2009 Christmas Picture and Newsletter

2009 Family Christmas Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

God has been so good to our family this past year. He really brought us through some tough things that we couldn’t see at the time as being for our benefit, but by faith we continued to believe that He had the perfect plan for us even though nothing turned out the way we expected it to.

I’ll start with the head of our family. Michael’s hard work finally paid off. He finished his OSU Bachelors Degree in Rangeland Ecology Management in June. He was supposed to have a permanent position with the Forest Service in Enterprise, but there ended up not being a position open there. So Michael spent the summer finishing up his training and then trying to find permanent work (anywhere). Just as we were really starting to sweat it, the FS finally came through and gave him a position in Baker City as a maintenance clerk for the FS fleet. Now Michael gets to come home at night during the week. An added blessing as that he recently found someone to commute. This is saving us a lot of money! Michael is still working at getting his commission back (he wasn’t able to finish his degree in time because of the last deployment, so they took his commission). The battalion doesn’t have an ordinance officer slot open, so he is currently looking for an ordinance officer position in another battalion. There needs to be a slot open for him in order for him to get his commission back. The process is taking a lot longer than we hoped. Please pray that God will open the right doors for him.

As for me, I’m staying busy at home. I’m learning to be a homeschool teacher. We have our good days and bad days, but I’m learning some tricks that are helping me spend more time teaching rather than disciplining. I haven’t done any database work for Northwest Aspect, Inc for two months now. There just isn’t any work right now. Will do project work for NAI as funds are available. It is the first time I haven’t worked while running the house and homeschooling. I’m rather enjoying it, although we miss the income. Thanks to Dave Ramsey’s budgeting system, we are learning to live on just one income. It is very tight, but we’re making it work. We’re just so grateful that we can make it off one income. Our tight budget is motivating me to making even more food and household items from scratch. I’ve added chocolate bars, hamburger and hot dog buns, sauerkraut, and several household cleaners to my list. I love it! I’m a table leader for MOPS this year and I’m enjoying that role immensely. Some other things like folk dancing and playing the fiddle are taking a back burner for now. The most exciting activity I’ve added to my life this year was learning to ride Michael’s Harley Davidson.

We also changed churches this year. After five years of being with Wellspring Fellowship, we decided to amicably dissolve the church due to lack of involvement/leadership. While it was sad to let it go, we knew it was time to move on. We miss all of our friends there. We are now going to Calvary Chapel and so far we love it. It seems to be a non-traditional church with a solid foundation. We’re looking forward to getting to know more people there.

Josiah is 6 years old and in First Grade. He’s reading and doing a great job with his spelling and math. We are also doing some right and left brain alignment work that is helping him excel even more. He loves history, reading and is learning geography and flags (thanks to the map on our family blog). He’s getting into Legos and crafts. He has a great time doing activities and field trips with our local homeschool group.

Hailey is 2 years old and is such a wonderful addition to our family. Everything she does (well almost) is so darned cute. She is in the parroting stage, repeating everything you say. She loves to dance, draw, color, and does crafts with her brother. She likes to “homeschool” right along with him. She loves anything to do with the water and anything to do with her daddy. She knows how to play dress up and how to play a soldier. Just before Thanksgiving, she had 6 stitches in her forehead after she ran into the edge of a metal filing cabinet. She never even cried when they stitched her up.

We hope that this letter finds each of you well and enjoying the Christmas Season. We pray that if you find yourselves in difficult circumstances you can look at our letter and be encouraged by what God can do “behind the scenes”. We pray 2010 will be a year of unexpected blessings for you all!

Love and God’s Blessings,

Michael, Jackie, Josiah and Hailey (check out our family website http://www.homesteadwannbes.blogspot.com/)