OUR CHRISTMAS CARD 2017

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2017 and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

After bringing Ben home in July 2016, the past year and a half has been a period of much adjustment but also much happiness.  Ben is a wonderful little boy who fits perfectly in our family.  We are so thankful the Lord gave us the opportunity and privilege to be his family.

Photo#1: Jonah celebrated his 7th birthday in September.  He is in 1st grade.  He is  learning his letter sounds, numbers 1-20, adding, and reading sight words.  He continues to have speech, physical, and occupational therapy each week.  He is still a pretty quiet little fellow, but he is working very hard on becoming more verbal.

Photo#2: Stephen will graduate from high school in June.  He has not yet decided on a college, but he is hoping to run at college and is planning on majoring in biology or math.

Photo#3: Lydia graduated from 8th grade in the spring.  She is now a freshman in high school.  She is in the school play in early December.  Lydia also started volunteering at the horse therapy ranch in Cedar Grove which she really is enjoying!

Photo#4: Our family traveled to Niagara Falls and the Adirondack Mountains in June 2017.  It was absolutely beautiful and lots of fun!

Photo#5: Ben celebrated his 7th birthday in June.  Ben is also in 1st grade.  His English is amazing!  He is starting to read sight words and speak in 3-4 word sentences.

Photo#6: Abigail is in her 2nd year at University of Minnesota. and loves it!  She hopes to enter the Biomedical Engineering program in January 2018.  When she is home, she is often surrounded by these 2 little boys who really miss her.

Photo#7: Family picture at our cabin in upstate New York.  

We want to wish you a blessed Christmas.  We pray the wonder and joy of Jesus' birth would fill your hearts each and every day. 

Philippians 2:8-10 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth 

WHAT HAVE WE BEEN UP TO?

Cross country: the boys team and one member from the girls team are state bound!  Congratulations!

Unfortunately state cross country didn't go as planned.  Stephen was hoping to finish in the top ten runners in Division 2.  However, he suffered an asthma attack during the race and ended up 91st.  Very sad for him after all his hard work.  

One of the hardest parts of being a parent is watching your child face hurt and disappointment.  All important life lessons, but still hard to watch.  

We are very proud of all his hard work and success over the past 4 years of high school cross country.  We are also very proud of how he is bouncing back from this setback and having a positive attitude.

\

Halloween: we had 2 Minions in the house!

Because this blog is also our family's scrapbook, I am including a video someone gave us showing Stephen crossing the finish line at cross country state- not easy to watch.  Scary and also heartbreaking..