Did I write an end-of-the-year letter for 2023? Yes.
Did I mail out many of my Christmas cards before I finished the letter? Also, yes. Ha!
So, here it is, my year-end novel that ended up being 3 1/2 typed pages in Word... if that feels like a ridiculous amount of reading, especially if you see my Fb posts year-round on the regular, then just skip to the last paragraph, because that is just for you!
Dear Friends,
The end of another year, 2023, gifted to us by our Maker; another
“blur year” for us, as my aunts often tell me on the Marco Polo app… ya know,
the years where you are trying to meet all the little people where they are and
get them to all the places, and everyone needs you all hours of the day… blur
years. I love this time of year, though, where I try to stop more often and
reflect, to intentionally try to store up all of these days in my mind and
heart. And thinking back through the scrapbook of my mind in 2023, I find
myself in awe once again that the Lord accomplished so much for us and in us. I
am truly grateful.
2023 has not only been a blur, it has been incredibly
meaningful. It started with our traditional measuring the kids on the giant
ruler to see how much they had grown since the last New Year’s Day, which we
will find ourselves doing again very soon. The next day, Kyle’s birthday, was
spent calling friends who lived nearby to ask them to come pick Kyle up so he
could go buy a car part as our car had broken down in Tulsa while we were out
to celebrate… not a great start, from one point of view. But from another, God
uses times like that to show us that He always provides and that we have dear,
faithful friends in this life. Then we had to say goodbye to our dear friends,
the Suters, who moved to Utah for church planting; Kyle helped drive their
Uhaul through the snow-laden mountains up to Provo. Paige Suter and I had met
most Wednesdays for informal discipleship for quite a while, and I felt the
absence of my dear friend and her young son so much when they first moved. When
Kyle returned at the end of that week, winter break was over, and we resumed full
time ministry and regular life.
2023 had some firsts for us: we were able to obtain a used
pop-up camper that has changed our lives in wonderful ways, and we also attempted
to grow a garden for the first time that changed our backyard for the worse,
only growing the most expensive (when you consider all the water, fertilizer,
and time spent) side salads we had ever
eaten and only enough cilantro for 2 batches of homemade salsa. Since we had
purchased season passes to Silver Dollar City for another year, we have happily
been able to get away for a weekend about every other month in our pop-up
camper for very little cost! Another first was sort of forced upon us, as
Blakeley wanted to play teeball for the spring, but there weren’t enough
coaches. So that is how I ended up the head coach of the 6U Dazzling Diamonds
teeball team with Kyle as my assistant coach! We had so much fun watching
Blakeley and her new little friends learn the concepts of the sport and
teamwork, and we learned a lot too!
Spring ended and brought Keegan’s baseball, Blakeley’s softball,
and regular college ministry/Kyle’s seminary classes ended for the 22-23 school
year. Summer brought a more intimate group at our weekly dinner and study with the
college/20-somethings, and also us attending our church’s sports camp we host
for the community. Kyle coached football, and Keegan was in his group. I was in
charge of the snacks kitchen, while Blakeley was in the Team 56 group learning
motor skills. And all the while, Emersyn attended another summer theater camp,
where she earned a singing solo in their production of Annie. The end of summer
brought my friend, Paige, and her son to visit me and Blakeley for a week while
Kyle, Emersyn, and Keegan went up to Lincoln, Nebraska for a week to minister
to Yazidi refugees.
Emersyn had begged ever since the pandemic hit to be homeschooled, so for her 5th grade year, 2022-2023, we finally decided to give it a go! She did so well in homeschooling for 5th grade! I admit it was so much fun to revisit all my favorite things I used to teach in public school 5th grade for a decade (that was almost a decade ago, how?!). And the beginning of 2023 found us halfway through Emersyn’s 5th grade school year. We were having a blast, and we finished the school year with a display table in our living room with her art projects, science project, and several of her best writings for her grandparents to view when they came to visit. Emersyn and I also designed a yearbook with all the pictures of our many projects, experiments, and trips we took as part of her 5th grade learning. We were happy when it was announced that there would be a homeschool co-op started at our church, and most of Emersyn’s best friends were going to be attending. So we decided to continue homeschooling this fall for 6th grade. Emersyn finished out her 2-year commitment with piano lessons at the beginning of summer, saying she still did not like piano at all, so we allowed her to give it up. She still tinkers on the piano, however, and has enough basic knowledge that she can pick songs up pretty easily on the piano. Emersyn also outgrew a lot of hobbies she had pursued the past several years, now pouring herself solely into her writing! She is constantly planning backstory for characters and collecting ideas for stories she hasn’t even started writing yet. Her amazing mind is full of fiction that there aren’t enough hours in the day to write them all out in actual stories. This fall, Emersyn and I attended a Writer’s workshop for children, and she was greatly annoyed with silly questions other kids asked, wanting to stay behind so she could ask the presenting authors how to hire an agent, how to get published, and what their best advice for aspiring writers would be. I was impressed by her determination and focus. This semester, Emersyn has had co-op with her friends most Monday afternoons; they have studied George Meuller’s biography, drama & improv, and cultural geography. She has also taken up karate, mainly just to spend more time with her homeschool friends, than anything else. But this last week, she was the only one out of her group attending, and she still wanted to go and afterward said that class had gone really well and was enjoyable! Emersyn turned 12 in November, but we all often forget she is that young, and I enjoy our daily conversations as she is so passionate about her beliefs, how she views the world, and about the imaginary worlds and characters she is constantly creating. She is fun, funny, creative, smart, kind, and truly a joy to be around!
Keegan was mid-3rd grade at the beginning
of 2023, and he found himself nervous about joining a new baseball team. He was
in that awkward phase where he was the oldest on his former team, having to
move up to the next age bracket all by himself. For some reason there was a mix
up, and he ended up being placed back into his previous age bracket, but still on
a team where he knew absolutely no one. We were proud of how he blossomed on
this new team, still the oldest, but now he was also the tallest and one of the
best hitters on the team. His confidence grew, not only in his performance
during only his second season, but also in making new friends. He had another
major opportunity to grow up in summer as he attended church camp at a place he
had never visited, with only one other person in the whole camp that he knew!
If you know Keegan, you know that he doesn’t even like to ride in the car with
his grandparents without one of his siblings or parents present, so him going
away from home with no family members for a whole week was a major life event,
for him and for us. I’ll admit I was a basket case, since I hadn’t heard a word
from him all week. But when we picked him up at the end of the week, he went on
and on about how it had been the best week of his life! We have noticed since
then that he is much more grown up and independent; he also attended NSU’s
football camp on his own and even ran for student council and won once he
started 4th grade this fall! Keegan also went out for the 4th
grade little league football team this year, and they started early August
practicing 3 nights a week! We eventually got down to 2 practices a week and
games every Saturday. Keegan had to learn how to become more mentally tough, all
that time commitment and sometimes playing in over 100 degree heat in full
gear, and I was amazed at how much he and the rest of his team learned by the
end of the season. Go Tigers! Currently, Keegan is obsessed with all things
World War II. Our family tradition is to take each child on a trip for just
them with Kyle and I for their 10th birthday. As he is now 9 ½, we
have started planning a short trip for the 3 of us to visit the WWII museum in
New Orleans at the end of 4th grade when he turns 10! And we just
found out yesterday that he won his class spelling bee and will be advancing to
the district bee in January! Keegan has grown up so much in the past year, but
I love that he still loves hugs and time spent together as a family.
Blakeley started 2023 in the middle of PreK; she has always loved school and is a social butterfly. We were so excited that her best friend from PreK, Rylee, also was placed in her same Kindergarten class in August! Life is just better with besties! Blakeley started back at gymnastics this fall where she attends with her friend Ayla, and she has almost completely mastered her cartwheel! If you’ve seen her lately, you have seen her doing cartwheels, because that is all she seems to do anymore – over and over again. It has paid off, because she was just promoted from Beginning 1 to Beginning 2, just in one 9-weeks session! Blakeley also loves makeup and coloring. Blakeley has been over the moon with learning to read, lately, and gets so excited shouting out every time she sees a site word printed on signs or in books. She turned 6 in October, and her hearing tests keep coming back in normal range! She is so energetic and hilarious; she keeps us laughing always.
We recently returned from a week-long family trip to Louisville, KY where Kyle finally graduated seminary from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where Kyle earned his 90-hour Master of Divinity degree! This has been a very long journey, being so writing and reading intensive, only being able to take 1-3 classes at a time on top of an already full life schedule. Kyle began his masters before we were even married, but decided to take a break when I had to go on bedrest when I was pregnant with Emersyn. Life happens, and before we knew it, he had been on a break far longer than he had originally been in school, so he decided to go back several years ago, knowing there would never be a perfect time to jump back in. All this time that Kyle has returned to his master’s program, he has been working full-time as a pastor at our church, where we love doing ministry and enjoy such rich church family fellowship. Now that he has graduated, we are not in a hurry for a new chapter, but we are open to whatever and whenever God may have one for us. Kyle does feel called to eventually be a lead pastor of a church, but neither of us feels like we need to leave the loving church we are in any time soon, unless the Lord prompts us to do so. At his current job as the associate pastor of our church, Kyle spends a lot of his time preparing multiple Bible teachings a week, meeting with church members for counseling, attending meetings about the direction of our church, and then meeting with college students individually for discipleship and mentoring. He also stops by my office, next door to his, often to check in on Emersyn’s school day, and to occasionally kiss the church secretary (that’s me)! Like I mentioned above, Kyle also spent a lot of time assisting in coaching sports this year on Blakeley’s teeball, Keegan’s baseball, and Keegan’s football teams. He is a busy guy, but he somehow finds time to fish, hike, listen to podcasts in his rocking chair on the front porch, and spend lots of quality time with me and the kids.
Keisha, I, have had an enjoyable year in 2023! When
the year began, I started planning the family trip to Louisville and our other
camping trips. We have been to SDC, Roman Nose State Park, Mammoth Cave, the
Creation Museum, and the Ark Encounter, all on small budgets, mostly eating at
the camper or an inexpensive Airb&B. I also enjoyed being in 2 separate
book studies, one learning about God’s extravagant grace, and the other
learning about the characteristics of God. I love being in groups like this
where I not only get to learn more about the Lord, but my friendships with
these women from my church deepen as we discuss our lives and how God is
changing us, praying for one another and helping each other out during hard
times. Both groups have concluded meeting for now, while the friendships
continue, but I hope to join another in the new year. I continue to enjoy my
job doing graphic design and office management for the church. I have also been
blessed to voluntarily serve as vice president on the PTO board at our kids’
elementary school; I run the volunteer schedule for working our weekly
fundraising store as well as doing graphic design for other major fundraising
events. I also enjoy planning and managing Emersyn’s schooling; I have been
teaching her cultural geography class at the homeschool co-op on Mondays, too,
and enjoying hanging out with the other moms!
I enjoy our simple busyness (or chaotic simplicity), and I am thankful to the Lord for another blur year, as it comes to a close. Of course what I have mentioned have just been highlights, glossing over some challenges and hard times. Marriage, parenting, ministry and just plain keeping laundry done and people fed and connections sustained is a lot of hard work. Life is hard for all of us, but I am thankful to the Lord that He is the Great Comforter, the Perfect Sustainer, and the only Savior. I love that for Christians, every day is like Christmas; we rejoice that God put on flesh and lived among us, knowing our trials and fragile frailty, yet living a sinless life in our place, dying an undeserved death in place of our deserved punishment, and then rose from the grave! We have all messed up and have contributed to the brokenness in this world, but because of Jesus there is hope and forgiveness! My prayer is that each of you find true peace this holiday season as you revisit this documented true story that we celebrate at Christmas and Easter! I know that this time of year can be so difficult as we miss those who are no longer with us, and sometimes we can be so overwhelmed by all that is going on. But we hope you go to the Maker of your soul as the balm for your soul, and be in awe of all that has been done for you in Christ.
To God be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Merry Christmas,
