O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel
— Phillips Brooks (1835-1893)
Dear friends,
Merry Christmas! (For the record, a Christmas letter isn’t late until after the
twelfth day of Christmas. We’re still on day #10.) We hope that you and yours have been enjoying a festive season filled with all the joy that Christmas and the New Year can bring. We at the Wolfe home are grateful for 2008’s many blessings and wanted to share some highlights with you.
Of course the greatest joy of 2008 was the arrival of our second daughter, Myrah Jean, on July 29. She came with no small fanfare, beating the paramedics’ response time and arriving in our master bathroom. Her name, which means “myrrh,” celebrates Christian worship and commemorates Andrew’s grandmother Mary Jane, who passed the month Myrah was conceived. At five months, My is a communicative child who holds your gaze and coos a lot. She’s happily proving wrong everyone who said our second child couldn’t possibly be as easy as our first.
Her sister Anastyn, now 19 months old, loves her baby sister. During Myrah’s first few months Andi would regularly come and kiss Baby on the head. Now “baby” is her clearest word and one of her favorites. Andi surprises us daily with new vocab. She recently added “ati” for coffee and “shoop” for T’choupi, the French-speaking penguin she loves to read about. Daddy is particularly proud of how well she does playing a thematic variation of Concentration called “I Never Forget a Face” that features 24 international children’s faces. (Sure, the cards are face-up, but she puts all the pairs together!) She also already recognizes dozens of animals by name—not just dogs and cats but walruses and flamingos, too! And lest you fear Daddy has made her a total brainiac, she also shows an early penchant for accessorizing necklaces, hats, and shoes. Our lives as parents overflow with the love and joy she and her sister bring.
We are grateful for the provision of steady employment through these shaky times. Jodel has been able to continue as a stay-at-home mom without diverting energy from raising the girls to making money. Swapping out her desk job for motherhood has been the most rewarding thing Jodel has ever done. Of course motherhood isn’t without its challenges, but for her the tough parts and frustrations don’t compare with the fun parts and joys, and every bit of it is part of the wondrous journey of parenting.
We’re grateful for California this year–what a beautiful state! Despite the wee ones, we’ve managed memorable getaways to Carmel-by-the-Sea, Mt. Tamalpais, and San Francisco. We’re always mindful that we get to live where everyone else vacations. Speaking of which, if you live out of state, we’d love to show you around. We got to do just that with dear visitors from Scotland, Oregon, and PA this year.
May found us in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for a week, along with Jodel’s parents and maid of honor Nicole. The highlight for Andrew was his ten-minute romp with a baby jaguar at the Vallarta Zoo. He proudly bares his battle scar where the playful kitten grazed his tummy. As a pregnant woman, Jodel reveled in the resort’s all-you-can-eat buffets with made-to-order omelets and crispy tacos.
Andrew is grateful for personal and spiritual growth in 2008. His reading of Lesslie Newbigin’s
Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt, and Certainty in Christian Discipleship brought a lot of things together for him as he has long struggled in seeking out a lasting peace between his Christian faith and his love for science. Finding resolution to some of those concerns has reawakened Andrew’s joy in the things of God and opened a new chapter in his life’s story. In this and in many other such developments Andrew won’t bore you with here, we find hope for a richly fulfilling 2009.
In this season we are full of dreams for the future. How could our family’s God-given gifts best be used for the betterment of others? We’ve been prayerfully mulling over what it might look like for the Wolfes to shift gears from construction management in California to Bible translation work overseas for the thousands of cultures with no access yet to God’s Word in their heart language. That’s been a long-term goal of Andrew’s for more than a decade, actually, and it’s been on our radar as a couple for half as long (i.e., since we met), but somehow it feels closer as we turn the calendar to 2009. That’s inspired a lot of chatter around the Wolfe house the last couple of months. It’s just darned exciting.
Lastly, we’re grateful for you, dear family and friends. We’d love to hear from you sometime and invite you to stop by in person or leave a comment at our poorly kept up e-home here. (Perhaps regular blogging will make it to the new year’s resolution list!) May your Christmas season be joyful and your new year be better than the last!
Warmly,
Andrew, Jodel, Anastyn & Myrah Wolfe
