Thanks Be to God… for dear ones like you to share our yearly update with! For the gift of life and health! For daily food and warm homes! For the seasons which are endlessly beautiful and full of the fingerprints and face of God!
THANKS BE TO GOD FOR JESUS!!!!
I get so excited when I begin to talk about Him and His countless amazing attributes, but my mind is blown when I realize He came for me…and for you. The Lover of our souls, endlessly pursuing us and drawing us unto Himself.
So, we celebrate His birth and His life.
And this season of celebration also gives us a wonderful reason to communicate with you and tell you the tales of our lives since our last long letter. And what a tale we have to tell you! This year, 2001, started out with us planning a move to Hawaii so that Ron could take part in a building project going up beside YWAM in Kona. While we were waiting to go, Ron began to build a house up on our orchard that we thought we could rent out while we were gone. As the months passed, Ron began to feel more and more hesitant about the move and the job. By April he felt he couldn’t pursue the Hawaii project any longer, so he settled in to finish the house on the orchard and to do a one-acre planting of apple trees. He is doing a marvelous job on the house, having designed it and now building as much of it as possible himself.
We thought we would be in the new house by August…(maybe I was the only delusional one when we moved out of our home on July 20th) so we packed a minimum of clothing and TEMPORARILY moved into my parent’s house. The temporary one month stay has now stretched into almost five months!! My parents are incredibly gracious and have put up with us in a most remarkable way. At first I was frustrated not to be in my own new house as quickly as I had hoped, but as usual, the Lord had a multitude of blessings for all of us as we were willing to put aside our own agendas.
It’s been wonderful to be with Mom and Dad, and Ron’s parents also often invite us over for meals to give my Mom a break. We are so thankful for such amazing parents – they reflect the kindness of God to us. Patrice ended up moving out of the room she and Daniel were sharing…he likes it dark & quiet to fall asleep whereas she likes music and light… So, Patrice went into my parent’s garage, hauled her mattress into THEIR bedroom and set up camp! She has her CD player, books, clothes, etc. etc. taking over a growing area of their room. Dad finds it very cozy and I think Daniel is quite content to have a room to himself. So we have been spoiled and I may need to make some concentrated efforts so that I will be able to take on the duties of looking after my own home and cooking all our meals when I have a kitchen big enough for me and my wheelchair to operate in again!
One interesting tale happened to me (Karen) the day after we moved out of our home. Somehow, while driving across the bridge on an incredibly busy summer day I looked down to rewind a cassette I was listening to and by the time I looked up again it was too late. I smashed into another car and apparently left a dent in our steering wheel with my nose!! (Not to mention the “dent” on the front end of my car and the car I hit. When I realized what I had done and caught a glimpse of my now extremely crooked nose in the mirror I decided to straighten out what I could. I grabbed a towel Patrice had left in the car and swiveled my nose into proper alignment. The grinding sound was quite impressive and I was amazed at what one could do under stress! Unfortunately my disabled car held up bridge traffic for hours so I quickly went into hiding in the local hospital. Between bruised ribs and knees, nose surgery and insides which temporarily shut down I was able to extend my holiday, oops, I mean hospital stay, to 11 days. I recovered very quickly and was able to go on REAL holidays to Vancouver Island about 3 weeks later with Vic & Amy, Elsie and the kids. We had a glorious time together and I am grateful that God once again rescued me and extended my life. (I’m really trying to be careful!)
That’s my interesting tale but there are many other stories and adventures involving our wonderful kids. Daniel is now a young man at age 15 (6 feet tall with long curly hair!?) and he is such a source of joy to us. He is in 10thgrade and was on the Volleyball team which placed first in the city finals this fall! He also took his Bronze Cross this past summer and is hoping to go on with swimming lessons so that he can eventually lifeguard. He’s such a great guy and Ron and I love spending time with him. Very easy going with a wonderful smile. Patrice is in 5thgrade and is a lovely young girl. She loves school, has many friends, and is endlessly off to birthday parties and any other fun events she can find! (I wonder where she gets that from?) she is involved in King’s Kid’s which is a YWAM group doing music and drama outreach in the city. She loves music, crafts, dance, animals, writing, sports, reading, and church! She also loves to accompany Ron to worship practices (where he plays bass guitar) whever possible. She is full of life and passion… a wonderful gift from God to our family.
Some other adventures this year have included a trip to West Edmonton Mall for us in March (gotta love those air miles!), a trip to Calgary where Patrice and I got to be the maid of honor and junior bridesmaid for my dear cousin Esther and her new handsome husband John, summer camp for both of the kids, lots of picnics up at the orchard, fun visits from Auntie Elsie and Uncle Victor & Amy, and getting to experience firsthand the true miracle of multiplication through the bunnies we have up on the orchard. (We’re giving them away for free if any of you are interested in having one or five of them…you too could experience the miracle firsthand!) This fall and winter Ron and the kids are once again enjoying watching hockey games when they can and they are all planning on snowboarding together as well.
We are grateful to God for our adventures and for hos He reveals more of Himself through all of the ups and downs of daily life. AND we are HOPING to be in our new home on December 22ndif all goes well… We will wait and see!!
