Merry Christmas 2018 and a Happy New Year!
Photo Credit: Vicky Falk
(More pics to come at some point)
2018 has been an up and down year marked by gratitude for
health, growth and celebration. This
year our family has seen movement from the chaos of the last 3 years (ever
since the twins were born) towards finding our new rhythm with the
ever-changing variable of the kids growing up!
Ryan and I are enjoying celebrating life whenever possible and catching
glimpses of our favorite parts from our “old normal” (pre-twins, pre-cancer) in
the movement towards our “new normal”. There
is still much uncertainty in our lives.
However, amidst this uncertainty this is certain: our family chooses to
be optimistic, hopeful, believing, fun-loving, celebratory, and above we choose
to place our trust in Jesus, the very One we celebrate this Christmas season.
The growth in Garrett and Allison from being 2 year olds to
becoming 3 year olds has been delightful.
In April our nanny moved on to a new job and our twins transitioned to
daycare 4 days a week --- which slowly, but surely has become wonderful for
them. (This allows adequate rest for me and also one-on-one time with Rayna
after school.) Not only are the twins now
potty-trained (potty training 2 x two-and-a-half year olds is NOT for the faint
of heart!) and dressing themselves for the most part, their personalities are
emerging with stamina to enjoy outings and activities. While Allison loves princesses and proclaims
her “Elsa power” Garrett is a fan of anything sports. Both played soccer this fall; but Garrett is
showing a keen interest and aptitude for all things sport-related. Furthermore, at the beginning of the year
fighting vs. playing nicely together was about 50/50. At the end of the year it is heart-warming
and oh so cute to listen to them chatter and natter with and at each other and
mostly play so wonderfully together. And
having two 3 year olds in the house anticipating Christmas is the sweetest:
pretty gift wrapped presents being arranged and rearranged by little hands,
Christmas songs being sung non-stop by little voices, seeing Santa and talking
about Santa and the goofy grin this brings to Garrett’s little face (and
hearing Garrett defend the existence of Santa when his big sister declares that
Santa is not real), and the unsureness of the exact countdown for Christmas but
the complete sureness of something really spectacular on the horizon
bringing much excitement to these two little cuties. Each day we are living out sweet and
treasured memories.
Rayna is now in grade 1.
She worked very hard this fall to master the monkey bars and was so sad
when it got too wet and cold to play on them.
Furthermore, she also played soccer for the first time this fall and it
delighted my soccer-loving heart to see her enjoy it so much. Though her 6 going on 16 attitude can be
strong at times, she is the kindest, most encouraging, and creative girl. She warms our family’s hearts by making cards
for us and wrapping “presents” for us – just because and on special
occasions. She’s been secretly working
on a Christmas card for Ryan and I for a couple of weeks, and now that her
writing is really starting to take off these very sweet gifts are all that more
precious.
Ryan’s local Chilliwack Blind Factory is steadily picking up
pace and, along with the Saskatoon Blind Factory, is keeping him busy. He plays pickleball whenever possible, which
with work and family demands has been much less than he would like. It’s still ‘the best thing ever’ to him (he’s
been bugging me to start playing and maybe, just maybe, 2019 ought to be the
year I try it out?). Since fall Ryan has
also started participating in music at church.
This is finally feasible for our family and has been very life-giving
for him. He hopes to press into more
music involvement as much as our family demands allow.
At the beginning of the month I received another clear MRI
report and the oncologist bumped up my scan interval from every 3 months to
every 4 months. This is very good news! We are still trying to process and sort out
what this means for pressing into the future (see blog post about Brain Injury
Awareness); but joyfully embrace each clear scan. I fill my days taking Rayna to and from
school, helping with daycare drop offs and pick-ups, I re-learned how to cook
(at least that’s what it felt like!), household task, resting, running 3 days/week,
writing and I played soccer this fall (yay!).
I also volunteer once a month for my church visiting the “shut-in”
elderly and will be increasing my involvement in this role in the new
year.
Our family likes to have fun. I feel we have excelled at celebrating the
“small stuff” this year: Valentines Day, Easter, summer, fall, Halloween and
BIRTHDAYS!!!! Though such things are now
quite exhausting for me, my heart was bursting planning and hosting Rayna’s 6
year old birthday party in March and a (smaller) party for the twins’ 3 year
old in October! We’ve also enjoyed
nature and hikes and the tulip festival (well maybe Ryan didn’t really enjoy
that one, but the rest of us sure did ;) going to Hells Gate, the Othello
Tunnels and, ****our family hiked Lindeman this fall!!!!!**** (for you non-locals, this is a not so easy,
beautiful, rock-scrambling, local hike) This was a major accomplishment and
symbolic of adventures the future could hold for our family. These are on-top
of another epic summer road trip vacation (see Summer Vacation blog post for
further details) visiting Kelowna (Ryan’s pickleball tournament, kangaroo farm,
beach), Camp Oshkidee (so amazing, as always!), Saskatoon, Swift Current (Ryan
had flew back home to work while I took the kids to my parents’) West Edmonton
Mall. Along the journey we connected
with so many precious friends and family members.
Ryan and I also did a daytrip to Manning
Park to cross country ski in Jan.
Ryan enjoyed a “guys trip” to Phoenix in Spring which was much needed and
deserved. I enjoyed (at least the parts
where the stomach flu wasn’t striking) a girls trip to Whistler in June. And Ryan and I celebrated a couple nights
away in October to the Sunshine Coast. In Nov. I took Rayna to Okotoks to celebrate
my sister’s 40th birthday a low-key lovely time together punctuated
by a super-fun surprise birthday party my brother in law threw for her! Dec. found Ryan and Rayna going on an in-promptu
trip to Maui (they got 2 buddy passes to be used in a 2 week time-frame, so
obviously they had to go, right?!)
Phew! What a good year!
And that’s not even mentioning the visits from my parents, my sister and
niece, our friends Brad and Ashley, local fun at Cultus lake
waterslides, rides, the beach and
splashing in the river!
Wowee! Isn’t life
such a gift! We celebrate gifts at
Christmas. Our family chooses to
celebrate the gift of Jesus at Christmas.
What a gift He is. It is
by trusting Him that our family has been able to find such Hope and
thrive during these past trying years. We thank Jesus for the gift of “more and
better life than we could have ever imagined!” (John 10:10 MSG, loosely quoted)
My Hope and prayer is that 2019 will be another year of “more and better
life” for our family as well as yours.
Love and blessings,
Ryan and Cheryl
Rayna, Garrett, and Allison.
