January

So it’s been awhile since our last update… sorry about that!  Here is an overview of our life recently…

With a baby on the way and knowing that we will be traveling a good bit over the summer, we decided to stay home for Christmas this year.  We must admit it was a little odd not sharing the holiday with family, yet at the same time it was nice to actually get to rest during the break rather than spend the majority of the time driving.  It’s hard to believe that, Lord willing, this will be our last Christmas spent without children! 

One Christmas tradition in Jon's family is to make sticky buns...
they are very yummy!

Jon was very excited!

We had the wonderful opportunity to meet up with several good friends over the break including the Barth’s, the Strobolakos’ , Dawn Thimsen, Amy Sikes and Dave Nichelson.  What a blessing it was to share time with each of these people!  

Our outing with Daniel, Samantha and baby James Barth

Over Christmas break we painted the baby room.  It was originally lavender with lots of finger prints on the walls (from the previous family; the room belonged to their little girls).  We decided that lavender was not a very neutral color and decided to paint it light blue instead. 

January was a cold month with lots of snow and ice. The students were out of school for five and a half days (though the teachers only had two days off… the rest of the time was given as teacher work days).  We have been told this weather is rather unusual for North Carolina, but we are very close to the Virginia line so I guess that explains some of it.

Jon recently taught his students about the Passover.  To help bring a better understanding of how Passover is celebrated we hosted a Passover feast for the high school students.  This was an optional event which about half of the class showed up for; it was lots of fun.  Gretchen Wilhelm came up for the weekend to help us celebrate!  

Seder Plate

We played some Dreidel after the meal

Our friends Ben and Trish Alexander were very sweet and threw us a baby shower in Columbia!  It was wonderful to see so many friends and get to visit with them over dessert!  The shower was a wonderful blessing!  Our Lord has truly blessed us with amazing brothers and sisters! 

(Sorry, we don't have any pictures at this time...)

It’s hard to believe that January has come and gone and with it another month of pregnancy.  Our little one is due around March 26^th; just less than two months!  We are greatly excited about the arrival of the newest member of our family!  Thank you for continuing to keep us and the little one in your prayers as we head into these last few months before the baby comes!