Our "Christmas Letter"

Well 2010 was quite the year for us.  Amidst all of the transition and challenges, when I look back on the year, all I can think of is what fun we have had watching Josiah grow from a baby into a little boy!  He is such a huge source of joy in our family and it's amazing what a difference a year can make!  He is full of personality ~ quite hilarious!  He is so silly and crazy and keeps us busy for sure.  He's "that kid" that likes to walk around with a bowl on his head and run into stuff.  He's also our little genius-child...we can't get over how much he talks.  We stopped counting his words when he reached over 100.  He pretty much says everything we do and now he's talking in some short sentences too... it's crazy!

We celebrated his first birthday in July and then a few weeks later, we packed up everything we own and moved it into a big storage unit, rented out our condo and moved in with my parents mid-August.  It's gone really well (other than the challenge of 3 dogs) and I think it's been especially fun for Grammy & Gramps to get to spend so much time with Josiah.  Working two jobs and spending a little time with us too hasn't left Mike much time for job-searching but he does it every chance he gets and we're trusting that God will provide what we need at just the right time.  We're going to wait just another month or two to see how things go before we commit to signing a lease on a house here in Hampton Roads...but hopefully we won't have to.

This Fall was definitely a difficult season for us this year.  We had hoped to be a family of 4 (or 5) by next May. We were pregnant and lost the first baby on October 5th and then much to our surprise, found out I was still pregnant with another baby, which we then lost around the 28th.  It's still hard to comprehend.  Even so, God is good and we are just trusting and waiting on Him.  We know that He has a perfect plan for our family and that He holds our tiny twins in the palm of His hands. 

Now we are just enjoying the Season and trying to push aside the distractions and keep our focus on the true celebration:  the amazing fact that God sent His Son to be born as a baby that He might live and die to offer us forgiveness and give us true life!  It's hard not to get wrapped up in all of the busyness of parties and family gatherings and decorations and shopping and "Santa" but we want our focus to be, and we want Josiah to learn that Jesus is what Christmas is all about.

We hope that you and your families have a wonderful Christmas and we'd love to hear from you too!

~Mike, Melissa & Josiah (& Shelby too)