Merry Christmas!

Dear Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas! We’ve been so blessed this year and hope you have, too.

Abby is growing fast. She turned four, started Preschool, and is learning to read. She tries to read everything! The other day she was watching me work on the computer and asked, “What does Google mean?” 

I rebuilt my first VW engine over the summer, which, unfortunately seized up at 2,000 miles and is now back apart for my second rebuild. I got to do a lot of flying for work this summer and now exceed the minimum qualifications for most missionary aviation agencies.

Sarah stayed busy at home filling 3 freezers and all of our canning jars with tasty things, and being a mom and wife.

The most exciting news of the year is that we are expecting a sister for Abby at the end of April.  Abby is looking forward to having a sister, but is a bit unsure about sharing her room. She is also worried that the baby will eat her toys!

Overall it’s been a year of growth for each of us personally and together as a family. We are thankful for so many blessings and especially for Jesus, our greatest blessing. May you be filled with wonder and thanksgiving for your many blessings as we celebrate His birth together.

Sincerely yours,

Dustin, Sarah, and Abby

PNG trip video!

Hi all!

After a very long time, I have finally compiled a "highlights" video of our trip to PNG.  We will be presenting it at church (Canby Alliance) on Feb 14th, then doing a longer presentation Wednesday, Feb 17th.  Mark your calendars!  ;-)  Seriously though, I hope you enjoy the video.

-Dustin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLUTtOwanoE

PNG pics

Merry Christmas!

Christmas seems to have snuck up on us this year. I guess that's not surprising since we were on the other side of the world for 2 months, and didn't return until just a few weeks ago. We are doing things much simpler this year - fewer decorations, no lights outside, not going overboard with gifts. While those things are nice, it feels good to simplify (and also to know that there won't be near as much stuff to clean up!). It's so easy to get caught up in all the "stuff". Life was very simple when we were in Papua New Guinea. There were so few distractions that you couldn't help but get to know people better than you might in a different setting. That's something we want to try to continue here. It won't be as easy, but it will definitely be worthwhile. Anyway, back to Christmas......

We finally managed to get our tree decorated on Saturday.

On Sunday Abby was in her first Christmas program. The kids recited a poem and sang a song. She did very well, and we received several comments about her performance that morning. Having been placed directly under a microphone, and not being shy, it was no surprise everyone heard her loud and clear! You can see that the video starts shaking because Dustin is laughing.

We will have Christmas dinner with my family, and then my sister and her family will be staying with us for a few days. Abby is very excited to see her cousins again! It's been over a year since we visited them in North Dakota. We plan to take lots of pictures and try to post them here.

As far as pictures from our trip, we have LOTS, so it may be a while before we can get them organized and in a good format to post here.

Merry Christmas!!!