Family Christmas Letter

Here is our annual family Christmas letter, written by my mom. Enjoy!

Ecclesiastes 3:4 “A time to weep, and a time to laugh”

March 12th, 2013 was a day we’ll never forget - it was the day we found out that Lydia had a 4cm wide brain tumor in her right hemisphere. It came as a shock to all of us, and the news was so unexpected. Lydia began experiencing left-sided weakness in February, and with all of us having the flu that month, we really didn’t think much of it since she had been hit pretty hard. But after the weakness persisted, we took her to the Dr. and had an MRI. After hearing the bad news, we were sent immediately to the oncologist at Roger Maris Cancer Center. The first thing the doctor told her is that she could die from this. He said it was in a very difficult location and he felt it was inoperable. We were sent 2 days later to the neurosurgeon who did a biopsy, and he also said it was inoperable. We spent 2 weeks solid researching our treatment options, as we knew, that even though the tumor was benign, it was deadly due to it’s location. They were surprised she didn’t have more symptoms due to the size of it, and since it was slow-growing, it had most likely been growing for many years. On April 1st we got the call that we could come to Mayo Clinic for a 2nd opinion. The pediatric neurosurgeon said, yes, he could operate . . . and he could probably remove around 95% of it! So on April 12th, one month after finding out about the tumor, Lydia had brain surgery. And praise God it was a complete success! Lydia is 100% tumor-free with minimal side effects! We can’t say thank you enough for all of your prayers and support during this difficult time. God is so faithful through the good times and the bad, and we give HIM all the glory! We spent 2 weeks at St. Mary’s hospital in Rochester and Lydia subsequently got 3 months of therapy in Fargo, and she’s doing great! Praise God!

The rest of our year was pretty uneventful compared to our hectic spring. But we did have a life outside of the medical world! When we found out about Lydia’s tumor, it was the day before the ND homeschool convention, and it was to be my last one as the coordinator since I’d spent the year training in a new gal. So Lydia, Jeff and I missed the convention but Hannah, Daniel and Ethan got to experience it “for us” and help out in any way possible. Even though to us the timing was bad, God worked it out for good because everyone at the convention learned about Lydia’s condition and prayed for her! Thank you again!

         We took 2 more trips back to Mayo Clinic for check-ups in Rochester. On one of those trips we got to see family in the Lacrosse, WI area which was great fun! We also attended Family Fun Days in June in Ada and family camp over Labor Day weekend. Another highlight of our year was the annual family music festival near Itasca State Park. But our biggest trip was out to Washington state for my niece’s wedding in August. We enjoyed hanging out with family and seeing the beautiful bride and her handsome groom! On the way home we all enjoyed seeing the awesome beauty of Glacier National Park and we’d love to go back there again someday and spend longer exploring God’s creation.

       One more “first” for us this year was heading to another country - Canada! Six of us headed up there to visit some friends that live north of Winnipeg (Jeff had to work). It was quite the experience for us to all cross the border and say we were in another country. We had a fun time with the Penner family hiking, rappelling and fellowshipping!

Hannah, 23, is living at home, teaching 22 piano students, and continuing to pursue filmmaking. She was able to go to a 3 week film camp this spring in CO to help make a feature film (www.inhisstepsmovie.com). She also enjoyed working on several of her own projects and traveled to OH for a conference. Ask her about her adventures while getting stuck in Chicago!

Caleb, 20, has moved to an apartment in Hawley, and is currently looking for a job. We sure enjoy having him closer to home! He really had fun rappelling and spending time with his friend Clifford while we were in Canada.

Daniel, 17, is finishing up his senior year and has taken a break from his construction job so he can focus on school and household projects. He got his license and bought a car this year - some big changes for him! He was excited to shoot a doe on the first weekend of deer hunting.

Lydia, 15, is back doing school work after taking most of the spring off. She is in a drawing class and is still phenomenal at piano and drawing. She did awesome at her therapy and graduated with flying colors in July. She enjoys spending time with friends and is great with kids!

Ethan, 11, is loving the fact that now we have snow - and he can play outside in it. Summer went by way too fast...but it was filled with fun things like swimming, catching frogs and swimming at area lakes. He loves being a mommy’s helper in the kitchen any chance he gets!

Jeff and I celebrated 27 years of marriage and are grateful for the years we’ve had together. We hope as we age, we will have a more eternal focus - because we will all live eternally - some with Christ and some apart from Christ. Have you trusted Christ today as your personal Lord and Savior to live eternally with Him? :) He is the TRUE gift at Christmas!  

        

                 From our family to yours, have a very Merry Christmas! (2013)