Christmas 1991

Every good and perfect gift is from above
Coming down from the Father of the Heavenly lights
Who does not change like shifting shadows…" 
James 1:17 

Christmas Greetings!                                                                                  

It is with much joy that I look back over the past year and share with you all the good things that the Lord has brought about in our lives.  He is so incredibly faithful and true to his word – I’m so glad that we are able to celebrate the true meaning of this season and glorify the great KING who came to bring LIFE to us!

This is the fifth Christmas since the accident and it seems that each year just keeps getting better and better.  This past year started off with the birth of our daughter Patrice Naomi on March 20^th. The labour and delivery was an incredibly joyful experience despite the numerous IV’s and machines I was hooked up to. 

Patrice has been a very special gift from the Lord and she was an answer to prayer for Daniel as well.  He had requested a little sister and was happy when we brought her home. 

After we brought baby Patrice home I managed on my own for a month before our nanny, Josie arrived from Singapore to help out.  She was a direct answer to prayer and I have been very grateful for her help around the house and with the children.  She’s a cheerful, hardworking girl who really loves the Lord.  So our family grew from 3 to 5 in a very short time! 

Daniel is now a big boy of 5 and he started kindergarten this fall to his great delight.  He loves the activity and the fun of having other children to interact with.  One of his favorite times is “show and tell” and the other week he sang “O Canada” solo from start to finish as he proudly held his Canadian flag.  He also taught the entire class a special prayer song, which they often sing before snacks. This boy is obviously not shy! Some of his other activities this past year included learning to ride his 2 wheeler, taking swimming lessons (he loves the water) and he even tried his hand at baseball which he enjoyed despite absorbing a hit with his face rather than his glove.  I even got that on video and he now finds the episode more amusing than he did the first time around!

Daniel really loves his little sister Patrice and he gets big smiles and lots of laughs from her and she in turn gets him laughing harder than I’ve ever seen him laugh!  She’s good medicine for our whole family.  She gets all of us laughing and she’s a smiley little girl who loves attention and finds life pretty amusing.  

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching her grow and develop, especially as I missed these months with Daniel because I was in the Rehabilitation hospital. Presently she’s 8 months old and is busy crawling around investigating whatever she can.  She just started pulling herself to the standing position and she finds my wheelchair to be a handy tool to help her stand up and then she gets right down to the business of teething on the wheels!  Not too sanitary, but she hasn’t complained yet. She was carried so often by our nanny that Oma wondered if she’d ever learn to crawl so she came over in the evenings to give Patrice crawling lessons.  They obviously worked well and Oma is proud of her success.

Meanwhile, while all these goings on were going on, Ron was busy studying real estate and as of October he became a licensed realtor with Hoover Realty. He’s enjoying his work and he already sold his first house, and recently got his first listing so he’s flying pretty high.  Some of his hobbies include hockey and breeding exotic birds.  If you ask me, those are about as unrelated as you can get, but this man of mine likes to keep his interests diversified.  

I have been keeping busy as well and having someone to help me with the housework and childcare has enabled me to do some fun things this fall.  Since the accident I have barely played any piano at all due to the awkwardness of it, but Ron bought me a synthesizer so now I don’t have an excuse anymore.  So I’m taking piano lessons from a gal at church (Angela) and it has been a lot of fun.  In fact, I’m now leading worship with the synthesizer in the home group meeting we host at our place every week.  I guess Ron doesn’t want to be left behind so he bought himself an old bass guitar and we practice together.  Even Daniel likes to get into the action and he sets up his “drum set” (a large selection of metal bowls and kitchen utensils) to make sure that Ron and I don’t get off beat! Patrice is in charge of the tambourine, but she can’t figure out yet whether she’s supposed to eat it or play it.  I figure we’re good enough to get onto “America’s funniest Home Videos”, but we’ll practice a bit more first so we’re really polished.

We continue to see our parents quite often and we’re so glad that they all live fairly close by.  I thank the Lord so much for the incredible blessing of a loving family.  It’s extra special that Daniel and Patrice get to enjoy being with their grandparents so often.  In fact jus the other night we invited all of then over to celebrate the first advent and we had a nice time singing some Christmas carols together.

Along with the great joy I feel in reflecting on my wonderful family and the Lord’s grace on our lives, I am also very conscious of the darkness surrounding us in so many forms.  I want so much to keep my eyes on the Shepherd, the author of light and life. I’m grateful that I KNOW the Christ of Christmas and I pray that He will fill your celebration with His light and hope!