Merry Christmas to all, and to all - enjoy your life - it's a Chair of Bowlies!

Last year Emma came home saying; "You get what you get and you don't pitch a fit".  Thank you Ms. Sarah!  She used that mostly on us - but it was a good learning moment for Mommy and Emmi!  So, this year we had an opportunity to re-visit this lesson.

A month ago, my (Meg's) parents were coming to visit, I had my Christmas cards ordered, printed, and ready to mail out.  We were prepping for our church Christmas production, and winding up the first semester of Emma’s first grade year.  I wouldn’t describe our normal life as smooth, but it was going fairly well.

Then the set of storms hit…. Weeks of rain (so, no lights ended up on our house – when it was sunny, Brad was busy!!!).  Ginger (Meg’s Mom) starts having strange physical problems.  Meg has several weeks of massive migraines.  Josie gets sick.  The Church program was wonderful.  Our School and Church has a massive setback with the illness (nearly a last illness) for our dear Principal Ray.  Brad steps in the last week of school to help.  Emma finished with flying colors.   We finally get some Christmas presents bought (but nothing is stilllll mailed out!!!).  Meg’s parents have to make a call on travel - they decided to wait to do anymore traveling until there are some answers as to her physical issues.  Please be in prayer with us as Ginger is seeing a gastroenterologist as a starting point to seek answers.  So we decided to travel instead!  ALL this to say – we are in Jackson (five hour drive - last minuite!!) for a very short and unexpected visit with his family.  Now, Meg is sick.  Loverly!  BUT hey, we are with family, and a warm fire.  I am getting to have coffee brought to me by my dear hubby….

SO, this is why Christmas cards didn’t go out yet.

I will get them out soon.  This year or next…  ;)

So, this was the last month.  What did the rest 2009 bring to the Easleys?  JOY!!!

• Last winter we had the great opportunity to be with Meg’s brother (Miles) when he proposed to his beautiful girlfriend Melissa.  (mileswittboyer.com) She said yes, and we began the excitement of another girl in the family!
• Emma was learning to read and work on cursive (already!!!) in kindergarten.  Can you believe they learn these things so early now?  I remember learning to write in cursive in 3^rd grade!! 
• In March, our dear friend Thomas came for a visit. We had just been at his wedding in December or 2008 and were excited to have him visit for two days.  While he was with us we received a call OUT OF THE BLUE about a soon-to-be-born baby that needed a home!  Would we be interested?!?!  YES! 
• We jumped in Thomas’ truck (he offered to drive us, our car was getting new tires the next day – so we couldn’t drive it) and we headed off!  We made it in time to be present for the birth and Meg ended spending about a month out of town; until we were able to get everything settled to bring our new Josanna Lynn home! 
• Emma has been beyond excited to become a new big sister.  She helps out with everything except changing diapers.  She prefers to throw them away for us.  (Strange, I think I would rather change it!!)
• This summer we were able to help teach at Indian Springs Camp Meeting.  For the last several years we have been able to travel to Georgia and help teach children at this wonderful family camp!  We hope the girls get to grow up loving these three weeks as much as we do! 
• The fall brought in Emma’s first day of first grade.  WOW!  It wasn’t so hard, being that we have had so many years of pre-k and kindergarten, but it was still an adjustment for her to be gone so much and have homework!  Now she does more cursive than we do and she can read to us at night…  Not that we let her all the time!  She loves to read to Josie as they play together.  Such sweet moments to listen in on!
• Right after Emma started school we traveled to Arkansas to attend Miles and Melissa’s wedding.  Now there is a new Mr. and Mrs. Boyer in the family!  It was a beautiful and special time.  We really enjoy the area that they live in, just wish we could all live closer!

There were a few sad moments this year too, a number of sweet goodbyes to loved ones.  A number of friends and family went on to be with Jesus.  Then there were the sad goodbyes to the beloved family pets.  Meg’s puppies from home (when she was growing up) finally got older than their bodies could handle.  Time marches on, not much we can do, other than to keep our eyes and hearts on the Father and have faith that there is more to this world!  A life we cannot see!!!

PLEASE READ!!!  Many of you haven’t received an updated Christmas card in several years.  We apologize for that.  Time, as it is marching on, is often rater brutal and a bit fast.  We were caught in another move and moments that left Meg unprepared to formally communicate as she would like.  We are now pastoring a church in Lake Charles, La.  You can check out our church website for more information! www.lakewoodbiblefellowship.org  I apologize for not having sent out cards or (as I later realized) even a change of address to many of our dear friends and family.   I hope to be better at communicating with you, and we dearly treasure each of the cards and emails we receive from you.   Thank you for keeping us in touch with you even as we have not been as faithful as need be!

We would love to hear more from each of you (especially if we had somehow missed out on your family Christmas card or letter because of a lack of address….)

As our family has grown through the adoption of little Josanna Lynn (Josie), we know that the Lord rejoices just as much for the adoption of each heart into the kingdom of God!  As we work hard to move toward increasing those adoptions (of both kinds) we pray that the Lord would continue to teach you about his love and desires for your life!

All our Love,

Brad, Meg, Emma and Josanna