Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
From Our Family to Yours!
It is hard to believe that it has been 1 year since our last post! Typically, no news is good news on this end and that has in fact been the case for us, PRAISE THE LORD! With that, we wanted to take the opportunity to catch everyone up on our family this past year.
For those who read the post from
last year, you learned that we had transitioned to a historic farmhouse on a 200-acre farm in
Urbana, MD. This
place has been and continues to be a blessing for our family! While we are in the country, we are only 5-10
minutes away from most places we need to get to on a daily basis (excluding
Jason’s work which ranges from 40-60 minutes one way). Such a treasure that isn’t easy to find! We have met many new baby cows over the past
year on the farm, had many cow jailbreaks into our yard/driveway, our
chickens continue to do well here, we have loved having access to a pool to use
regularly, have enjoyed using the pond to canoe and fish, and started our first
big garden that Taylor has always dreamed of having. And we are SO THANKFUL for the opportunity to
get more connected in the community now that things have opened back up COVID
wise. We switched back to our church’s
main campus (Mountain View Community Church) and have worked hard to get
plugged back in now that we are living in the same community of the campus –
literally right around the corner from our house.
We had a very memorable summer
that started out first with an extended family trip on Meg’s side to Minnesota,
thanks to the generosity of Meg’s sister and brother-in-law. It was a first time for our family and we
enjoyed getting to see a new part of the country. And the time with family while there was
priceless! Later in the summer we were
able to sneak in a beach trip to Hilton Head, which is one of Meg’s
favorites. It was such a treat to not be
in a car for a week and bike all over the island including the beach 😊 And our
friends were able to meet up with us while we were there for a few days, which made
it extra special.
Now for the family breakdown…
Let’s start with Jas. He is almost to his 3-year Anniversary of
being stomach Cancer Free in February, which seems so
surreal to even be able to say. We
continue to be in AWE of the Lord and His healing! The extra time we have gotten to have
together as a family has been treasured and we recognize many are not as
fortunate. We appreciate your continued
prayers for Jas to remain cancer free!
This past summer Jas took on a new role at work that he has enjoyed so
far and will most likely be in for another 1.5 years. Thankfully he hasn’t had a lot of travel, which has been HUGE for our family as the kids are getting older and needing
their dad around more. He has also
enjoyed getting to walk out the front door and onto the farm to hunt deer often
these days. A dream of his for most of
his life. We are thankful for a freezer
full of venison as a result and the kids have even shown interest and have been
helping with butchering the deer.
Something we never thought Meg nor they would be interested in. Now it’s apparently a family affair. Another love of Jas’s has been roasting his
own coffee beans. Since the entire
removal of his stomach with the last surgery, it dawned on him that he could
start enjoying coffee again and boy has he!
He has been sourcing beans from all over the world to roast and enjoy
now that he can. Lastly for Jas, he felt
very strongly about leading a Home Group (bible study) with our church in the
Urbana area this year. Boy have we been
blessed as a result! The friendships we
have made with these other families in this small community have been so sweet
and are already so treasured. It’s been
so nice to dig into the word together with them a couple times a month. And our kids have made such sweet friendships
as well! Exceedingly and abundantly more
than we expected!
As for Meg, she continues to work
part time at a small, family-owned business in Frederick, MD just 10 minutes
away from home. She has been enjoying
getting to dabble back in some HR work now that the company has over doubled in
size. On the mom end, she is more or
less the taxi driver to all the kiddos appointments and activities since Jas
works about an hour away from home and has had some really long days with this
new job. She is thrilled that the
schools have allowed parents back in the classroom for the first time in over 2
years so she can start getting more connected in the community and school. She has been involved in an outreach group
called Moms Connect @ church this year as a mentor mom, now that we don’t have
any preschoolers in our house, and that has brought her a lot of joy! She is finally feeling like she is getting
some roots down again and getting involved in the ministries she had once been
in and loved. And to be able to
reconnect with her friends from 10+ years prior on a regular basis has been such
a blessing while living back in this area.
Taylor (13) has entered into 8th
grade this year, and it has been a BIG transition for her! We moved her from private school (which she
LOVED) back into public school this year after much hard conversation and
prayer. While it was a really hard first
month for her (transitioning from a total class size of under 20 to now a class
size of around 300), so many people have been so kind to Taylor and our family
through this process and that really helped Taylor see God going before her in
really cool ways! Our original plan was
to let her stay in private until 9th grade, but the closer we got to
the end of 7th grade, the more we questioned if that was best for
her. FINALLY, after 2 long years of
having 2 kids at 2 different schools, 2 different school calendars, etc. we are
back to the same school district, calendar, etc. HALLELUJAH!!! No more driving 1.5 hrs. a day! And now Taylor is a bus rider for the first
time EVER! That has changed both of our
worlds in a good way! As for hobbies, she
still has a HUGE love of horses and has been so blessed by our dear friend
Kristin who welcomes her to come ride their horses on a weekly basis to
exercise them. It truly is therapy for
Taylor and such an incredible gift! She
also has a love for both volleyball and lacrosse. Taylor is currently on a club volleyball team
in the area which she is thrilled to be part of, which will help prepare her
for high school. Here in our county, they do not have middle school sports, so
rec teams and clubs are the only way to get the experience you need to be ready
for high school. This past summer Taylor
went to lot of volleyball camps and she also participated in the Frederick FCA
(Fellowship of Christian Athletes) camp that our church hosted that
has been and continues to be a family favorite!
Taylor participated in a LAX rec league this past spring and also a fall
LAX league that helped keep her skills going.
It was also HUGE in helping her meet some girls that are at the school
she goes to now before starting this fall. Youth Group at church has been another love
this fall for Taylor. She looks forward
to going on a weekly basis and even went on the fall retreat (her first one
ever) and had an absolute blast! This
has been another way for her to start making deeper connections with girls her
age outside of school, with Jesus being the heart of the connection for them
all.
Tyler (9) is in 3rd
grade this year and was able to return to the same school that he went to last
year. It has been so nice to not have
both kids transitioning to new schools at the same time – HA! He absolutely adores his teacher and things
have been going really well for him academically. He continues to love playing soccer, which he
did this past spring and fall. This
winter he is playing basketball for a change of pace for one season. The poor guy has struggled health wise this
fall with a LOT of sickness that we continue to peel back the onion to get to
the core of it all. Thankfully, we
continue to be teamed up with our AMAZING acupuncturist, who helped us
find the house we are in, and continues to help us get to the root of the
problems and then treat him for those.
Underneath most of the health struggles are quite a few allergies that
we are learning about as we go. With
that, on top of his immune system being completely shot from having worn a mask
for 2 years, he is catching anything and everything that seems to be flying
around – and there is a lot right now flying around. So, if you could please keep Ty and his
health in your prayers we would really appreciate it!
We are looking forward to slowing
down this Christmas Season to spend time with family & friends and
celebrate Jesus’ birth. May you have the gift of faith, the blessing of hope,
and the peace of His love at Christmas and always.
With Much Love,
Jas & Meg
