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Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!  Here's a snapshot of our five handsome/beautiful kiddos just before we went to our church's Christmas service.


I snagged a few shots of just the boys while we were waiting for Hannah.  These really capture their personalities.



Hope you have a wonderful time celebrating the birth of our King, Jesus.  Merry Christmas!  I'm not afraid to say it. :-)

And please remember to pray for, and give a little word of encouragement to, both the missionaries and the military men/women who are in far away places around the world right now.  It's a tough time of year to be that far from "home" and family.

I was just pondering how rare it is for us to be in the U.S. during Christmas, and decided to take a trip down memory lane.  This is the first Christmas that our twins will remember in the U.S.  For most of our other kids it's only the second.  Here's a shot from each year that we've been "home" in the lower 48 for Christmas in the past 14 years (obviously the shots from this year are the ones above.)

2009
This was the last time we were on furlough, four years ago.  Our twins were two.

2006
We had not planned to be in the U.S. this year, but because of Joy's high-risk pregnancy with the twins, we flew back to the U.S. just a few days before Christmas.  Within two weeks Joy was on full bed rest, and in March the twins were born.  By early May we were back in Indo.

 2004
This was our last Christmas in the U.S. before leaving for Indonesia.  In fact, I think this might have become one of our prayer cards.  Wow!  We've really changed!

 2003
This was the only full year that we weren't in full-time ministry, or on our way there, since 2001.  We had just left Alaska after our two-year village ministry, and hadn't yet joined MAF.

 2002
We were actually serving full-time in a remote, isolated village in Alaska at this time, but desperately needed a break.  We flew down and surprised family this Christmas.

That's it.  It's a special thing to be able to spend the holidays with family, and we'll never take it for granted!

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