Dear Friends and Family-
Well, God has continued to keep us on our toes for yet another year! Those of you who’ve read our past three Christmas letters know that we haven’t had a ‘slow’ period in our married life yet! Our 2007 letter was all about blessings and how grateful we were for all He’d provided—graduations, promotions, 1st home, marriage, travel, etc. And then our 2008 letter was about wondering where He was taking us as all the blessings seemed to be disappearing—unemployment, selling our house, and relocating to Texas.
Last year’s letter (2009) was proof that we had come through the darkness and back into the light—we’d bought a new house (our 2nd), both had jobs, Sena had finally gotten some health concerns resolved, we were able to take some amazing vacations (thanks KSA for the free flights to Ireland!), and we bought a dog (Georgia Mae). Life seemed as though we were finally ‘hitting our stride’ and we hoped that we’d be bored for the first time in our marriage--we wanted time to be spontaneous, to sit on our new front porch together, to enjoy family and old as well as new-found friends, to enjoy our neighborhood pool, etc. God, however, had other plans! In early 2010, we discovered Sena was pregnant! So what we hoped would be an easy, relaxed, bored year—sprinkled with lots of traveling—became the year of Preparing for Little Spofford.
While the pregnancy went well (as in, no complications or issues), Sena was SUPER sick throughout most of the beginning which made life with a new puppy while still working downtown at El Centro College incredibly difficult. At the end of spring semester, she was informed that there would no longer be a teaching position available for her (they were restructuring), and while angry at first, she’s been grateful to God for closing that door since about mid-summer. Once Austin was born, she switched careers from Stay at Home Wife to Stay at Home Mom (aka C.O.O.), and is loving it so far! Talk about change—three different positions in a single year!
Seth is still working at Michaels and thoroughly enjoys using his skill sets to help the company improve its operations in a variety of ways. It suits him well to be able to creatively problem solve different situations the stores might be facing all while getting to use an Excel spreadsheet to prove his point. ;-)
And while we didn’t get to take some of the big trips we’d hope to take (think: rented cabin on a beach somewhere by the ocean, New Zealand, long weekend to Seattle, trip with friends to Charleston, etc.), we did manage to spend time together doing a 9-day road trip in which we got to see some of OK, KS, CO, NM, and west TX. It was a great time, and since the theme of the vacation was relaxation as well as the fact that we were off-season, we got to spoil ourselves on some really nice hotels! We even went for a hot air balloon ride in CO!! Then, over Labor Day weekend, we drove down to Fredericksburg, TX (a quaint little town in southern Texas which is full of fun shops) for a one-night getaway. Thanks again to Seth’s job, we got to have a fairly cheap trip as he had hotel points to use, and so our hotel stay (and breakfast) was free!
We continue to love our church, our Sunday school class, our neighborhood, our house, our dog… our married life together. Both of us continue to be active in our surroundings—Sena’s involved in the neighborhood’s organization, we’re the Welcome Team co-chairs in our Sunday school class, Seth’s active in our neighborhood’s Crime Watch organization—as Block Captain and doing patrols, Sena participates in a monthly Book Club, and we both enjoyed our neighborhood’s pool again. Besides spending our time in all of these ways, we were busy prepping for Austin’s arrival which involved lots of time and gallons of paint!
The past year might not have been the bored, slow-paced life we had imagined, but it’s been wonderful just the same. God continues to show us that our life together is going to be one fun-filled adventure after another, we know He’s guiding our path every step of the way, and we wouldn’t change a thing! (But, is it selfish to hope for one year to go by without some major life change? ;-)
Merry Christmas and God Bless!!!
Well, God has continued to keep us on our toes for yet another year! Those of you who’ve read our past three Christmas letters know that we haven’t had a ‘slow’ period in our married life yet! Our 2007 letter was all about blessings and how grateful we were for all He’d provided—graduations, promotions, 1st home, marriage, travel, etc. And then our 2008 letter was about wondering where He was taking us as all the blessings seemed to be disappearing—unemployment, selling our house, and relocating to Texas.
Last year’s letter (2009) was proof that we had come through the darkness and back into the light—we’d bought a new house (our 2nd), both had jobs, Sena had finally gotten some health concerns resolved, we were able to take some amazing vacations (thanks KSA for the free flights to Ireland!), and we bought a dog (Georgia Mae). Life seemed as though we were finally ‘hitting our stride’ and we hoped that we’d be bored for the first time in our marriage--we wanted time to be spontaneous, to sit on our new front porch together, to enjoy family and old as well as new-found friends, to enjoy our neighborhood pool, etc. God, however, had other plans! In early 2010, we discovered Sena was pregnant! So what we hoped would be an easy, relaxed, bored year—sprinkled with lots of traveling—became the year of Preparing for Little Spofford.
While the pregnancy went well (as in, no complications or issues), Sena was SUPER sick throughout most of the beginning which made life with a new puppy while still working downtown at El Centro College incredibly difficult. At the end of spring semester, she was informed that there would no longer be a teaching position available for her (they were restructuring), and while angry at first, she’s been grateful to God for closing that door since about mid-summer. Once Austin was born, she switched careers from Stay at Home Wife to Stay at Home Mom (aka C.O.O.), and is loving it so far! Talk about change—three different positions in a single year!
Seth is still working at Michaels and thoroughly enjoys using his skill sets to help the company improve its operations in a variety of ways. It suits him well to be able to creatively problem solve different situations the stores might be facing all while getting to use an Excel spreadsheet to prove his point. ;-)
And while we didn’t get to take some of the big trips we’d hope to take (think: rented cabin on a beach somewhere by the ocean, New Zealand, long weekend to Seattle, trip with friends to Charleston, etc.), we did manage to spend time together doing a 9-day road trip in which we got to see some of OK, KS, CO, NM, and west TX. It was a great time, and since the theme of the vacation was relaxation as well as the fact that we were off-season, we got to spoil ourselves on some really nice hotels! We even went for a hot air balloon ride in CO!! Then, over Labor Day weekend, we drove down to Fredericksburg, TX (a quaint little town in southern Texas which is full of fun shops) for a one-night getaway. Thanks again to Seth’s job, we got to have a fairly cheap trip as he had hotel points to use, and so our hotel stay (and breakfast) was free!
We continue to love our church, our Sunday school class, our neighborhood, our house, our dog… our married life together. Both of us continue to be active in our surroundings—Sena’s involved in the neighborhood’s organization, we’re the Welcome Team co-chairs in our Sunday school class, Seth’s active in our neighborhood’s Crime Watch organization—as Block Captain and doing patrols, Sena participates in a monthly Book Club, and we both enjoyed our neighborhood’s pool again. Besides spending our time in all of these ways, we were busy prepping for Austin’s arrival which involved lots of time and gallons of paint!
The past year might not have been the bored, slow-paced life we had imagined, but it’s been wonderful just the same. God continues to show us that our life together is going to be one fun-filled adventure after another, we know He’s guiding our path every step of the way, and we wouldn’t change a thing! (But, is it selfish to hope for one year to go by without some major life change? ;-)
Merry Christmas and God Bless!!!
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