Christmas Letter 2011

And so .. it is Christmas 2011.  One of our best years ... one of the worst years.  We had times to rejoice and times to mourn.  Times of celebrations and times we didn't feel much like celebrating. Sometimes we feasted and sometimes we only ate rice ... but we never missed a meal.   Sometimes our home was too hot (like 120+) and sometimes it was cold (10 deg), but the roof never leaked into our house.

At the beginning of last year, Tim was working for an insurance company, selling health policies to small companies.  He was also reffing basketball, which was the main source of our income.  Just days after he reffed his last game of the season, he came home and went straight to bed.  He wasn't feeling well, so I left him alone.  At first, I thought he had a tummy bug, or indigestion, later what he described sounded more like his gall bladder.  Finally the next day, he voiced that he wondered if it was his heart ... I looked up the symptoms, and he called an ambulance and walked out to them.  They were pretty sure Tim hadn't had a heart attack.

Here is the full story .... scroll to the bottom and read up the page ... http://weshallmountupwithwings.blogspot.com/search/label/Heart%20Attack?updated-max=2011-03-05T02:00:00-06:00&max-results=20

continued ... http://weshallmountupwithwings.blogspot.com/search/label/Heart%20Attack

And that pretty much summed up our spring and summer ... Tim sick most of it and in and out of the hospital, and he just got sicker and sicker. After a lot of reading, he stopped taking his statin as well as the drug the doctors had pulled, to give his liver the ability to function, he was turning yellow ... and within 48 hours, he was suddenly doing so much better.   Volley ball season was starting up, and the first few games he was quite shaky, but by the end of the season, he was calling games with the best of them, and rolled right into basketball season.  He continues to improve, even reffed 4 hard games a few days ago.

He is job hunting again.  I do not know the status of the insurance sales job.  We are fast approaching his 4 year mark of not really having a job - so please, keep Tim in your prayers for a job that he can do well.  Surely there is something out there, other than computer programming, that he can do and provide for his family.


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Kendra turned 16 in February.   Not much has changed in her life.  She's in 10th grade ... just too much other exciting things happening to stay focused.

For instance, she's branching out on her blog ... http://knittedbygodsplan.blogspot.com  ...

And she wrote a book ... Sew It's a Quest ... and published it via Amazon  http://www.amazon.com/Sew-Its-Quest-Bookania-Quests/dp/1463501420/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324419502&sr=8-1   ...  and she is hard at work on her next book in the series.

Add to that all the knitting, crocheting, knotting hemp necklaces, helping around the house, etc. She is a Jill of All Trades.

At some point she'll just race through what little she has left to do ... and she will suddenly graduate.

She plans to use her talents to further the Gospel - and therefore has decided to offer 25% of her book income to Compassion.   She wants to take a different path in life than the typical "go away to college" - and we are fine with that.


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Vannan turned 14 in July.

She started working at the equestrian therapy place.  During the summer, she volunteered at least once a week, all day, until the temperature's became dangerously high - over 110 daily.  Then she returned in the fall, and has been able to help with the lessons, and they've even put her on the horse a few times and worked with her balance.

She has been taking violin lessons until the late summer.  We hope to get them started up again soon.

She is in 8th grade, and makes steady progress through her materials.  She works hard and doesn't let any of the areas she struggles in (like reading) keep her from making progress.

Also, she is still raising rabbits.  She loves the outdoors.

She has a definite hunger for God's word and serving Him.  The people where she volunteers have really taken her under their wings and she feels God leading her into a path of helping special needs kids with animals.


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Joel turned 6 in June.

He finished kindergarten and is hard at work in first grade, although his math book is a second grade book.  He seems to have inherited his dad's side of the family ability to work math.

He reads on an early second level.  Some days he reads nearly constantly, and others not at all.  He has a few favorites, like Eric Carle books, or Curious George, among many others.

He loves running outside to play with his cousins.

He doesn't love his shoes.

And he loves doing arts and crafts, and painting, and drawing.   I've actually been quite surprised at his ability to look and copy onto paper.  No, I don't think he will ever become an artist, but maybe some kind of engineering or science field?   He's got plenty of time to learn and develop before deciding.


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LaRue grew from a baby to a toddler this year.  She turned two in October.

She acts so grown up and imitates so much of what the older ones around her do ... particularly Joel.

She loves her dollies, and Joel's cars, dirt, swings, and other "grown up" stuff.

She keeps us all on our toes!

Most precious is the end of the day, when Joel leads her in their night time prayers.


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Marriana turned 5 in August - and she is with my sister now, with her group of little girls.   But she still calls me Momma when she sees me.  We still love her very much, and often miss her.

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That pretty much sums up our year.  Other highlights ...

My dad got married.

My much loved Grandma died - just days before she turned 90.

Our best friends, Steve and Karen, were told that they would have to move because the land they have lived on for over 16 years (and Steve since he was a teen) was being sold - just now they are living with us while waiting for the ground to dry enough to move their trailer.  It has been a year of many trials and hundreds of changes for them - please keep them in your prayers.

And God has used others to meet our needs over and over this year.

For instance ...

This Christmas looked quite bleak.  We figured with stuff we had on hand, we could make Christmas for most of our family - and the girls have helped with all the projects with great gusto and lots of enthusiasm.  ...  But we couldn't afford anything that the girls and Joel were wanting or needing for Christmas.  We know they won't go without - as we have a very large family and we know that others will buy them something ... but .... still, it is nice to be able to get your own children something.  ....  And 3 times now, gifts have been dropped off to us - stuff on the kids wish lists!  ... Oh how Good God Is!   .....   And if you are reading this and were one of those who sent us something - we thank you!!!!  You don't know how much it has meant to my kids to see that pile of gifts  with their names on them to open on Christmas day (after church and lunch).

We didn't put up a tree, but Kendra hung a roll of garland (still rolled with the tag that says 9 ft) up above the pile of gifts.  She says it is our 9 ft Christmas Tree.

We haven't gotten to Christmas cards yet ... maybe later in the year - a friend said that she was going to mail out "Christmas in July" cards instead.  Sounds good to me!!!



OH !!!   I almost forgot the MONTH of the FIRES!  We ended up with 8 or 9 nearby - 2 miles was the closest, and two raged for well over a week.  To the north east of us - one burned for nearly the entire month, and in the end burned more land than the one in central Texas.  BUT  it was mostly forest, so few homes were lost. ....   That was a scarey time - but God kept us safe and gave the firefighters the wisdom and means to keep many many homes safe.  At least a dozen of our friends and family later reported that the "fire must have burned right up to my door - and was beaten back by the fire fighters!  Because the scorch marks are within a few feet of my house!"  ....  Still, we spent many days coughing from the smoke and chemicals.  And then the drought (2-3inches of rain this summer as compaired with our average of 12 - 15 inches) ended ... and it has rained and rained and rained.

The drought caused amazingly high temps over 110 on most days - 100 straight days over 100 degrees.  Unbelievable.  We barely kept our tomatoes and blueberries alive.  It also cause the 4 AC units on our property to go out several times.  The repair man came out 7 or 8 times - running between $100 - $500 each trip.  Three of those trips were to my house.  Yikes.  We still owe my dad a huge chunk of change.

Love to you all, and Merry Christmas!
May you allow the blessings of God to fill you!

Tim, Rachel, Kendra, Vannan, Joel, and LaRue.