Family not-in-time-for-Christmas Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

Our fledgling family had good intentions of starting a brand-new tradition. We planned to start sending Thanksgiving letters instead of Christmas cards. Last year we accomplished neither. Once again, we had good intentions as the holiday season began. We are still thankful, but we've decided to wait until January to tell you about it. Much has happened in the meantime.

January 2006 saw Sarah and Megan flying to CA for an all-too-short visit with Sam (Sarah's brother), Erica (Sam's wife), and their two boys, Cade and Kyler. Sam was deployed a few weeks later for several months in Iraq. Our entire family thanked God for the time together and even more for his safe return.

Sarah began attending a Community Bible Study in our area. The weekly accountability to dig into the Word and a chance for grown-up conversation (they provide separate classes for kids) have been wonderful. They have studied some minor prophets, the book of Matthew, and now the books of Moses.

Since we're on the subject of Bible studies. Our small group from church has only grown more precious to us as we get to know our friends better. We pick a book and meet once a week to go through it verse by verse. Most weeks we don't get far. Lively discussion, entertaining one-liners, and an obvious love for one another permeate each gathering. If you visit on a Tuesday night, we'd love to introduce you to the troupe. We cannot thank them enough for putting up with our frequent toddler-sized interruptions and encouraging us to parent consistently. Megan enjoys all her extra “family”; we hope they don't mind.

We have been learning to be thankful for hard things, too. A child we never met joined our family for mere months before God saw fit to take him or her back. Working through that hurt took most of our physical and mental energies during the fall of 2006. We appreciated the time spent with family and friends during the holiday season that followed, but most of those visits seem rather hazy in retrospect.

2007 promised a fresh start. We started getting cautiously excited about the arrival of a new tiny person. Megan's vocabulary exploded at some never-written-down point between her first and second birthdays. She began participating in actual conversations and asking the most outrageous of questions. She grew big enough to be more physically independent, had many adventures, and started so many new things that we have not the room here to enumerate them all.

Curt has managed to stay quite busy at the mill. He continues to do lots of cleaning, re-bagging, and heavy lifting. His employers were gracious about letting him start late on the mornings when Sarah was sick this spring, but he still puts in a lot of hours.

This summer passed fairly quickly as we entertained family, went to see family, and made ready for the arrival of Jr. Asparagus. We decided to try for a home birth this time. At 4:13 a.m. on August 29, 2007, we welcomed Hannah Grace into the world. She arrived just ten minutes (or so) before our midwife did. She weighed 8 lbs. 7 oz. and measured 21 inches. Sarah required a few stitches later in the day, but other than that, Hannah's birth was completely free of complications. We were (and still are) ecstatically thankful for her safe, albeit unconventional arrival.

Since then, time has flown. Megan has proved to be a wonderful big sister. Hannah has turned out to be an exceptionally good-tempered baby. We tried our first long road trip with both of them this Christmas. Our 3,000 miles of travel included IL, IN, KY, VA, and then more of the same. Both girls traveled really well, but we are glad to be back home. That catches you up on most of the highlights. We would love to have you come visit and hear the rest in person. Feel free to check out our blog where we post updates and pictures from time to time: www.curtandsarah.blogspot.com

Much love from us to you,

Curt, Sarah, Megan and Hannah