant and headed home for naps and family time. It was a wonderful, relaxing day and one we'll treasure for a long time. While we do look forward to getting back to our "routines" starting on Sunday, we are so grateful for this one week we've had together with no schedules or committments!
A few quick prayer requests... We just learned that our wonderful friend Greg lost his father last week. Greg and his family just returned from his sabbatical in Scotland (he is a professor at the U. of Tenn) and are now dealing with this unexpected loss. Please pray for their family. Our other "international" friends, Nick and Kari, recently returned from a 6-month in South Korea with Nick's aunt, uncle and cousins. They are now back home in Seattle and settling back in - we hope their return will be smooth. Finally, some adoption news... Friends Kathy, Trey and Tanner Berry are in China and will meet their daughter, Berkeley, in just two days! This has been a long adoption journey for them, but the waiting is finally behind them and they are preparing to hold their daughter in a matter of hours! We also just learned that dear friends Jenn and Patrick Marshall have been APPROVED to adopt a baby from South Korea and are now just waiting to finalize paperwork and receive their referral! So exciting that a baby will soon be theirs - what an exciting year 2009 will be!
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