(Better late than never!)
What a year 2013 was!
There were ups and downs, surprises and blessings, challenges and
changes, and through it all – God was, and is, ALWAYS faithful!
Let’s start with what stayed the same: We still live outside Ottawa. Paul still works at AGC (just finished his 14th
year!). I still stay home with the
kids. We still attend Ottawa Bible. Our parents are at their same homes, and
doing well.
Now let’s talk about our biggest change: We had another baby! We were very, very surprised to find out in
April that I was pregnant. Zadie wasn’t
even a year old yet, and even though we were fairly sure we wanted another baby
– we weren’t expecting to have two so close together (20 months)! But God loves surprises, and we were thrilled
to welcome another boy into the world on December 9th. We named him Gideon Robert. Gideon has the eating thing figured out (he’s
gaining about a ½ pound a week!), but we’re still trying to establish days and
nights. He sleeps all day – despite the
noise and chaos of his brothers and sister – and will sleep at night…..only if
he is snuggled with someone. But he’s
been more alert during the day, and I think (fingers crossed!) we may be making
headway to him enjoying his space in his own bed at night. We’re very proud to have another future
warrior for God. (Gideon means “mighty
warrior.”)
Zadie continues her reign as princess of the house – like it
or not, she IS the princess. She turned
1 in April, and is a sassy, spirited little girl. She still doesn’t have a very big vocabulary
yet, but she communicates her wishes (demands) very clearly. Her words usually make no sense to us, but
she regularly will walk up to someone and “give them the what-for” – and it’s
obvious that, to her, whatever she’s saying makes complete sense. Zadie adores her baby brother, and is
constantly petting on him and mothering him.
(Honestly, we were a bit worried, as she would get jealous whenever I
would hold other babies or children.)
She’s a big girl, and holds her own very well with her big
brothers. She’s also a girly-girl (oh
my!), and loves clothes, shoes, and jewelry.
We love our beautiful little girl.
Jacob turned 4 in October.
We started pre-school curriculum with him at home. He already knew a lot of basics, like colors
and shapes and numbers, from learning them alongside Nathan. He’s coming along with learning his letters,
although we had to get creative to entice him to want to learn, which we did by
playing matching games with his flash cards.
He is slowly progressing on violin (slow because we aren’t diligent
about daily practice); he can now play the first line of “Twinkle Twinkle
Little Star.” He started his first
“official” year as a Cubbie in Awana this fall.
Our hearts were overjoyed when, in February, he asked Jesus to forgive
his sins and come into his heart. Jacob
has a sensitive spirit, yet a stubborn will, which is a unique combination to
learn how to parent! We are very proud
to have him as our son.
Nathan turned 6 in September, the same month we started 1st
grade with him at home. We are
minimalistic on our curriculum this year, for two reasons: 1/ We knew that welcoming a new baby in the
middle of the school year would take up a lot if my teaching time, and 2/
Nathan has no interest in reading, so I wanted to allow plenty of time to focus
on that. So we are pretty much just
doing phonics/reading and math.
Homeschooling a very strong-willed child means daily battles. If Nathan doesn’t see the point of something,
he will argue it to death, or else flat-out refuse to even try. So progress on reading is slow. He would rather try to hurry through it by
guessing, which makes it take twice as long.
(Try convincing him of that, though!)
He can read simple words and stories, but since it takes effort, he’s
not keen on it. He enjoys math, because
it makes sense to him. He’s working on
his addition tables and counting money.
Nathan started his 2nd year of Sparks in Awana. He is coming along with his violin, and gets
excited when he masters new songs or skills with it (even though, as mentioned
earlier, he argues it to death while learning it!). He has nearly a dozen songs memorized, and is
pretty adept at playing by ear. We’re
starting to teach him to read music, and I think his ability will really take
off when he figures that out. He’s lost
7 teeth – but 3 were in accidents, so are slow to come back in. :S He is a huge help with his little sister and
baby brother, and with chores around the house.
We are proud to have Nathan as our oldest son.
More changes:
Paul’s Grandpa Rhodes passed away in February, at the age of
88. We took our first long trip in the
van to Colorado for the funeral. It was
a wonderful service honoring him and his service to the community and his
country as a World War II veteran. We
enjoyed the time with all the relatives together, although sad it had to be
under those circumstances. (Grandpa
Rhodes was Paul’s last living grandparent.)
This fall, Paul and I both felt God telling us it was time
for us to step down from the praise team at our church. We felt it separately, and when we talked and
realized we both had been feeling it, I wrote a letter of resignation to our
Elders. I have been leading worship
weekly for 7 years, but we both have been involved in the worship ministry at
church for 13 years, so it felt like a huge decision. We’re not sure why God called us away from
that ministry, but we’re looking forward to seeing what He is going to use us
for in the future.
Blessings:
Paul has been very involved with a ministry called Men’s
Encounter this year. It is a weekend
event that challenges men to surrender every area of their lives to God. He, along with my brother JC, has helped organize
and “launch” groups from the area to go to four Encounters this year. They started a men’s Bible study following
the first one of the year. It has just
been a blessing to watch these men grow and challenge each other and lead their
families. “As iron sharpens iron….” –
being involved in these ministries and studies has made Paul an even better
man. Paul encouraged me to go to the
Women’s Encounter in April. I went, and
was blessed and challenged. Some of the
challenges I’m still working on. I returned
in July as a server, and we had 9 other ladies from our area go at the same
time. It was an uncomfortable weekend
for me, forcing me out of my comfort zones, but one that ended in uncontainable
joy: to be able to share in the
salvation of one of the ladies that went with us. (To find out more about the Encounter
ministries, check out www.EncounterTheCross.com.)
In October, we were able to go on a “mini vacation” to
Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri, with Paul’s parents and sister. The kids loved it. It was wonderful to be able to go and spend
time as a family, and extended family, and also get some couple time for Paul and
me. And the fact that adults outnumbered
children made for a mostly stress-free weekend!
We, along with Paul’s sister, were privileged to provide
music at two weddings this year. We love
playing the music to set the atmosphere for these most special of days. We also were part of two community “worship
nights” where we got together with musicians from a couple other churches to
provide a night of “just worship” as an outreach and blessing to others, where
people can sing their praises and connect with God on their own level. We look forward to doing a couple more of
those this coming year.
My sister Carlsie made it home from Zambia, Africa, after
two years there with the Peace Corps. We
are beyond thrilled to have our family complete again. I’m sure she’s tired of our questions about
the experience and culture, but we love hearing about all of it!
And I think that wraps up the big news for the year. As I said before, GOD IS FAITHFUL. We are privileged to serve such an awesome
God who has all things in control, and who knows our future, and who loves us
deeply. And to think that the God of the
universe longs to have us know Him!
In HIM we live and move and have our being,
Paul & Rachel
Nathan, Jacob, Zadie, Gideon
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