January 2005

Happy New Year to everyone who reads this update! Since I last wrote, we have celebrated four birthdays: Eric, Sophie, me and Joe (in that order).

I helped Sophie pick out a gift for her daddy. She made a card and I helped her put her hand print on the gift. Sophie had a great time getting it ready and she was so proud to have something to give to her daddy. I know this is something Angie would have done for Eric. I taught Angie the joy of giving, and I know she would have taught it to Sophie if she were here. Since she isn't, I'll do my best to carry on the tradition. For Joe's birthday I had Sophie make him a cute card, and Eric and Sophie brought him a gift.

Sophie has the same ornery look in her eyes that Angie had. She loves to tease and have a good time. We are thankful that she is so well adjusted. In the photo showing her wearing my shoes, Sophie has on her PJs because she was spending the night with us, as she does occasionally. I especially enjoy the evening time together when Sophie takes a bath and we have a quiet time reading books together to wind down after a busy day.

I made Sophie a picture book of Angie's life, which she sometimes likes to look at if she spends the night. We talk about all of the people in the book. It shows the various stages of Angie's life, and her involvement in school plays, sports, acting silly, etc. Then the pictures display Angie's life as a teacher, wife and mother. The book ends on a very happy note, showing Sophie's second birthday party with both sides of the family present, including three great-grandmothers!

Sophie is old enough to sleep in a regular bed now. We gave her crib away, and put a twin bed in Sophie's room at our house. I picked out a Strawberry Shortcake bedspread and accessories. You can see it in the snapshot I took, and we also used the doll and decorative pillow in some of the family pictures we had taken by a photographer.

It is nice to have an extra bed when we have company, too! Mike and Maria came to spend Christmas with us, so the bed came in handy. We had a good Christmas celebration together with Eric and Sophie coming to open gifts on the day of Christmas Eve. My mom came, too, and the adults enjoyed playing games in the afternoon while Sophie played with her new toys.

When Sophie came in for our Christmas celebration, she had on her antlers and paraded around for us all. We called her "Rudolph," and she loved it! When it was time to open gifts, first I had Sophie give her daddy a lectureship book. In the front there was a message from Sophie to Eric. I had read it to her when we wrapped the gift, and she had made him a cute card, too. Then she got to give everyone else a gift. We did this first so she could see how much fun it is to give gifts!

Eric and Sophie were able to spend Christmas Day with his parents and other relatives. We are thankful that we can be here so Eric and Sophie can spend time with both families on special occasions like this. I teased Eric about how he must miss that trip to Kansas! (You can just imagine how hard it is for a man to take a little girl either on the airplane for most of one day or the car for two days each way!)

Mom is adjusting better to living here, and the fractures in her back seem to have healed. Joe is coping with teaching in Plainview. Even though it is very difficult for him, he has said repeatedly that he is glad we came. When Sophie voluntarily climbs up in Grandpa Joe's lap, he knows why he sacrificed such a wonderful job to move here.

I am in the process of writing a book about what we have gone through and how God has been with us every step of the way, in the hopes that it can help other Christians who undergo similar trials. The book will be called JOY IN THE MORNING, and is taken from Psalm 30:5: "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."