We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, New Year's and holiday season! Our family was blessed to get to spend Christmas and welcome in the New Year in Szeged, Hungary. It has been a long eight years since we were last in Hungary, and we so enjoyed the time we got to spend with Norbert's extended family, his parents and sisters. We also were doubly blessed by a beautiful White Christmas, with lovely snow falling on the eve of Christmas Day, and really staying for the rest of our visit. Szeged is already one of the most beautiful cities in the world, having it turned into a Winter Wonderland was amazing. Our Christmas visit to Hungary was not only to see family, but to go in person and 'test the waters' to see if we are to move back there or not. We also wanted our kids to visit again before any sort of final decision on a move. We asked many of you to be praying for our visit, for our kids' hearts while there, and for clear direction. God answered so amazingly! We are at the place where we can say that we know God is leading us clearly to move back to Hungary, to Szeged in 2011.
But first, 2010 was a very full year. We have loved our new church family at Mile High Calvary, which celebrated its first birthday this summer. In the spring we lead a marriage class through 'Love & Respect' by Emerson Eggrichs, a book we highly recommend. And we are now in the middle of facilitating a Financial Peace University class, through Dave Ramsey's program. We love the small groups and the chance it gives to get to know people better. With Anna in 6th grade now, all three of our kids are participating in youth group events at Reality, MHC's awesome youth group. And both boys are busy in a neighborhood church's youth group, Outlet, on Wed. nights.
Josiah began High School in the fall, in the International Baccalaureate program at Lakewood HS. It's a rigorous course that he had to test for and be accepted into; we're very proud of our 15 year old. He's continued in choir, in the Men's Choir at LHS - there have been two performances so far and we were amazed by both. Joshua is now in 8th Grade at Creighton Middle School, doing well in all his classes. Both boys are taking French, the 2nd year for Joshi, 1st year for Siah. They both also enjoyed being on teams for Ultimate Frisbee this year. Anna is in her final year at Deane Elementary, in 6th grade. Rachel is going to deeply miss her time on the PTO at Deane, we will all miss the many teachers and staff we have grown to know and love there over the years - we were blessed by an amazing neighborhood school. They have begun earlier IB and GT (Gifted & Talented) programs at lower grades in the past years, and Anna is in both at Deane. She has also begun her foreign language learning with Spanish in school, and Hungarian lessons at home. She remains busy in Girl Scouts (as does Rachel who is the troop co-leader), and with her horse riding through Westernaires (to which her patient daddy usually takes her) where she now rides EVERY Saturday. Her team for 2010, The Chaparrals, won 1st place for their division, and in June Anna herself placed 3rd place in her age division. Her new team since the fall is The Vaqueros and she is also on a specialty team called Liberty where she is learning to ride bareback and to control the horse without a bridle - she loves it all, of course.
Our tentative plans are being made, leaving room, as always, for God to stir things up. Right now we are looking at a late summer/fall move, letting the kids finish out the school year and have most of the summer here with friends. The boys will attend an Online High School, and we'll homeschool Anna. Our house needs to sell, but we're really not worried, despite the struggling housing market. God has been orchestrating this all so obviously, we know He has that detail worked out too. But we would still covet your prayers as we move forward. On one hand 6-8 months sounds like forever, when we'd really love to be in Szeged yesterday - but we also know we have a lot to get done and those months will go by much too fast. We are also still not sure of all we will be 'doing' once we're there; we have some ideas, some dreams and a great peace. Seeing how God is setting things up perfectly is so beyond cool, we're so excited to be on this adventure of living for Him, as He leads. We've had many quiet, waiting years. God is so faithful. We hope you can all know that personally, whether your year is exciting and eventful, or a quiet one of trust or even hardship. We were so blessed to be in Szeged this year as we remembered God's faithfulness in sending His son at Christmas, and to see in a New Year there too, a year we've been waiting many years to see happen. Yes, God is so faithful!
