Merry Christmas Anika

December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas Anika!

Mom and Dad would like to give you a different kind of gift today.  We want you to know how proud of you we are, not for what you have accomplished, but how you have grown in so many ways.  This year we saw you:

• ·         Helping Mom with your brothers and sisters, in more ways than we could ever have imagined

• ·         Showing compassion towards others, especially orphans

• ·         Growing and developing your personality, which used to be on the shy side, but now is outgoing and very friendly

• ·         Being a very good friend to people you have known for a while, as well as easily meeting and making new friends

• ·         Being a good friend to Mommy, and making her laugh when she really needs it

• ·         Playing with Jordan, even when it gets a little rough

• ·         Learning to cook, and making dinner when Dad needed the help, like when Mom was in Ohio

• ·         Being willing to work hard in school, even if the subjects don’t come easily to you

• ·         Reading many, many books, which shows intelligence and interest in the world around you.

• ·         Never complaining about having to share your room with your little sister

• ·         Being beautiful inside and out

• ·         Growing in your faith and love of Jesus

We hope that you are having as much fun being in our family as we are having you in it, and we pray that you will have another great year next year!

Love,

Mom & Dad

Merry Christmas Jordan

Merry Christmas Jordan,

Mom and Dad wanted to give you this special gift, that will hopefully outlast all the other gifts you receive this year. We don't care so much about whether you were naughty or nice. We want you to know we were very proud of you this year in so many ways. You grew in emotional maturity, character, faith, love of your family, handling adversity, treatment of friends, compassion, courage, determination, and creativity. This year we saw you:

• Becoming closer to Anika, including her and playing with her a lot more often, and treating her with respect
• Being an awesome big brother with Daniel and Ellery, especially when Mom is at the doctors office
• Helping Dad coach Micah, and teaching him your baseball skills
• Showing love towards Peyton
• Standing up for your friends when other friends are being mean to them
• Continuing to amaze us with your inventions, including a catapult, a stinkbug zapper, and a flame thrower. You also built an entire wiffle ball field including fence and lights, and did all the wiring and lighting yourself. You were well known in the electrical aisle in Lowe's
• Doing well in an advanced and challenging science class
• Persevering in summer baseball in the new league with mostly older and bigger kids, but then turned it around in fall ball and made lead-off hitter and played shortstop, third base and pitcher. In the last game you were the ultimate lead-off man, getting four hits and a walk, stealing at least six bases (I lost count), and scoring all four times. You also impressed many people with your fielding and throwing arm. You had good outings on the mound and not so good, but at times you were unhittable. More importantly, when you struggled, you maintained your composure, and never gave up. 
• Exhibiting tremendous courage when you had the accident with your teeth
• Showing compassion for orphans
• Learning to surf 
• Learning to run the media equipment at church sunday school and becoming someone they can rely on
• Humbling yourself and apologizing with sincerity when you made mistakes
• Speaking to your next door neighbor about Jesus
• Going to Creation Fest with Dad and Anika 
• Showing total generosity towards your siblings at Christmas time with your savings

When you were little, Mom called you "Boy Wonder". This year you showed us you will continue to amaze us and fill us with pride. You will always be our lead-off man.

Love, 

Mom & Dad