2010 Year-End Letter

It has been another crazy and humbling year. We are continually amazed by God’s provision and are thankful for many friends and family members that helped us out this past year. In June, after eleven months of looking for work, Bryan found an engineering position at the Hanford nuclear environmental cleanup site in Richland, Washington. The position is scheduled to last through September 2011. While Bryan was busy applying and interviewing for jobs in the Boise area, Judy was grading high school students’ essays for an online academy. Springtime was a particularly busy time for research papers. Judy also helped proctor end-of-the-school year exams for extra income.

In May, Judy’s oldest nephew, Caleb, graduated from Mountain Home High School. Before Bryan started his new job, we took a quick road trip to San Jose, California, to visit Bryan’s family. Shortly after the trip, Bryan left for Richland. The summer was spent with Bryan driving back and forth on weekends between Richland and Meridian (4 ½ hours each way). In August, Bryan found a small 1950s duplex for rent in Richland and Judy and the girls officially moved to Washington. We are currently renting out our home in Meridian.

A few days after the move, Katelyn started pre-school at a private Christian school. It is a five-day a week program. Katelyn loves it! There are ten kids in her class. She can write her name and several other words now. She loves doing crafts and could spend hours coloring. She is also a great older sister and enjoys playing with Jill.

Jillian continues to bring a great amount of joy to our household. She is definitely the most enthusiastic member of the family. She gets excited about everything and has a contagious joy for life. Her development has dramatically caught up. She has a large vocabulary and runs or jumps everywhere. She is still on a feeding tube for part of her nutritional needs. In the last few days, we again reduced her tube feedings. Currently she is receiving two daytime feeds and an all-night slow drip feed. If her weight continues to increase and she eats a bigger quantity and variety of foods, there is hope that she could be off her feeding tube within a year.

Perhaps the biggest event of the year (at least in Bryan’s opinion, possibly even more eventful than finding a job and moving the family out-of-state) was the San Francisco Giants winning the World Series.  There was a lot of excitement in our home throughout the playoffs. Buster Posey became a household name.

Judy’s dad had another stroke in November. He had to stay in a rehabilitation facility for more than a month to learn to walk again. Her dad is still not driving but is now living back home. We traveled to Idaho for Thanksgiving to see Judy’s family. Her brother and sister-in-law, Jim and Margo, even made the trip out from Denver.

For Christmas, we spent two weeks in California. We took the girls to Disneyland for the first time and Bryan’s dad met up with us there. Unfortunately, it rained twice as much as it usually rains in the entire month of December (close to four inches in two days). We were soaked but at least the lines were short. We also spent some time at the ocean and the redwoods. We enjoyed visiting San Luis Obispo and San Francisco as well. But most importantly, we were able to spend a lot of time with close friends and Bryan’s family. We even met a new baby nephew, Blake, who was born the day after Christmas to Bryan’s step-brother, Todd, and his wife, Audra.

It is hard to believe it is already a new year. Bryan’s New Year’s resolution is to eat healthier and lose some weight. Judy on the other hand will probably be gaining about 20 pounds. Did we mention that we are expecting our third child? The due date is June 30^th. We are praying for a very healthy baby and uneventful delivery.

We wish you and your family many blessings and abundant joy in this New Year.