It's the end of another year. An eventful year. An exciting year. In some ways, an excruciating year. I won't say I'm glad it's over, but I'm really looking forward to 2018.
With three boys and a dog, life is never dull. Not for a moment. Our boys are growing up fast, and our pup is just growing old. We keep reminding ourselves with a half-hearted attempt at humor that marriage and parenting is not for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of courage, a lot of energy, and a lot of prayer to make it through life, but we persevere.
On top of the full-time, life-consuming nature of raising these kids and trying to spend time with each other too, pastoring is still the great adventure of our lives. If you've never done it, no explanation is sufficient; if you have, no explanation is necessary. Let me just sum it up by saying that ministry is also not for the faint of heart. We are glad we know that we are called by God to do this, that we are where God placed us, and that we are fulfilling His will for our lives in Lovelady, Texas.
Additionally, both of us are now serving as officers of the local Parent Teacher Organization. It in no way equates to a full time job, but as with most things in our life, it is not for the faint of heart. And for our involvement in PTO, there is no end in sight, at least not for the next dozen or so years. And then there's going to be sports and clubs and concerts and trips and all sorts of activities our kids will enjoy...but let's not get ahead of ourselves. PTO has been a great way to interact with community, when not trying to keep the stirred pot from spilling over!
This has been a year of great sacrifice on many levels in our lives, but also a year of great rewards. Our faith has been stretched, our joy threatened, our hope drained...only to have it all renewed repeatedly as we trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not to our own understandings. The Lord continually demonstrates Himself faithful in taking care of us as His children, of meeting our needs and answering our prayers, even if He doesn't always do it the way we ask or even expect. But He's a good God who gives good gifts to His children, and we are glad to be part of His family!
So all that being said, here is our year, in brief review:
We went to church. A lot.
We changed a lot of diapers, and cleaned up a lot of messes.
We went to a lot of meetings.
We made a lot of new friends.
In March we took the boys to Oklahoma to visit Nana & Papa for Spring Break, and while there were given a surprising announcement. After fifty years of preaching, 32 of them spent as a pastor, Papa Ray Paschen decided the time had come for him to retire. It took a little (not a lot) convincing, but they decided to emigrate to the great state of Texas, and thus began the great adventure of finding them a place to live in Lovelady and moving them into it!
In April we built (yes, built) our garden and April and the boys spent the spring and summer growing vegetables with varying degrees of success. Nana and Papa came for a house-hunting visit and found nothing, but in May the perfect house for them was put up for sale, right in the heart of Lovelady. After we saw it, April called her dad and told him, "Dad, you need to buy this house." He made an offer that night, sight unseen, and after a bit of haggling, it was accepted. So in June, he completed his service in Ardmore, Oklahoma, and they became our house guests for the summer while the acquisition of a home was underway.
The summer was hot and stretched on through most of October with no significant events.
In August we got the heavy rains of Hurricane Harvey.
In September we moved Papa and Nana into their new house, and one or more of the boys have spent every weekend over there ever since.
Fall was practically non-existent, unless you count the cold front that came through at Halloween.
In October, our church gave us a special Pastor Appreciation Gift--box seat tickets to the Houston Symphony to see Handel's Messiah at Christmas. That's something Casey can cross off his bucket list!
In November, we hosted Thanksgiving at our house, having as dinner guests both sets of our parents, April's cousin and husband, a family from our church, and one of the new pastors in town.
And in December we celebrated Christmas in similar style, but with our entire immediate family now living in close proximity, we mixed things up a bit. We had Christmas Eve Morning at church with our church family that we love so much. We had Christmas Eve at Casey's Mom's house, everyone attending, along with a few extras. We had Christmas Eve together at home after the kids went to bed. We had Christmas Morning as a family under our own tree. And we had Christmas afternoon with Nana & Papa, and everyone else, in their new house!
Only one more item of note to report: Everyone keeps asking if we are going to try to have another kid, especially attempting a girl. We have three boys and are very happy with the size and content of our little family. So we decided to make permanent arrangements to prevent the arrival of any more babies. That will happen after the first of the year. And in related news, Stafford Number Four is arriving in July! Guess we didn't make the arrangements soon enough.
