congratulations!

this year has been a year of changes and celebrations.

1. lovie graduated from high school and started at JBU!
2. susie graduated with her PhD and was offered 3 jobs! she's working for the aurora public school system! and al finished his nursing degree and impressively got a job in an ICU unit!
3. charlie and i got engaged and... married! we successfully planned a wedding! i also started working toward my goal of being a dietitian by going back to school!
4. mom went a whole summer without needing surgery :) (sorry mom... no more surgeries for you!)
5. dad completed a large portion of his PhD thesis (book) and got promoted (yesterday!) to "all but degree" status! (that means they know he's "doctor" quality! he just needs to finish it!)

(and with my new loup family, too!
charlie and my marriage, risa and judah's marriage, and nic and crystal's baby foxy. it's an eventful year all around!)

oddly enough, with all these changes, we're all looking forward to more changes. all of us will probably move within the next 3 or so years. stacy will graduated again... al will get into nurse anesthetist school... they'll probably have a baby in 3 years, too :) (Hopefully!) charlie will graduate ;) and (hopefully!) i'll get into a masters program somewhere? and mom and dad will move to the city where dad gets a job!

i really miss my family. i hope we'll all soon be in a place where we live close or can visit more often. it's exciting to me that in all of our different stages of life, God is still working in us and through us and bringing us to new places.