Psalm 143:1

I feel a bit beat up these days. There have been three deaths recently that have affected our family. Besides our grandma, there have been two little girls near us that have died in the last week. One of Greta's 7yr. old friends, Serena, died unexpectedly from severe asthma. It was such a shock to all and she was really a sweet, sweet girl. Her funeral was beautiful as we got to learn more about her and her strong faith that she already had at such a young age. And yesterday, a 3yr. old little girl, Madeline, in our area that we have been praying for died. We weren't personally friends with their family, but our dear friends are and we have been praying for this little girl for the last 5 months or so. The parents are such strong people that have been such a witness to many. Lord, I lift up all of these families as they are grieving for the ones that they love and miss!

So the other person that has been on our hearts and minds terribly this last week is my Uncle Scott. He is my dad's youngest brother and is actually closer in age to my brother Brad. Anyway, he was having pain in his hip and leg for a little while and recently this week was nauseous. After an MRI, they told him he has multiple tumors all over his body. It is most likely stage III Myeloma, Cancer. Hmm. We are praying for a miracle and for something that can be done once they get the results from the biopsy, but it is very aggressive the doctors said- it is grim. Please pray for my Uncle Scott, Aunt Lynne, and teenage cousins Daniel and Becky. They fortunately are strong and faithful followers of God, but this is more than devastating to them, our family, and their friends. They live in Santa Cruz at Mount Herman Bible Camp, where Scott is a financial director and Lynne is a nurse. They have a wonderful prayerful community already, but I pray that they are able to find comfort, peace, and love in abundance right now.

Psalm 143:1 - "O, Lord, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy: in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief."

Great Grandma Greta 7/6/1920-1/1/2008

Grandma Greta with David, Sarah, Justus, Gunnar & Greta over Christmas!

2008 started out with a phone call at breakfast that Grandma fell and wasn't doing well. Luckily we were still in MN and Daron had just spent the previous night reading her Christmas cards with her and his Aunt Char. It was a special time that he is now so thankful that he had. We had been with Grandma Greta a few times the previous couple days and got to hug and laugh with her. Unfortunately, she died soon after we all got to the hospital to say good-bye. We were all mixed with emotions of being sad for ourselves with her passing and happy for her that she is now in heaven with God and Grandpa Harold, who passed last winter.

Us with Grandpa Jake, Harold, & Grandma Greta 3 1/2 yrs. ago

Grandma and Daron always had a special relationship and luckily I was blessed with getting to be her granddaughter too when I started dating Daron 15 years ago. She always had a knack for making everyone feel like they were her favorite. She did many crafts, quilted, baked many breads and tea rings, gardened, fished, started square dancing in her 60's and did so until she was almost 80. She was a jokester and her kids and grandchildren have endless stories about her. Most importantly, she had a strong faith in God. She is someone our family looked up to and are thrilled to have our Greta named after her. She will be greatly missed, and remembered joyfully!

Greta & Great Greta

Highlights from the end of 2007!

We had a wonderful time in MN. for the last part of 2007! We jetted over there on Christmas Day when the airports are fairly quiet and everyone that is working is in a pretty good mood since they are getting paid for overtime. The morning we arrived, we ate Swedish pancakes and started our Christmas celebration together as a family by having Grandpa J. read to us the Christmas Story in the Bible. It was a special treat to have Great Grandma Bredberg there to celebrate with us as well.
Sarah and Brooks were in from New Zealand for a couple of weeks, so we all soaked up the time we had with them! Our kiddos love their aunts and uncles!

The girls were thrilled with their matching pj's Grandma made that had mini-me sizes for their dolls as well. I don't think there was a night that they didn't wear these when we were there. Grandma was so busy this year sewing because she also made all her grandkids aprons, blankets, and fleece pillows of their favorite sports teams. I even got a Bears blanket to warm me up for the 3hr. ride from the airport.
There was lots of snow there, so the kids played in the snow everyday making forts, sledding, and snowboarding down a small hill. Justus also got to go ice fishing with his Great Aunt Katie and he caught a 16 inch Walleye.
Grandpa cleared the ice by their cabin and we also had a family friendly game of broomball!
Many nights ended with card games and board games! Some favorites this year were Settlers of Catan, Tsuro (sp?), Rum Dum Rummy, "Swedish" Train with dominoes, 500, and Texas Hold 'em.

We had a blast hanging out with family and enjoying all the things you can do at the farm! Grandma and Grandpa took us out to eat a couple of times, (umm......Jake's Pizza!) and to Starbucks (or as the locals call it , Fourbucks-nothing under $4). The kids especially loved getting time with their cousins and special attention from their aunts and uncles, grandma and grandpa!

Merry Christmas!

"Do not be afraid, for I bring you good news of great joy for everyone! The Savior-yes, the Messiah, the Lord-has been born tonight in Bethlehem, the city of David! Luke 2:10-11

Holiday Happenings

We have had a lot of fun this Christmas Season, but to be honest it has gone by so fast and I find that every year I do a little less! Hopefully, it isn't that I am becoming lame since I am tired and overwhelmed with life, but in fact, it is because I am trying to just enjoy and savor the holiday (read: hopefully). So far we baked some cookies, but they were gone within two days, so I don't think that counts. Usually we have cookies to last us into December and give many away. I planned on making more today, but the clock skipped a couple of hours on me (it has been doing this a lot lately) and I couldn't get it done.
Lucky for me, this year I didn't have to sweat over a favorite family tradition of making homemade gingerbread houses. When we started this tradition I was a mom of 3 under 4yrs. and somehow I found a way to make at least 5 homes for our friends to come over and decorate with us. Every year, the tradition has tapered down a bit. The next year, just one friend came over, the next just our family.....and last year, I think I stooped to buying a kit from the grocery store (only to be saved by an invitation from friends to decorate houses at their home)! Anyway, this year we hit the jackpot! Grandma and Grandpa Halverson took Brad's and our family to the Farm Kitchen. This place is great! They are a working organic farm that has a beautiful backdrop for many local weddings. Every 1st Sat. of the month they have a breakfast they serve that is just amazing. At Christmas, you can sign up to come and decorate homemade gingerbread houses (I forgot to ask if they were organic)! It was perfect; there were gobs and gobs of candy for the kids to eat, I mean decorate with. The best part was that I didn't have to clean up when we were done or worry about candy canes getting stuck between our bamboo floors.

Happy Lucia Day -Dec. 13th

So I am late posting this, but just wanted to wish you a Happy St. Lucia Day and a very Happy 30th Birthday to Ingrid! St. Lucia is celebrated in most Swedish homes by having the oldest daughter dress in a white gown with candles on her head, delivering coffee and rolls (in our case pepparkakor cookies) to the family early in the morning. Greta has done this in our house for at least the last four years and this year she could pretty much do it all on her own. I set up the coffee to go off on it's own so all she had to do was pour it for Daron and I. First she visits her siblings and gives them cookies with battery-operated candles on her head in complete darkness and then they all come up to our room singing the Lucia song. It is so sweet. She then celebrated this day and shared it with her class at school. December 13th falls on one of the darkest days of the year in Sweden and St. Lucia is known for bringing goodwill. My sis-in-law has shown me so much goodwill this week and has really been a blessing to me. I am so thankful for her, especially today on her birthday!

The Jag Tree Farm

The first Sat. of Advent is when we usually go and get our tree. This year it was a little different for us. We hopped in our car, drove around the block, and settled on this nice tree right in front of our house! This tree farm had the perfect tree! You see, there is a tree that is growing too close to our house and it needed to be taken down, so we decided that now is the perfect time and we could savor it inside a little longer! We still haven't cut the bottom down and hopefully our neighbors don't notice it, but we have some beautiful boughs you can come and cut down if you need any garland! After our tree cutting ceremony, the nice people that lived at this house gave our family some hot chocolate (since that was the only drawback for the kids in getting the tree at our house instead of the usual Christmas Tree Farm.

A walk in their shoes....

There is a family from WA, that I have met from a friend, that is traveling over in Ghana right now to adopt their 2 yr. old and 4 yr. old. She really captures the emotions of the first time meeting your children, the excitement and fear of being in a new country, and the ups and downs of the adoption process; as well as in life! Check it out if you want to get a feel for what we have in store for us. The link I connected you to is their survival guide for visiting Ghana- I will have to make sure I sleep with my mouth closed. Ever since watching the Lindsey Lohan Parent Trap, I am scared of accidentally swallowing a lizard............you will have to watch the movie if you don't know what I mean. That camping scene is Greta and Ella's favorite part!


By the way, this is why I haven't posted in awhile. I am too busy reading this blog and imagining!

Chaos

There is a bit of chaos going on here in kitsap county. Roads, schools, and offices closing early everywhere. All the snow that we got yesterday and Sat. is gone and melted into the streets, as well as many more inches of rain today(I am talking between 8-13 inches here in Kitsap in one day)! There is flooding everywhere and there is also a lot of wind, which was causing power outages yesterday and today. Where we are located, our home should be fine without any flooding, but there are many friends of ours that are not in the same boat. Hopefully tomorrow things will have been cleared up a bit and water levels going down so the repair can start. Check out some of the water coverage at komotv.com

They say we don't get snow.......HA!

Today was a snow day! We loved having the snow, but we were also bummed because we didn't get to have church today. Kind of different when you have to cancel the one Sunday that you meet a month as a whole church. Of course, we were trying to make the decision all day, and as soon as we called it off, the weather changed from snow to rain and the roads were much better. We personally really wanted to have church, but didn't want to put people in a dangerous situation. We meet at 4:56 PM and we didn't know if the roads would be icy and it would be dark driving home. Earlier in the day, I had seen numerous cars in the ditches and people are uncomfortable driving here with all the hill. I know it was the right decision, but it stinks and because we were waffling all day, I feel like I didn't get to enjoy the snow! I hate being indecisive, I wish I could change........