Christmas Newsletter, 2019

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Immanuel – God With Us!

Greetings!

It has been four years since our last Christmas newsletter; there is much to relate. God continues to bless all of our families, as we are now eight families with 34 members and counting!

In 2015, Tom, Jade, and I moved back to our farm in Tennessee. We quickly realized that, without a bunch of children around to keep up with the chores, it was too much work for us to do. We aren’t getting any younger!! After taking a couple of years to update the property and prepare for selling, we moved to the nearby small town of Fairview. Only three traffic lights in Fairview! A big improvement over Atlanta!

Tom is still working as a healthcare design consultant, traveling almost every week to different states. He now actually enjoys mowing our small 1-acre lot. Tom has a new project to keep him busy, however. Ever since he was a young boy, Tom longed to own a cottage on Long Lake in Alpena, Michigan, where his family vacationed every summer. Last year, we purchased a lot and he has designed a lovely home for it. We will start building next summer.

I am still homeschooling Jade, making this my 37^th year of homeschooling. I also continue to weave, mostly baby blankets for all my precious new grandchildren! I am even learning to spin yarn, just for fun. Tom teases me that I will ask him if we can raise sheep soon!

Katie and Roberto now have five beautiful children, four girls and a boy, ages 3 to 11. Roberto works at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, where he was recently promoted to Senior Member. Katie continues to homeschool the kids. The four older children are active in a Christian theater company, taking theater, ballet, choir, and acrobatics. Robbie earned his black belt in Taekwondo this year. They love to travel and just returned from a cold but exciting trip to Normandy and Paris, France.

Tony and Rachel fulfilled a life-long goal and went to Alaska for three and a half weeks in 2018. They visited six National Parks, hiked on glaciers, waded in the Arctic Ocean, and saw an incredible display of aurora borealis. This year, they traveled to Hawai’i and loved the whale-watching, high waves, volcanoes, and beautiful campsites. When they are not traveling, Rachel and Tony enjoy playing in the Michigan snow and working together at Link Engineering.

Rose and Michael built a new house three years ago and have since sold that one and are building another one on five acres nearby. While building this one, they are living in a very small garage apartment on the property. Did I mention they now have 5 children, ages 8 years to 4 months plus Michael’s two older daughters? Michael’s oldest, Aniya, is living with them, which makes it eight people living in 1300 square feet. Needless to say, Michael is building quickly! Rose also homeschools the children, when they are not running around the property constructing forts and discovering nature. Wait, that is homeschooling!

David and Amanda finished their adventures out in Colorado and are now living in Michigan. Their newest adventure is their daughter, Elliana, whom they adopted through the foster care system in Michigan! Ellie is 1 1/2 years old and loves exploring as much as her parents do. Her favorite adventure this year took place recently during their vacation in the Narrows of Zion National Park. Ellie rode in a backpack while they hiked through knee-deep water up a beautiful canyon. The picture on the card shows them in Mesa Verde National Park where they toured the cave dwellings. This vacation covered 6 states and 7 National Parks in just two weeks. Ellie has now been to a total of 17 states making great memories with her mom and dad!

Christian and Rebecca are in Madison, Wisconsin. After Christian received his PhD in Chemistry from Emory University in Atlanta, he began post-doctoral work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison researching catalysts for alternative energy fuel cells. Rebecca was working as an English teacher until their daughter, Kaitlyn, was born last December. They have both enjoyed living in Madison, though Christian is now applying to universities for a faculty position.

Bekah and Kevin married two years ago and live near Ann Arbor, Michigan. They just had their first child, Michael, in August. Kevin also has two precious children from his previous marriage, Stephanie and Patrick. Bekah has always missed our farm and now has a farm of her own with horses, goats, chickens, rabbit, dog and cats. Did I mention the bees? Kevin even harvested some delicious maple syrup last spring.

Micah graduated with a violin performance degree from Carnegie Mellon in 2016 and began attending Georgetown School of Law in Washington, DC, in 2017. He met the love of his life, Christy Kim, in 2014 and they were married last July. With his day job and night school, it has been a difficult year for them both, but Micah should finish school next year and Christy will get to see him more often.

Jade is now 14! I can hardly believe it. Only six months until the driver’s permit. Yikes! Jade is doing well in her homeschool curriculum. Jade helps care for the toddlers at church and is hoping to earn some money babysitting in our neighborhood. She also enjoys piano, computer coding, and her new passion, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. She keeps Tom and me on our toes!

This Christmas season, we pray that you all experience the joy and peace that comes from remembering that Jesus came to this earth as a lowly child to teach us how to put our trust in Him, so that we may overflow with the hope of eternal life through the power of the Holy Spirit! We are so thankful for this truth from Romans 15:13!

With love,

Tom and Lynn and family