What better reason to start a blogsite than doing an eChristmas newsletter? We want to join the ranks of other blogging families so we can update pics and useless information for you all. We'll just pretend like someone actually looks at it other than ourselves!
We have never written a "Christmas newsletter". I always enjoy reading the ones I get, but have never seemed to have the content for my own. Well, 3 kids and 6 years of marriage later, we figure we may have something to offer!
2007 started off as glorious as ever on February 15th with the birth of our beautiful, angelic daughter Noelle! Everything about her from the moment she came to us has been incredible. From the get go, she ate good, slept good and thrives off of watching the rest of her crazy family interact. Now at almost 10 months she is rolling everywhere, crawling, eating finger foods, babbling her baby language and waving bye bye. Her skills change daily and she could not be more perfect! We couldn't imagine our lives without that perfect little thing.
Landon celebrated the big 2 in March of this year, and he is living it up. It's hard to describe Landon in mere words on a blog. He is beefy, he talks incessantly, he likes to suck his thumb, he can't say the word "sausage", and is learning to wake up in the morning without peeing on himself. He started a "Friday Fun Day" program this fall and loves going to "school". He is surprisingly good at remembering the words to songs and I will randomly catch him singing a little Shane and Shane while grocery shopping. I can't imagine what this kid will be like in years to come, but I know that Jordan and I feel blessed knowing God entrusted us to be his parents!
Austen turned 4 in September and has been amazing us daily with what his little brain can retain! He has been doing 2 mornings a week of preschool and he is able to write his name, recognize words, shapes, sings songs...he really amazes us. He is incredibly sensitive like his dad, but sneaky and intuitive like his mom. Recently him and I were at the kitchen table eating lunch talking about Christmas coming up. I asked him if he remembered whose birthday we celebrated on Christmas, and after he got it wrong about 5 times, I reminded him it was Jesus' birthday. "Oh yeah" he said. He sat there quietly for about a minute and a half and then as seriously/innocently as possible asked me "Do people eat the birthday cake on Jesus' birthday, and then it goes right into our hearts?" Sweet baby...his favorite thing about birthdays is the cake, and since he knows that Jesus lives in our hearts, he was trying to figure out how in the world Jesus was able to eat his own cake. Gotta love that.
As for Jordan and I, we will be celebrating our 6 year anniversary on the 22nd of this month :) It has been 6 years of pure adventure and it looks like it is not settling down anytime soon! As most of you may know by now, Jordan's employment with our church will be over at the end of this month. This change in our lives came somewhat unanticipated and has put us through a whirlwind of emotions in the past couple of months. We both are so fortunate for the relationships we have made and the life changes we have witnessed through the ministry of Ignite. It was a bittersweet departure, but we feel confident that God has revealed his next steps for our family. Jordan and I have both felt something of an unsettled feeling or like a rumbling in our hearts for the last few months. God has made it overwhelmingly apparant to us that while we love the people and the mission of our church, it is not where we are best being used by Him vocationally. Jordan and I have a heart for relationships and taking time to pour into people with the intention of drawing closer to Him. In addition to this, we are both at a place where we feel it is absolutely necessary for Jordan to finish his Bachelor's degree to continue on with the work God has for us. Jordan has about 2.5 years left of full time enrollment to finish his degree. So it really came down to all or nothing for our dedication to this! We both turned 28 this year and we know that we aren't getting any younger! The next decision we had to come to was...where in world will JY finish his degree? After some praying, some talking, internet researching and real soul seeking, it was very obvious to the both of us. I could write for literally thousands and thousand of words of why we made this decision, but ultimately it all boils down to one thing...God told us to GO. Starting in January, Jordan will be a full time college student at CNM here in Albuquerque and we got the letter in the mail today that he has been accepted in the Adult Degree Completion program for a Bachelor's of Science degree at Multnomah Bible College in Portland, OR starting Fall 2008. What seemed devastating to me 2 months ago, now seems overwhelmingly liberating. Logistically, financially and practically it really doesn't make sense, but I can't and will never deny the still quiet voice within me saying "Trust me and go". A friend of mine shared this verse with me this morning and I think I will unofficially declare it as the Young family verse of 07....
"See, the former things have taken place,
and new things I declare;
before they spring into being
I announce them to you."
Isaiah 42:9
I will never claim to be deep or super spiritual, but one thing I desire to claim is complete obedience and naively trust that He will work out the details that could easily overwhelm us.
So yeah, you could say that we are little excited about 2008 and extremely thankful for what we have pulled through in 2007. Yay for blogspots so we can all stay connected and we can share our lives together! We really are kind of clueless on posting basics...but I'm sure we'll figure it out along the way. Oh and maybe next time we can keep it a little shorter!...maybe.
Here's a few more pics just for kicks...
How cute are they?!
It repetitive I know, but it's so cute!
Yeah, I see the cord...kind of like a noose...she's alright.
I can't think of a good caption for this...it's just a day in the life of Landon I guess.
Austen is not afraid of the snow in the least...he had a good ole time launching it around the yard!
I am actually quite a bit scared of this snowman/robot looking thing in our front yard. Our house has been on the market now for 2 weeks without a single glance. SURELY this little guy will be pulling it all kinds of prospects...we may even raise the asking price for this fine upgrade.
Noelle was quite proud of herself for finally figuring out how to pull herself up in her bed...right after this picture I promptly pushed her down and reminded her of my "no more milestones" rule.
Look at this face...I'm sorry to all of you who don't get to kiss it on an hourly basis like I do. We did get the most blessed diagnosis of RSV for Noelle yesterday...she's doing ok...very junky cough and kind of wheezy. I am praying that we are seeing the worst of it now! She has never really been sick before, so she is getting huge amounts of sympathy from us :(
