Goodbye 2020, Hello 2021. Hello, Loved Ones. We didn’t get around to having family photos taken and then the whole Christmas card idea unraveled. To be honest, a large part of 2020 just drained my creativity. When creativity is lost I fall back on snark and end up with something like this:  Here’s a recap of our 2020… We continue to enjoy our home/ house in Middleton, ID. Church: We have completed a year of attending our church, the Living Church Boise. A few months ago Jake and I discovered we were on the Leadership Team. It was such an organic evolution that it caught us off guard, in the best way. Dempsey got baptized!! It was just after his 9th birthday and what was extra special was that Jake did the dunking. Education: Homeschooling (more like Unschooling) is still well underway. It was such a blessing to already be utilizing that method so we avoided the chaos and stress of a yoyoing school system. Reading favorites: Sawyer - Percy Jackson; Dempsey - Tuttle Twins Travel: We did an overnight trip down south to Hagerman where we AirBnB’d it. We took Saoirse with us and enjoyed paddleboarding along the Snake River. Employment: Just after the getaway, Jake began his new job as an AV and Webcasting Engineer at MICRON. While the financial benefits have been wonderful, the commute… not so much. It is quite literally on the other side of the Treasure Valley from our home. Coral is blessed to remain a full time stay at home mom and is grateful for the more than full time work that entails - teaching, consulting, educating, mothering, homemaking, etc. Entertainment: We recently shared Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies with the boys along with finishing most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Health: The four of us have been blessed to remain healthy throughout 2020. Dempsey will celebrate 2 years post treatment for leukemia on January 24th!! We continue to give thanks and praise to God for His provision throughout that journey and for the blessings that we still get to experience because of it (meeting and helping people in a similar journey). Sawyer, at 13 ½ years old, is growing out his golden locks, shooting up like a string bean, and walking through the arduous experience that is puberty. Friendships: Our family tends to a small and intimate community of in real life friends. We are blessed with the deep and narrow relationships that keep our little lifeboat afloat. They have been inspirational and instrumental in keeping us sane during what has culturally been the most wonky year we have ever lived through, read about, imagined could exist. Saoirse: Our pup will turn 3 years old this month! I think she needs a fur sibling but Jake’s not yet convinced. Next to her 90 pound blond Goldendoodle boyfriend, Mr. French/ Frenchie, the most significant thing to happen to her was getting injured at a dog park. We have no idea how it happened, but she sliced off a decent chunk of skin on her right hind paw. That was an expensive and successful surgery. She’s such a good girl - never really bothered her stitches and healed up perfectly. We were worried it would be too hard to reconstruct as she has the little chicken legs. Jake’s family: We enjoy frequent visits from his mom and dad when they come to stay at their Boise home. The miles between all family members are a nuisance, says Jake. Coral’s family: My dad came to visit over Christmas. It was a great few days! I told Jake that Saoirse was going to lose her mind when Granddad got here. Sure enough, she did!
He plans to move to Idaho once the Lord calls my mom home. My mom continues to decline into the grips of Alzheimer’s disease. She is physically wasting away despite her labs showing “normal”. My dad is allowed to visit her three times a week. I am grateful that this facility is not bound by inhumane governmental overreach and mandates. If it was, he would not be able to see her at all. This Christmas was the first Christmas he was not with my mother in 40 years. The bittersweet part was that she didn’t know he was gone… or that it was Christmas. Speaking of anniversaries, Jake and I will be celebrating #15 in a few weeks. It seems like both a blink of an eye and several lifetimes. Instead of purchasing material Christmas gifts this year, we once again donated our budget to Operation Underground Railroad (see below). We are deeply grieved at the need for this organization as that means there is evil out there devaluing God’s creation. Sex trafficking is the fastest growing “business” in the world. That’s abhorrent. It’s not teenagers. It’s not just teenagers. We’re talking LITTLE KIDS! 5, 6, 7 years old. doTERRA partners with OUR. So, a company I love, whose products I use and value, also shares my conviction and passion to see this atrocious industry eradicated! The HOPE blend, when you purchase it 100% of proceeds go to OUR to bring hope to those who are enslaved and to those who have been rescued but need to be rehabilitated.
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