Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

What a delightful Christmas it was! (though capturing 2 toddlers in a picture is near impossible!)

Christmas Letter 2017

Christmas Letter 2017

(photos to follow at some point)

Luke 1:37  The angel answered [Mary] “…For nothing is impossible with God.”

What a year it has been!  It’s truly amazing what has happened this past year from January until December.  Life this year has been rich, beautiful, exhausting, terrifying, exciting, and incredibly BLESSED.  I am entering into Christmas this year with the wonder and excitement of a child!  I am buying gifts joyfully, anticipating Christmas morning with the same thrill as my 5 year old.  And at the heart of Christmas, I am uncovering more of just who Jesus is and why celebrating his birth is so spectacular! God has given an abundance of gifts to our family this year.  Let me share them with you.  (It’s been a long and BIG year, hence you get a long and BIG letter!)

The beginning of this year was difficult, a roller coaster, and felt kind of like slugging through chest deep mud.  I completed my radiation treatments mid January, continuing with 6 more monthly cycles of the chemotherapy I had been taking alongside the radiation.  The fatigue from these treatments was very challenging.  I encountered tired on so many different levels and was at the same time processing the emotional implications of my diagnosis.  All the while, our family continued to be ever so demanding.  Praise God for our nanny Stefanie, who came on board 4 full days a week at the beginning of the year and continues to be a Godsend and complete answer to prayer in our lives!

I started having weekly Tuesday dates (usually to starbucks) with Rayna which delighted both of us.  I felt like I was having some “catch-up” on quality time with her that had been non-existent since the twins were born.

Moreover, with the support of Ryan’s parents, Ryan and I were also able to take a couple lovely mini getaways to Harrison Hot Springs early in the year.

Furthermore, in February our family traveled with Ryan’s mom and Ryan’s Brother, his wife and their 2 young kids to Oceanside California.  Oceanside was absolutely lovely even though the weather was cool.  I was too exhausted to properly enjoy this trip; but the kids had fantastic cousins time together and looking at the photos today, I want to go back!

In March we watched our 4 year old Rayna turn into a beautiful (sometimes a bit sassy) 5 year old, seemingly overnight.  It was a delight to celebrate her birthday with her friends, with extended family, and with our second annual Mom, Dad and Rayna birthday lunch at Cactus Club!

Through out the year we graciously welcomed my parents (Mom and Dad came for 3 weeks over Easter; and Mom came for 3 weeks in October).  We also had our dear friends Brad and Ashley visit in Feb, and my cousin, Amy visit from Winnipeg in May.

Ryan continues to participate in pickleball tournaments whenever possible.  Though more challenging to leave for a few days at a time, he was able to participate in a major US tournament in Washington State and the Canadian National Tournament in Kelowna, BC as well he continues to organize and host local Chilliwack tournaments alongside his Dad through out the year.  With the help of my gracious Mother in law, Ryan has been free to continue pursing this passion!  And he further received the coveted 5.0 (highest-caliber) status this year! 

 

As spring was rolling into summer a favorite family time was hiking our local Flood Falls.  We also went to Harrison Hot Springs for a couple nights in June with Ryan’s family. Then, in July, the splash-park across the street from our place became essentially our backyard!

In July I completed my chemo treatments and off we launched our monumental and epic nearly 4 week summer vacation!  You can read my blog-post about our Summer Vacation for details; but it was superb!  Shuswaps with friends, to reconnecting with Saskatchewan and Alberta family and friends, to a week at camp Oshkidee!  A huge thank you to everyone who made this trip extra special for us.  I have tears of endearment for all the work you friends and family put in to making this a memorable, cherished memory.

Summer was also punctuated by the delights of Cultus Lake.  We enjoyed the Waterslides and the Adventure Park as well as swimming in the lake!

September brought 3 majors changes: firstly, I was figuring out what a “new normal” looked like for me.  Secondly, Rayna entered Kindergarten at a school within walking distance from our home.  These changes have proved to be delightful as Rayna LOVES school and I am finding my new rhythm filling my days; I enjoy bringing Rayna to and from school.  Furthermore, writing has become my “day job”.  I am working towards completing my novel I started years ago, I have a goal to write out my story when my first draft of my novel is finished, and I’m keeping up with blogging.  All the while it has become so important for me to maintain, build and start the valuable relationships which keep me full of hope, inspiration and life! Thirdly, Ryan hired our friend, Crystal, to begin selling blinds for his business, hence launching The Chilliwack Blind Factory (chilliwackblindfactory.ca).   

This past year has opened up joyous delights for Ryan and I of time spent together as husband and wife, falling in love all over again!  We celebrated our 15 year wedding anniversary this year in June.  This anniversary plus my 1-year Survivor anniversary sparked a trip for Ryan and I to VEGAS in October!  Though we arrived the day after the devastating shooting, we made necessary hotel changes and were able to enjoy rejuvenating time away.   

In November Ryan helped me arrange a getaway to Canmore to visit with my Mom and Sister.  This was a restorative, heart-filling, casual time of spending time together with actually having opportunity to talk (no kids!) and relax together.  It was simply lovely!

Two highlights of Dec this far include our family being featured in our Neighborhood magazine as well an opportunity for me to speak at a ladies' Christmas brunch and share my story.

Now as we head well into December and look back it is incredible to see the growth in the kids!  The twins turned 2 in October and from that point life is slowly, but steadily becoming more manageable.  Garrett is developing into quite the sweet and active boy; usually smiling and on the  move!  Allison continues to both love snuggles and to assert her spunky personality. It is delightful (and exhausting) to watch and facilitate their development!

We began this year with weekends being, honestly, dreadful, to arriving at a place where weekends are filled with opportunity for family fun time!  As expected, there never seems to be enough time in the days for everything we want to accomplish; but we have reached a place of much thriving, rather than simply (barely) surviving.  Praise God!  And thank you to everyone who has continued to support us in prayer, meals, visits, phone calls.  We particularly appreciate our mothers who have worked so hard to keep life going for us!  We love you, moms!  We celebrate YOU all who have empowered us to thrive!!!

Most of all, Praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ!  We adore you.  We celebrate you and celebrate everything you have done for us in 2017.  We welcome you this season and we anticipate you to do good, big and bold things in 2018.

Merry Christmas!  We love you!!!

Love Ryan & Cheryl, Rayna (5 years old), Garrett and Allison (2 years old)  Rostek

Advent Letter 2017

I'm still working through some of this and I apologize for the lack of conciseness and clarity; but I post this regardless in hopes that you are able to be encouraged and inspired this Christmas season.

Advent Letter 2017

This year I sat with the verses from Luke 1 as I prepared for Advent.  These verses spurred a passion in my heart for women, which I was able to speak about as part of my story that I shared at a Christmas women’s brunch last week. 

I will openly share that talk; but today

As I sit to write down all the thoughts that have been dancing around in my head surrounding Advent I am overcome with a spectacular sense of Who Jesus is.  In Luke 2 when Mary learns she is pregnant with a baby conceived by the Holy Spirit she says, “For nothing is impossible with God.”. 

Jesus’ brilliance rests in his Who he is.  The Son of the Almighty God, conceived by the Holy Spirit to a virgin.  Full of wisdom, humility, counter-culturalism, and mighty, MIGHTY POWER.  He demonstrated the power to heal, He demonstrated the power to save and forgive souls, He demonstrated His ability to give “more and better life than you could ever have imagined” (John 10:10)

The last month I have wrestled with the notion that what I believe is “crazy”.  After spending an evening with 2 of my close friends reflecting on Advent and the passage in Luke 2, I came home in disbelief.  I said to Ryan (the voice of ultra-logic in my life) , “How can you believe what we believe?”  I knew he had spent much time with his buddies debating the answers to unanswerable biblical questions. “How have you come to a point of being okay accepting the craziness of our faith?”  

It is irrational to believe that Jesus came through virgin birth, died on the cross and rose again to forgive us from our sins.  I spent this past year pressing into God out of desperation.  I needed a Hope outside myself, bigger than myself, and I knew I could find it in Jesus.  I started seeking Him with my whole heart because the bible says, “If you seek me you will find me, if you seek me with your whole heart.”  But what I found was a God who doesn’t make sense to my rational, logical, science-trained mind.  I started truly seeing what the bible says about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  And I needed to wrestle with jumping all in to such a “crazy” belief.  I was also preparing to talk to a room of women about my belief and so I needed to be certain I could proclaim with all of me, the words that just didn’t have any logic.  I had a lengthy talk with Ryan hoping I could find myself confident in what I believe as I was about to assert it. 

Ryan’s advice was that you just have to not think too much.  You have to come to a point where you jump onboard.  He sees the benefit of faith itself and the principles of Jesus make sense and embody what he desires to be like.  For the logic you just have to not get bogged down in it, faith is not logical but what it offers matters so much.  I had easily seen the benefit of my faith in the past and so easily believed in the past; but at this point I wasn’t quite satisfied.  There needed to be a bigger driving force to align myself with surreal and illogical beliefs. 

As I sought more I found myself seeing that we are spiritual beings.  We all crave “touchy-feely” moments and from my experience if you don’t acknowledge you crave them, then you are a person with a grumpy disposition (aka miserable).  We’re created with a soul that isn’t tangible.  Furthermore, we have emotions and there are just things that science can’t explain.  I remember in research there were things that should just work; but in practice they don’t.  Logic only goes so far.  My own counselor told me that people who have Hope and Faith do better in their cancer journey.  This cannot be explained by logic; but Hope matters!  Spirituality matters! I experienced it, we need something greater than dismal statistics!  When I was diagnosed with cancer the first breath of Hope I received was incredible (my colleague who pulled out stories of glioblastoma survivors).  It held POWER.

So, I realized there is no reasoning your way into faith.  Faith is just that, faith.  I have seen the evidence the past year of God’s goodness and faithfulness.  Without the hope of Jesus there is no way I would have had a focal point, a driving force, the something bigger than myself that I needed to get through this past year. 

Moreover, in Sept. I was sitting in an emotionally charged church service.  I felt no emotion; but at the same time felt God communicate to me so strongly and calmly that He is the Faithful One.  He doesn’t need the hype or emotion to be present.  He is always there.  This is the Jesus I knew!  This is the Jesus I needed and why I found it important to wrestle with the basis of my faith.  I came to a point where I needed to embrace the bible and everything that Jesus is about with all that I am or I need to discard it.  Because the Jesus I am learning about is crazy.  He is bold, miracles are in his hands, He’s powerful, He calls us to love like crazy, to see people as people, to trust that He is enough, to trust that he is in ultimate control.  I NEED THAT JESUS POWER IN MY LIFE.  I came to a point where I said how can I believe what Jesus has claimed?

The bible responded in I Corinthians 1 (my paraphrase) that such a spectacular God would only naturally “do things” in a way that is absurd and foolish to believe because we are humans limited in human rationale.  Okay, I let that mull around.  My rational brain still struggled with such a wild belief.  I needed this Jesus because of the Hope He gave me; but I needed to be certain I wasn’t placing my anchor in utter foolishness.  

I had grown up with this belief system and certainly I had assessed it’s place in my life through out adulthood; but now it REALLY mattered.  I had to resolutely find my belief for myself.  I had to resolutely be prepared to stand by my beliefs.  Whole-heartedly.  All-in.  The belief of those around me was their belief, I needed mine. Rooted. Grounded. 

So I kept seeking, hunting for how this could possibly be so. The faith I had cried out for a year ago needed this hurdle either elegantly leaped over or plowed through.  I’m not sure which exactly happened; but I read this in Ephesians 4.

“Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.”

These verses tell me that by being my head too much I align myself with a hard heart.  I need to get out of my head, out of the futility of my mind.  We all know our minds and bodies trick us into things we don’t actually want to do.  We are spiritual, emotional, as well as physical beings.

This was the final draw.  The hurdle was overcome.  I am a spiritual being.  I need something bigger than myself.  God’s power has already shown itself in my life. So I am compelled to be “all in” believing Jesus is the Mightily Powerful Son of God who He says he is.  I am compelled to believe that I am not alone.  I am compelled to believe that this season I truly worship the birth of Jesus Christ, Savior of the World!

I’ve come to a point where I’m actually reading my bible and taking it to heart and seeing that Jesus promises much; but he also wants all of me.  I’m excited to see what exactly it is Jesus will ask of me this year.

This I know, as I step into faith of who Jesus is I am expecting a marvelous display of His Power in my life.

Thank you Jesus for the celebration of Christmas!!!

To those of you who believe in Jesus I feel compelled to ask you:

If you are choosing to believe the absurdness of Christianity, I ask you, Why?  Do you think about what you believe?  What does it mean that Jesus came to Earth as a baby? If you’ve never met the power of Jesus before, I pray you meet him!  If you’ve forgotten the power of Jesus, can I remind you of the absurdity of your belief?  If you choose to believe that Jesus came to earth through virgin conception, and that He saved us from our sins if we believe in Him and in his crucifiction and resurrection, you are believing in a POWERFUL GOD!  Is that the God you celebrate this Christmas?  Because He. Is. spectacular!

Personally, I am trusting in God’s power in my life, the same power that allowed virgin conception,

You see my mom always told me to stop and count to 10 because I have a way of getting too excited about things.  I am excited about this power of Jesus! But I see too, that the steadfast love of Jesus that my Mom rests her confidence in procures this same power.  This is not hype or emotion.

I look forward to celebrating Jesus this season.  I look forward to seeing what my emboldened Faith in Jesus looks like the whole year through.

Jesus I adore you!   

Perhaps as you sing your Christmas carols this year, you’ll listen to the power of their words, I know I am.  Jesus’ marvelous, brilliant, spectacular arrival that we are invited to celebrate in.  Sing them out loud and clear!

Here’s some of my favorite lyrics, read them, listen to them!

The thrill of hope

Weary world rejoices

For yonder brings

A new and glorious morn

Fall on your knees

Oh hear the angel voices

Much love to you all.  May you truly, wholeheartedly experience God with you this Christmas!  I love you!

Love Cheryl