Merry
Christmas!
We hope this finds you well and you have had a good year. It has been an interesting year for us. Our big trip this year was to Walt Disney World. We were at the parks for five days and also enjoyed Disney Springs. Our highlights were eating in the ball room at the Be Our Guest restaurant and riding Flight of Passage three times in one day without much waiting. We were without a kitchen sink for over a month as a result of our dishwasher leaking and ruining our cabinets and floor. It has now all been fixed, looks great, and was mostly covered by insurance. We were also entertained for a number of months by the installation of an expanded gas pipeline directly behind our house. It was fun watching the work being done just outside our windows, but the price was that we lost a lot of nice trees. We were fortunate enough to get three tickets to see “Hamilton” in Durham which actually exceeded our high expectations.
Miriam is a high school senior who is also taking college
classes at Durham Tech. She is in her second season as a co-captain of her
robotics team, The Hitchhikers. They had a very good season earlier this year
by winning two district events to qualify for both the state and world championships.
Miriam continues to enjoy dance and Venturing. She has also been busy applying
to colleges and scholarships.
Bethany is in her third year at North Carolina State
University majoring in Industrial and Systems Engineering. She has enjoyed numerous
sporting events there and brought some of the rest of us along with her for a
few of the games. This summer Bethany had an internship at Newport News
Shipbuilding in Virginia. We visited her for an extended weekend while going to
Jamestown, Williamsburg, Busch Gardens, Yorktown, and the Mariners Museum.
Carl is in his fourth year at North Carolina State
University majoring in both Computer Science and Communication. He participated
again this year in a REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) at Notre
Dame this summer. We visited him there while also going to the National Museum
of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio on the way there and Chicago on
the way back. Carl also participated in a wilderness program in the Sierra
Mountains in California and attended conferences in Montreal and Chicago.
Christian continues to enjoy his job as a firmware
engineer at Lenovo. In his free time, he enjoys playing video games. Christian
has also worked on creating a motion control camera rig that will help him more
easily create brick (Lego) films. He has also been a great help to The
Hitchhikers as one of their mentors.
Leslie-Jean is finishing up her last year of
homeschooling. She has enjoyed her weekly Bible study. Leslie-Jean has worked
hard this year improving her running and completed a seven mile race.
Dan continues to enjoy his performance engineering job at
Lenovo. He has worked hard getting back into competitive running shape
completing a 30K race. Dan also had some medical difficulties this year. He had
cataract surgery in both eyes and can now see without glasses. Dan also
suffered with blood clots in his lungs which is now being treated with
medication and no restrictions. Dan’s parents continue to live nearby in an
assisted living facility. Dan’s Dad suffered a couple of falls this year
requiring surgery and rehabilitation. He is now doing quite well.
This has been a year with lots of medical expenses mostly
due to Dan’s health issues. This is the first time we have exceeded the family
annual deductible even getting close to the maximum out-of-pocket limit. It was
nice to have our medical expenses substantially lowered by insurance leaving us
with only small co-pays. Fortunately, God’s eternal plan for us is so much
better than health insurance. God did it all for us and required nothing from
us other than accepting His free gift: no cost for insurance, no deductibles,
no co-pays. Jesus paid it all for us. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin
is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Jesus paid the price of our sin by dying for it upon a cross. This was possible
because Jesus had previously left his heavenly throne to be born as a baby in
Bethlehem. This is what we celebrate at Christmas – the birth of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. Luke 2:11 says, “for today in the city of David there has
been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Let us rejoice in Christ’s
birth this Christmas season!
We wish you a very, merry Christmas and happy New Year.
