Christmas Mail!

 

One of my favorite posts each year is this one: sharing our Christmas card and letter! I hope you enjoy your virtual mail today!

            Back in October 2022, when we were attending my dad’s 90^th birthday party, we hesitantly told some friends about our decision to purchase a home on a lake and move for the third time in three years. We paused, ready to receive the familiar eyeroll or even chastisement for our apparent lack of life-direction, but surprisingly, one of them said, “What a courageous decision! Most people would look at that and say, ‘Someday, maybe,’ but you have enough courage to allow the course of your life to change now, while you have the energy and years ahead of you to enjoy it.” What a profound gift she gave us with her words – and more than that – a jump-start at direction for our 2023. Because of her encouragement and wisdom, we have approached this year by seeking the Lord in all kinds of ways and bravely stepping forward to serve and live fully, right in our present circumstances. After several years of seeking, searching, wrestling, and a heap of heartaches, we have enjoyed the blessing of a year that allowed us to inhale the freedom and heart-healing of the Lord in ways we haven’t known for quite a while. We are grateful.

            Because of the Lord’s grace and guidance, here are some of the things we have explored, embarked on, and enjoyed in 2023:

We finished the main renovations on our little fixer-upper cottage on the lake and moved in late February. A dozen friends showed up early on a cold, sunny morning with trucks, trailers, and muscles, and by lunchtime, everything was loaded, transported, and unloaded. We were fully unpacked in about two weeks’ time, and now we’re slowly dreaming and working our way through projects to continue bringing this home into its full potential and into our vision-come-to-life.

As we embraced our life at the lake, we both tried new adventures. Ryan took up paddleboarding and I took up (small-time) gardening. Ryan said his many years of skiing, wakeboarding, and barefooting prepared him for paddleboarding life, and I am grateful for friends and writers who taught me gardening basics and made my first year an enjoyable mix of trial and error – with enough harvest to spur me on for another try next year. Ryan entered his first brat-eating competition and came in second! Together, we started milling wheat and making bread, which is an adventure we love more than we even imagined we might. We also participated (teamed up with another couple) in the Adams County Amazing Race – a fundraiser for local charities. We completed 20 challenges around the county in 5 hours flat – and ended up winning second place in the competition!

The Lord released both of us from the jobs we had as we entered 2023. Neither of us found them to be the fit we had hoped to know in our vocations, but God graciously granted us new opportunities that have proven to be huge blessings. Ryan is working at a Retirement Community, where he serves as the Transportation Coordinator. He coordinates appointments for residents and is also one of the drivers for the appointments and for group outings. He is thrilled to be back with this age group and loves the work. I found a job with a ministry based out of Ohio called LifeWise Academy – which brings Bible and character education to public school students during the school day. I work as a coach, guiding communities who want to bring a LifeWise program to their school district.

I have missed the opportunity to read consistently – for probably the last five or so years – and this year I embarked on a reading challenge that I loved so much. I didn’t set any number records, but I did read 21 books and learned so much along the way. I also started memorizing Scripture, starting with the entire account of the Law in Exodus 20 and have been pleasantly surprised to discover I can memorize more than I thought! I’m currently working to memorize all of Psalm 119.

We had such a fun time on our birthday getaway in Michigan this summer, enjoying a long weekend of climbing dunes and having a unique dinner experience at a fish boil. Ryan climbed “the” dune at Sleeping Bear Dunes – the one that comes with a $3000 price tag if you have to be rescued. (He didn’t need rescued!) We just got home from our 11^th anniversary getaway to St. Louis, where we packed a whole lot of sightseeing into just a few days. The rest of our year felt like a vacation at home, enjoying brilliant sunsets from our own patio.

We committed to volunteering monthly at our church’s free clothing boutique and love the new community of friends we’ve made while serving. Ryan continued singing on the worship team at our church, and I was able to share messages with our local church and some women’s conferences as well. We also helped lead our Sunday School class now and then and joined up to serve with our church in other special ministry days. We just made a commitment to serve as deacons starting in 2024, and we’re looking forward that.

At the start of fall, we attended a friend’s wedding and came away from that day with fresh resolve in our hearts to move fully toward all that God has for us. The last five years (starting with Ryan’s mom’s illness and death) have contained much goodness, for sure, but also several profoundly hard circumstances. We celebrate the way God has grown and sustained us in them, but we are also ready to find a measure of freedom and wholeness we have not known over these last few years. It’s exciting!

Our end-of-year new adventure was joining a gym for the first time in many years. Ryan is teaching a boot camp class there once a week, and I’m taking the class. We’ll enjoy the chance to work out in these winter months when it’s too cold and snowy to be outside like we are in the warmer weather!

We leave you with the obligatory family update list: Braeya is now 17 and seems to be in the final stages of life. We are sad to think of losing her, but we are SO grateful for every year we’ve had with her. Lexi just turned 2, and we are still working hard with her training. She makes us laugh with her colorful personality, but she is also wildly stubborn, so training will take a while! Our little godson is three now and still comes to stay with us on weekends now and then. He became a big brother this year, so his life has seen a lot of adjustments, and we are grateful we still get to actively invest in him.            

We serve a good, good Father, and we are thankful for the year He has entrusted to us. We look forward to what He has for us in the year to come. We hope your Christmas season is filled with reminders of God’s goodness and love, dear friends. He loves you so!

-       Ryan and Bekah