Welcome to 2013!

Hi everyone--

All in all, we were pretty ready to say good-bye to 2012. I couldn't really even muster enthusiasm for a big New Year's celebration with the kids at home. Instead, we went out for dinner at Casa and watched a marathon of Modern Family, intermingled with some quick peaks at the former Dick Clark show. Dick Clark... He's just one among many that we lost in 2012... Celebrities such as Dick Clark, Phyllis Diller, Larry Hagman... Colleagues in the communication discipline who passed away far too young... On a personal note, our family lost three relatives in a seven week period in three different states-- Great-Grandma, Aunt Marilyn, and Wade... Although Grandma was 95 and Aunt Marilyn was in her 80s (and we knew that Wade wasn't in great shape), the losses so close and so relatively sudden were a lot to absorb...

However, we do praise God for all of his many blessings during 2012. He blessed us so much that I was almost embarrassed to write about everything in our Christmas newsletter. Indeed, I even left some things out! Emmy earned her Timothy Award at AWANA, and Ellie-Kate earned her first Cubbie book award. Ellie-Kate played in her first t-ball league... The girls were all very busy, and God protected us during so much travel, and He provided us with resources for that travel as well as time to do everything that we needed to address. He enabled the girls to focus and do well with their activities, and I just give Him the glory! We were going in many different directions, between 4-H, fair queen, sports, work, etc., but we arrived at the doorstep of this brand new year-- safe, sound, healthy, happy, and very, very blessed!

As for this new year? Chelsea is now at Baylor, taking care of her own activities and school responsibilities-- at least for the most part... She's starting a new job and rushing a sorority in just a few days... Britti is working hard on her first salaried job and excited about planning a wedding... Emmy is still very busy with school and basketball, and we're trying to figure out how to de-stress her life a bit. She's lobbying to do track in the spring, but we're thinking that sleep might be a better option!

As for Ellie-Kate? She's excited about turning five, and she loves preschool and all of her friends, and I am so thrilled that she constantly wants to give us a kiss and tell us that she loves us. I know that this age won't last so I'm savoring every second!! We wish that her preschool was a bit more progressive in terms of academics, but we're going to do more with our homeschool reading, writing, and math materials now that the blur of fall is behind us. We're also going to be more proactive in terms of talking about the adoption... She has been asking to read the adoption books more and more, and we're letting her dictate the pace of our disclosures. She knows that she came from China and that we all went to get her and that she was in a place with other baby girls. From the books, she knows that the other baby girls didn't have mommies and that she didn't either, but we haven't talked in depth about her birth parents. I imagine that day is coming soon... From my perspective, I praise God for her birth parents! They could have chosen so many other options than to leave her in a busy park. They gave her the best chance that they could, at a huge risk. I pray that Ellie-Kate sees it that way and that she forgives them, understands them, etc. We'll keep you posted!

In closing, thanks so much for caring about our family! I read in our blog stats that we had over 350 visitors last month and that we have had over 10,500 visits since we started the blog nearly four years ago. We feel your support and prayers, and we are grateful that so many people care about us!

We wish you the very best in 2013!

Christie