Christmas Letter 2011

I'm short on Christmas cards this year by pure stupidity :) I'm hoping some of my friends and family will hop over to read this. Sorry. I'll do better next year! Merry Christmas/Happy New Year! Imagine a pretty card with our pictures on it! You know...like the gigantic picture at the top of the blog! :)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

December 15, 11

Dear Friends and Family,

Hoping this letter finds you well! 2011 was somewhat of an eventful year for us, so we thought we would catch you up with a nice ”little” letter J

I celebrated my 30^th birthday in February…kind of distressing and hard to accept…ha! But, my husband threw me a lovely party in the midst of our massive ice storm and I was loved on and celebrated by dear friends and family. I’m more than thankful when I look at my life and recognize that I’ve been able to be blessed with so much in 30 years…an education, a good job, a home, a loving husband and two beautiful, healthy boys. God really has been so kind to me!

Among other things that took place this year, Josh treated me to a long weekend out east! I have always wanted to take a trip to the east coast in the fall to enjoy the scenery and get away. We went over Josh’s fall break to Portland, ME and had a wonderful time visiting lighthouses, eating lobster and even taking a day trip to Boston, MA. It was a great trip and we hope to go again with the boys!

Josh applied for and accepted a new position at the end of September. He took a test to become licensed in teaching secondary English (high school) this summer. He officially left his position teaching special education at the Alternative Learning School in Perry Township and moved over to Southport High School to teach lower level English courses. This was a great move for him since he already coaches and manages the soccer program at the high school. Its fun for him to finally be part of a “normal” school and although somewhat surprising to me, he is doing really well teaching English! J (I joke with him because I am the one who always proof read HIS papers in college!) I love the fact that I finally have papers to help grade (something I’ve always wanted to do as a teacher’s wife!) and he is looking forward to helping the English program develop and move forward at Southport. Along with teaching, Josh continues to coach varsity soccer at Southport and as well as head coaching for two club teams with Westside United.

Owen started his first year of pre-k this year at Traders Point Christian Academy. He has really loved it! I knew that school would be something he enjoyed, and I was right! J He goes M-W-F, from 9-1 and it is just the right amount of time. A few things that he has really mastered this first semester are: recognizing and writing each letter of the alphabet, recognizing and writing numbers 1-10, drawing shapes, cutting along a line, and the pledge of allegiance! We are looking forward to next semester and are prayerful about where we will send him to kindergarten next fall. Such big decisions! Some other fun things that Owen did this past year includes : learning how to swim (and he can REALLY, TRULY swim!) playing soccer for Little Kickers in Zionsville, attend preschool camp at Traders Point, and continue on for his second year of Cubbies (AWANA) at our church, College Park. He is a busy kid and loves people. We are so blessed by him!

Wesley turned ONE in October, which is completely hard to believe. He is a lot of fun and has much passion and spirit J He is finally happy (well, happier) to be part of the nursery on Sunday mornings, and does even better at my Tuesday morning bible study childcare. He started walking between 13-14 months and he is going to keep all of us on our toes! We love this little guy a lot and are excited to see who he will become.

Our biggest news is that we sold our home in September and we are waiting to close on a new house in Brownsburg on Dec. 22! It is a lovely, older home located near the middle school…and we are so excited to have our own space again and put some updates in to make this house great. It will be a wonderful spot for our boys to grow up in and we are feeling so blessed that we were able to sell and buy in this economy…it was harder than we anticipated! We look forward to having you to our new place and hope that you will come visit us soon! Our new address is:

3 Fairwood Dr.

Brownsburg, IN 46112

We hope that you have had a wonderful 2011! Praying that 2012 is a year of blessing and growing in God’s grace for you and yours. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

The Brown Family

Josh, Kim, Owen and Wesley

Owen's Christmas Program

Owen had a Christmas program at his school (Traders Point Christian Academy) today :) I feel like a semi-terrible mom, because he is definitely under the weather. In fact, I raced him the Pediatrician on Tuesday late afternoon because I thought he had strep. We found out he didn't...just a nasty virus that is being passed around, and that he wasn't really even contagious. So, we've been drugging him with ibuprofen (Owen's wonder drug) and gatorade. He feels great about an hour into the ibuprofen high, so I tried to work it so that that high would take place during his program. I kind of made it...he did ok. He definitely looked a little zonked, but I'm glad he got to participate. :) He came home, ate lunch, watched a movie with dad (who took the day off of work to see Owen's program...SCORE!) and then he slept from 1 pm-6 pm! My poor little bubby! Feel free to intercede on our behalf by asking Jesus to show us kindness and mercy and SPARE the rest of us (especially Wes!) this nasty virus! Yuk!

Here are pictures from the program this morning :)

Wes can walk

This post is so anticlimactic. My littlest booger can walk. We've known this for awhile. He has just chosen not to. He prefers crawling. He prefers this weird scooting around on one knee, dragging the other leg behind him. Supposedly, this is faster. He will tease us every so often with a few steps here and there, but mostly refuses. We spent the past weekend with the Gross family. Will, their youngest...(he's twelve months old...a good month and a half younger than Wes) walks. I think Wes felt the peer pressure. He came back from our visit walking a whole lot more. He still doesn't walk all the time, but he walks more. His first consistent steps were right before his birthday. I guess he likes to do things progressively.

That's all. Wes can walk. When he wants to, I mean.

(Wes also is a screamer. Any thoughts on that?! :))

Thankful

I realize this is a post-Thanksgiving post, but that's ok.

We had a nice Thanksgiving. We celebrated with Josh's family on Thursday at Caleb and Heather's home and with my family on Saturday at my mom and dad's. It was very low key. I did a little cooking. (homemade rolls, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese and pumpkin bars) Which I love :) I got to see my brother, and meet his lovely new girlfriend. We took the boys downtown to see the lighting of the Christmas tree, which was fun...kind of...but mostly chaotic and paranoia inducing because of the large crowds and small children who eventually became overwhelmed by the crowds. Oh well. Its all part of the experience! :)

I'm tempted to be thankful for the same things that I'm always thankful for. And I am. For my children, my husband, for provision, for health, for family and friends that make my life so full. I'm thankful for specific things like...an able and generous father who loaned me an extra car when my ENGINE died in our Saturn Vue. WHAT?! I'm thankful for a generous engineer friend who will be able to fix said engine after the Holiday's at a fraction of the price it was going to cost us to do ourselves (well, not ourselves...but at a shop..you know). I'm thankful that we have generous family who are helping us through this transition time.....and I'm thankful that we have an accepted offer on a lovely older home in Brownsburg that we expect to close on at the end of December! Yay! (more details to come later...we are pending inspection and I don't want to celebrate too early...but we are pretty confident! :) Yep, I'm pretty grateful that when I look at my life...barring a few complications and setbacks along the way, God has pretty much given me everything I have ever hoped for....even if it hasn't come packaged in just the way I had thought it should or would!

But ya know what else? I'm pretty darn thankful that God is doing a huge work in my life and heart right now. I'm humbled and grateful for the continuing work of the Holy Spirit in my life. Realizing that mercy and grace and the conviction of the Holy Spirit is big gift from my Father...I look forward with great expectation to see what God is going to do in my life, in the life of my husband and my boys.

There has been this theme that God has brought me to lately of "everything is GRACE". Yes, Ive read that outrageously popular "1000 Gifts" by Ann Voskamp, but even outside of that...via church, small groups, bible study, personal devotion...I've come to a weird but precious place in my life. I feel a big shift washing over my life from what I used to value....to what I am now seeing is truly valuable. Like, our house. We choose...somewhat weirdly BUT happily to buy a home that is priced 100k less than what we felt comfortable buying. Our home is old and outdated. And ya know, while I look forward to putting new things into that house and making it "better" I care SO MUCH less about it than I ever thought I would. Our cabinets are nasty. The laundry CLOSET is in the KITCHEN! Guess what?! I don't care! ( ok, maybe I care about 5%, but really..what's 5%?! :)) It doesn't matter! You know what IS great? I HAVE cabinets! I HAVE a washer and dryer! Its wonderful! :)

I'm starting to naturally look past the surface and find blessing in everything. This is huge in my life! Even things that don't seem great. Who am I to know the mind of God? If I can see my life through the lens and filter that "everything is grace" then even hard stuff can be joyful. I believe that even the "bad" stuff is God's grace in my life. Without it....how would I know that I needed a Savior? His grace and mercy in NOT giving me everything I think I want/need to make my life great...is for my sanctification...and I'm starting to embrace it. My response to his direction in my life is the only way I have to honor Him. Oh I want to do it well. I need eyes to see and ears to hear...I pray this for you too. Whoever still stumbles upon my blog from time to time, may God be gracious and kind to you...to give you eyes to see and ears to hear...that which is truly important and will count for Jesus and his kingdom. Its so tempting to take the easy road, to live for ourselves, for our comfort...to make ourselves our own God...but its so very dissatisfying.

So that's it. I'm thankful. And I'm hopeful that I can live this life well and do something that will make a difference for Jesus. I'm hopeful that I can teach my boys what it means to love others and to have a generous heart. Thanks Jesus for not giving me everything I think I want and need all the time, every time. I'm afraid it would make me a pretty nasty and ungrateful person!

‎"Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart from what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I go from nothing to Eternity"

-Hillsong

Trick or Treat

We did a few things for some Halloween fun this year. We went to Zoo-Boo at the Indianapolis Zoo and we went trick or treating with our cousin Bailey! Fun! We all know how much I love Halloween and I think I've somehow managed to create a child who loves it just as much as I do. Owen and I counted down the days together until Halloween and several of his comments just made me laugh..."Mom, Halloween is my FAVORITE time of of year" :), etc, etc. You know the sentiments. We celebrate halloween for the fun that it is....dressing up, handing out candy (which we didn't get to do this year :(), being with friends and family and indulging in the beautiful season of Fall. I think as long as we keep our perspective on loving Jesus and making it kid-friendly, we'll be ok. That's my plan! Here are some pictures (in no particular order of course :))

Lots of run on sentences and I used the word "excited" a lot. And I said "like" a lot. You have been forewarned!

Josh and I went to Maine. It was beautiful. Basically I want to move there. Josh says no. Or, he says...maybe, but we don't have jobs. Details, details. We also went to Boston for the day. I also want to move there, but we'd have to live in a box....when here in the midwest we can actually own property. Its a no-brainer I guess, but oh man...its beautiful out there. We took a sunset sail in Portland on our last night there...it was amazing! Right up my alley. We sat next to a couple who were just our age from Boston. They had just gotten engaged, were renting an apartment and said they were years away from having kids. Funny how lives can be so different. :)

We are still living with Josh's parents. Its really going very well. I mean, I guess I'm speaking for myself here, but I think its going ok. :) We looked at three houses on Saturday. We weren't excited about any of them. I'm going to see a house on Wednesday morning that screams PROJECT...and I'm weirdly excited about it. Its an older home and listed WAY below what we are pre-approved for. I'm kind of getting really excited about the idea of living below our means. Like this would be well below our means. Its appealing. I don't need huge. I need cozy and safe. This house might be a good fit...but you would have to bear with us as we updated and renovated. It could be an adventure :) We'll see what I think after I actually step foot inside....I'll let ya know!

Owen is doing well. Still loving preschool....spends most of his free time running around trying to be a jedi knight, a transformer, or batman. We are really into superheroes over here. He is a true boy. Goodness.

Wesley is crazy as always. He refuses to walk, but he can. He just won't. Whatever. He's taken screaming to new levels and I'm not sure what to do about it. Yes. I have a screamer. God help me. He is also cutting his two top front teeth. That could be the reason for some of the screaming. Sheesh. We love him. He's crazy. The end.

This next weekend we are heading to Grace College for homecoming and staying with our friends The Knoops for a bonfire! A whole bunch of our friends are coming and I'm so excited to get our kids together! What fun. Loved my college. Loved my college years. Loved my friends there...can't wait to go back and relive some of it!

Stay tuned for trick or treat pictures! Happy Fall!

"THIS for THAT"

Our church just completed a building project. Well, half a building project. We have a new sanctuary. It was desperately needed. Prior to the opening of the new sanctuary, people were crunched and crammed into the old sanctuary, and we had overflow....where our family would end up most weeks because we just couldn't get to church early enough to make it into the regular sanctuary. Most Sunday's overflow would become too full and there would be standing room only. More than once I decided to just go work in the nursery (because they are always desperate for workers anyways) instead of standing in overflow...or because I felt guilty....I never knew who was leaving overflow because I was sitting in a seat instead of them...what if that person didn't know Jesus? What if they really, REALLY needed to be there...I couldn't live with the guilt :) Anyways, I digress. We needed a new sanctuary. We got one. (nice how that works right? we needed something, we got it. Somehow life doesn't always work that way...this time it did. Its nice) Right now there are major renovations going on in our old building/sanctuary to create a new children's wing...which is also desperately needed.

Anyways, the theme that our pastor's have been trying to communicate since we've had the privilege of being in our new building (that seats 1800 people, has luxurious seating and ample space in the atrium, hallways, aisles...etc!) is...THIS, for THAT. Meaning....lets keep our perspective here....we have this great new building and the awesome opportunity to constantly be surrounded by good teaching and people who love Jesus...SO THAT we can do a better job of bringing Christ to the nations...sharing Jesus with those who do not have Him. THIS for THAT. I love it. It reminds me to be very careful lest I soak in all the goodness that has been handed to me and think that I'm deserving and not responsible to do anything with it. Oh man. We are so responsible.

I want to implement this perspective heavily in my own life. THIS struggle, for THAT move towards holiness. THIS blessing so that I/we may bless THAT person. Whatever has been given to us...its always leads to something else. THIS for THAT.

When we were trying to selling our house and realizing how terribly upside down we would be, I struggled with how we immediately felt like we didn't deserve to be stuck where we were. Like living in the house we were living in was so completely unacceptable....we were better than this, our neighborhood had taken a nose dive and OUR children had no business being brought up in a area like we were in. Man. When did I become such a SNOB!? :) Ha. I tell ya, I really really wrestled until God brought me to a place where I was completely happy to stay in our little home on the west-side of Indianapolis. Where our neighbors blasted loud gangster rap that shook our walls and teenagers walked the streets at nights looking like they were up to no good. I had to take a good look at my heart. Who am I to know the mind of God? Who am I to question what he has for my life? What if our neighborhood to be our mission field? Maybe. And I tell you honestly that if God asked us to stay there for the rest of our lives, I would have been peaceful about it. True story. However, he made a way for us to get out. Barely :) But we did get out. And now, when I think about what we CAN have....a safe neighborhood, a much bigger/better house, good schools...neighbors that do NOT blast gangster rap :) You get the idea. I think...man, I really want all of this prosperity to be put to good use. THIS for THAT Lord. Your blessing to us in exchange for YOUR glory! I'm ok with having good stuff if we can use it to bless others. I'm praying that God will keep our family sensitive to know how we can use our lives to serve others. I'm not that good at seeing it. To date, I have removed myself from a consistent situation I had to share Jesus. I am now a stay at home mom with my children. I attend church, I go to bible study, we attend a small group, my best friends know and love the Lord...you get the picture. I felt like at least when I was working I had the opportunity to be around people that I could love on for Jesus. And now, I'm just praying that I will be wise enough to see where Jesus would have me to go from here. Vision trips? Doing more to support or missionaries? Standing on the street corner telling others about Jesus!? :) I don't know, but I know it has to be something.

THIS for THAT Jesus! I want to know you more :)