Year End Letter

Hello and Merry Christmas to all my beloved friends!
This year has gone by so fast it seems. I feel like I was just writing a year end letter! Where to begin with life this year?

Derek has grown so much in this past year. I feel like we were just celebrating his first Christmas, but here we are at his second, and when I look at him and at the progress he has made in the past year it becomes clear to me how far we have come! We celebrated his first birthday in February with a huge airplane themed birthday party. We had invitations that looked like boarding passes, an airplane shaped cake, lots of food, and the center piece- a runway table cloth! Derek's Grammy and Grandpa (Sarah's parents) came down for the party and airline pilot Grandpa helped ensure that the runway table cloth was accurate to real life! :)
Last year Derek's vocabulary consisted mostly of sign language, but now he is a little chatterbox! He is stringing words together into short sentences, and understanding the concepts of things belonging to people. He will point to things and say "Momma's" or "Dadda's". It's great! Over the summer he discovered he LOVES swimming. There is a park not far from our house where we would go on walks first thing in the morning, and there's a little fountain there that he would have a blast playing in. We even got to go to the city waterpark a few times and he thoroughly enjoyed that. In August Derek went and spent a fun week at Grammy and Grandpa's while Mom and Dad got away on a much needed vacation. He had a blast and didn't even a shed a tear when he said goodbye to Mom and Dad! Although he was pretty happy to see them again after a week! In November Derek got treat. His cousins came to visit for Thanksgiving. He loved playing with his cousin Caleb who is four, and his cousin Isaac who is 2.

Nathan has been plugging away at growing his youth group at our church. He just loves his job and loves the kids he works with. He has been busy with trips and events Over the last year he has led trips to Minnesota, Kansas City, and Colorado, as well as several local events including an all church picnic and swimming party in July. That was a great event that everyone is looking forward to doing again next year. Nathan has been enjoying his work schedule. It allows him to be at home with Sarah and Derek as much as he possibly can during the week. Wednesdays and Sundays of course are the long work days for him, but he is able to have Friday and Saturday as his weekend. WE have decided that having a weekday as an off day is wonderful! It allows us to do things together as a family (like the zoo, and the mall) that would normally be very crowded on Saturdays.

Sarah has had her hands full with an active little boy, and making new friends. She has a regular standing playdate on Mondays and of course sees our good friends Ben, Jena, Kadence and Liam regularly. She started working very part time in March at a transitional home for single women called Mt. Hope Sanctuary. This home is a ministry supported by our church, and reaches out to help single women who need assistance getting back on their feet after a messy divorce, or being incarcerated, or leaving a dysfunctional family situation. Sarah has enjoyed her work here, and feels like she is finally using her psychology degree to s certain capacity, although her primary role remains stay at home wife and mom to Derek.

In family news, Nathan and Sarah were finally able to take the trip to Hawaii they had been planning for 5 years. It was always Sarah's dream to go to Hawaii for our 5 year wedding anniversary, and the Lord was gracious enough to allow us the means to do that. Derek stayed at Grammy and Grandpa's and Nathan and Sarah spent a much needed week by themselves enjoying tropical paradise! While in Hawaii we visited Pearl Harbor to see the USS Arizona Memorial, and the battleship USS Missouri. We toured the Dole pineapple plantation, and hiked to the peak of Diamond Head, an extinct volcano on the island of Oahu. We spent the rest of our time on Waikiki Beach lounging in a cabana and reading, talking, listening to music and soaking up the sun. We also enjoyed getting to eat at restaurants that were local to Hawaii. We were very proud of ourselves for only visiting one chain restaurant, Cheesecake Factory, which of course, is forgivable. :)
In other family news, we discovered in September that we will become a family of four in June of next year! That's right! Derek will be a big brother!! We are thrilled, and although Sarah has not been feeling well, she has been a trooper.
Calvin and Piper, our two cats, are doing well. Calvin still has no great love for Piper, but the little kitten has grown on him some over that past year we have had him. They like to play fight at night after all the lights are off, and boy are they loud! Hopefully Piper will mellow out a little as he gets older. :)

We are so blessed with all that has gone on this past year in our family. I hope that this letter is a testimony to God's goodness to us. He is good all the time. I love that we get to take this time of year to reflect on that, and to celebrate the incarnation of Jesus Christ, who was God's ultimate gift to us. His ultimate display of goodness. That He would send His Son as a human to take on the sins of the world. We are always so thankful for Jesus Christ, and for the way He paved to have a relationship with Him so that we might be saved. Praise His Name at Christmas time, and forever more! May the Lord bless all of you this coming year. We love you all!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Nathan, Sarah and Derek Metcalf