Merry Christmas!
I enjoy
looking back on the year and am so excited to share our lives with you. Here is a breakdown of what is the same in
our lives and what is different. Bobby
is still a youth pastor at West Hills Community Church – We are going on 18
years. Adriel our daughter is still in
Portland, doing school and now she has two jobs. Seth is still home, working on college, and
has been the church custodian for around 3/4 years. I let go of my fun Fred Meyer job and took on
an even better job with the Oregon Department of Employment. I enjoy helping others and now I am helpful
without my body hurting as much.
Yay!
My
favorite part of the Christmas letter is finding funny things that happened in
the year so here goes for 2024:
I
enjoy having Adriel drive. She asked if
I liked her driving because she didn’t tell me how to drive. Yes, I do like that there is no backseat
driving but the biggest reason I like that she drives is that when things get
scary, I want to close my eyes and relax.
I can’t do that as well when I’m the one driving.
In
January, my car was stuck in the snow overnight. Bobby and Seth helped me get
it unstuck, and I was so thankful! I then drove to work at Freddie's. When I
arrived safely, I texted a thank you. Seth’s response was fabulous: “Good luck
getting back.” I love him so much!
One
night, Seth was loud around 11 PM while I was trying to sleep. He was playing
VR with friends and chatting. When I told Seth the next day, he said, “You
didn’t say anything.” When I mentioned,
“I told you about 10 times in my head to be quieter because I was trying to
sleep, " he said, “Do you understand how that might not have worked?”
Adriel
mentioned she was trying to gather friends together to play paintball. When I was balking (like they were) she said,
“Mom, these are people who throw themselves at cement for fun.” That is an interesting definition of
skateboarding. I love her words.
Seth
continues to do his job well and someone told me how helpful he was. When I passed the compliment on to him, he
said, “Well, it’s my job to be helpful.”
So, there you have it.
For
Adriel’s birthday, we had a great breakfast at Jam on Hawthorn and enjoyed
seeing Seth eat pepper intentionally for the first time. This was a gift from Adriel who demonstrated
adding salt and pepper to his hashbrowns. He loved it. Her comment, “You need to get out more!”
Seth
picked me up after church one Sunday and I had forgotten that he drives a
smaller blue car. I was excited to get
into the cute car and then looked over.
I mentioned how neat his car is and how super fly he looks with his
glasses on. Then I complimented him on
his music and said, “I feel like I got picked up by the cool kid.” I was rewarded with a shy smile. He’s fun to be with, my son.
Seth saw us
watching an older movie and looked it up, “1986, this movie was made in
1986? Was it colorized?” We both insisted that movies made in 1986
didn’t come in black and white. Bobby’s
comment, “Nothing says you are old unless your child asks if they had color TV
back then.”
Bobby
said, “I saw some people hunting mushrooms.”
This was confusing so I asked, “How would they be hunting
mushrooms?” Bobby said, “Well, not with
guns.”
This
year had hardships, laughter, tears, and change for the better. The pain of plantar fasciitis brought me to a
better job where I now work full time. Seth
transferred his community college credits to a larger college and both kids are
working hard towards graduation. Yay,
God!! He is the one who has held us
together through thick and thin. God is
our sustainer, creator, and giver of grace so we can give grace and forgiveness
to those who hurt us. May you find joy
in the beauty of nature, strength through your hard times, and love for
everyone you encounter.
Hugs,
Cristy VanKleek for the four of us, Bobby, Adriel, Seth, and Cristy
No comments:
Post a Comment