Reflections...

Hi everyone--

It has been an insanely busy time in the Beck-Aden house... Guess that my posts usually start with that observation, right? We have been blessed with wonderful opportunities; the kids have been healthy, and God has been abundantly generous to all of us.

I celebrate the many gifts and blessings that we can savor in our home. Ellie-Kate is doing amazing at school; she loves her teacher and her best friend, Jack. She had a wonderful time with soccer, and she's enjoying dance and AWANA!

Emmy has been ROCKING middle school!!! She played so well during soccer season, and she's going to be the point guard for the seventh grade basketball team. She's doing so well in school too-- she earned straight A+s, except for one lonely A. She's mad that I didn't post that little statistic on facebook, but I figured that such a post would be off the chart bragging :) Between sports and grades, she's also doing Model UN and Science Fair. It's nice that Emmy loves everything and is doing so well, but, wow, she's exhausted by Thursday. Still figuring out how she can best balance this load...

Britti is excited about the wedding, and it was so much fun to go over to Marietta and walk through the hotel for her reception and the church for her ceremony! We need to carve some more time to go wedding dress shopping, but, blessedly, we have a year and a half before May, 2014!

Chelsea has finally found her footing between the social freedom of college and the responsibility of managing her own schedule. She's trying to find a job, and she's working to get the necessary materials for sorority rush. On the plus side, she earned a perfect score (100) on her first major paper in college, and she is doing very well overall, especially after dropping her pesky bio class :)

I'm very reflective this time of year as I think about the events that led to us bringing Ellie-Kate into our family four years ago as well as the events leading up to Britti's birth, now 26 years ago... Even in the chaos and clutter of our lives, I'm grateful for this space to pause, to celebrate, to reflect, to rejoice in the miracles of our family. Thank you, God, for allowing us to be the family for Ellie-Kate!

Christie