Merry Christmas from our family...

...to yours!

We hope this post finds you well.  Hopefully, by now, you are done with your Christmas shopping and you are able to relax a little and spend some time with your family and friends.  How many of you laughed out loud when I said RELAX?  I have to admit it does seem like a foreign word sometimes.

Well, 2012 was filled with some great memories but it also hit us with some unpleasant circumstances.  These circumstances may have knocked me down but they will not keep me down.  I will learn from these situations and won't let them defeat me.  This year it was made evident to us that we should never take family for granted.  We are not guaranteed another day and we need to make each day count.

This year, our family has decided to become a foster family.  We did the training, the home study, the mounds of paperwork, joined a support group for foster families, we talked with family and friends and tried to educate them on what it means to foster hurting and broken children.  We read books and articles and attend trainings to help us be the best foster family we can. We also do a lot of praying!  Through this fostering process, we have seen God's love, direction and sense of humor shine.   While I can't share specifics with you all just yet, we hope to be able to share our story with you very soon. So please stay tuned...

Besides preparing to be foster siblings, the kids are doing great.  They are keeping busy and well, right now, they have nothing but Christmas break on the brain.

Courtney turned 20 this year.  Yep, I just said it, I have a 20 year old.  She keeps busy working in the office for Metzger's Painting and she is going to school full time at Grand Canyon University (she is a sophomore and gets terrific grades). This semester, she was able to spend some time in a couple of kindergarten classrooms which is the grade that she would like to teach. She also teaches in the preschool class at our church. Courtney bought her very first car this year.  No car payments for her though, she saved up the cash to buy her car. With the little free time that Courtney has, she tries to spend it with her Prince Charming of two years, Wyatt.  

Cassie will be 17 in the spring and is finishing up her Junior year of high school which will be her last year of High School.  She worked very hard over the summer to be able to graduate early.  It looks like she will be attending Northern Arizona University in the fall but she would like to check out one more college in Durango Colorado. Cassie is still our social butterfly.  She and her friends are either at the mall, the movies, having a sleepover or they are attending some type of high school game or theatre production. As social as she is, she still manages to get great grades. She volunteers in the nursery at church and babysits when she can. She is saving to go to Washington DC with one of her classes.  She is very excited to go on this trip!

Connor turned twelve in October and is in 6th grade.  He still enjoys sports and still takes drum lessons at school.  Connor found another love this year; guitar.  He was able to take a few guitar lessons this summer at our churches Summer Arts Camp.  Since then, he has been hooked.  Uncle Joel gave him an acoustic guitar for his birthday and he bought an electric guitar and amp. with his birthday money.  He hopes to take lessons soon.  Now that he is down to playing just one sport, guitar lessons are probably in his near future.  Connor is still playing year round club baseball.  He and his team earned a couple gold championship rings this year.  Sadly, this fall, he told us that he is getting tired of baseball and really wants to go back to playing tackle football. So, in February we will be football parents again.  Connor surprised us this year by running for Student Council President.  This is his second year in Student Council and his first year as their president.  He really loves his teacher this year (so do we) and is getting Awesome grades.

Patrick and I continue working for our church.  We try to get in as many date nights and weekend get aways as possible.
Patrick's parents moved closer to us so he does a lot of running around for them. He goes to school a couple days a week and he too gets awesome grades.  He does a ton of reading for both work and school and on the weekends he's at the baseball fields yelling at the umps...I mean, cheering Connor on ;)
I mostly chauffeur the kids around, try to plan family outings and do some subbing at the preschool that I used to work for.  I am excited for Christmas and beyond ready for the New Year!

We hope that you and your family have a very Merry Christmas and that the new year brings you much joy!

~♥~ The Gibbs