HartlessByDesign

Dear friends and family,

We hope this letter finds you well.  Last year when I sat down to write this letter, it was on our back porch under sunny skies and 75 degree weather.  Today, I am bundled up in my warmest fleece because its 34 degrees - For Houstonians, that’s cold!  Don’t fret though, they are predicting 72 degrees for Christmas day and we’re OK with that.

I guess we are officially Houstonians since we have been here just over a year now.  Pops helped to start off 2008 with excitement for us.  I got a call from him in the first half of January – he was in the hospital.  He had driven himself there the night before after suffering through five days of abdominal pains.  Turns out it was appendicitis.  They removed it just before his 80th birthday.  Within six weeks he was back to his old self working full time in his shop and as spunky as usual.  We are thankful for God’s healing hand in his life.

For Alan’s birthday in February I decided to kidnap him and take him to Austin to check out the music scene.  I guess I shouldn’t quit my day job since it was brutally cold and we just couldn’t get into the bar hopping, music scene.  Instead we both got nasty colds and spent the weekend running to wal-mart to buy cold medicine.  Happy birthday Alan…

For Spring break we were blessed to have Nana, Sally and Ashley come to spend the week with us.  We took in the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.  That was a great cultural adventure for all – Thank goodness Nana and Sally yanked me away from the pooping cow just in time!

The school year ended well and before we knew it our summer travels had begun.  We met up with our dear friends the Hamptons (the elder and younger ones) in San Antonio.  It was great to spend time with all of them and to take in the sights.  Shortly there after we embarked on a two week road trip with the dogs up to Virginia.  Along the way we spent some time in Savannah, GA sightseeing, Wilmington, NC visiting Alan’s little brother Ethan and in Monroe, NC with our friends the Quinns.  The time in Virginia went quickly, but we are thankful for all the friends and family we spent time with.

The big news maker for us has been hurricane Ike.  The school year had barely begun and we were out again for what we thought would be a couple of days for this “minor, category 2” storm.  We took my parents and the dogs and evacuated to San Antonio for a couple of days just to be safe. Thankfully my parent’s home was spared and they had power as soon as we returned.  We lost a tree and power for about a week, but the weather was cool and it was a good time to reflect on God’s goodness and provision. Many others were not so fortunate.  We were out of school for two weeks because there was no power, 39 of our 40 schools were damaged, many students’ homes were uninhabitable and there was simply too much debris for the school buses to move around safely.  The hospital where Alan works was severely damaged.  It took in about four feet of water.  We were very fortunate that he was paid for the time that he could not return to work, and that he still has a job.  Nearly 4,000 employees of that hospital system have lost their jobs.  Again, we see God’s graceful provision in our lives.  Things will not return to normal at that hospital and Alan plans to start the job search in January. All in all it’s been an adventurous and blessed year.  We even got some SNOW here in Houston a couple of weeks ago.  The kids were thrilled to make snow men (even though it required scooping up all the snow on the block).  It was a great way to lift spirits here during the Christmas season. Most of all we are grateful for God’s gift to us in His Son Jesus Christ this Christmas season.  For despite the circumstances of the word around us and the burden of our sins, God gave us redemption and hope by faith in His Son, Jesus, born to us 2,000 years ago.  We pray that you would be able to fully enjoy this most precious gift during the Christmas season.

With love,

Alan, Eda, Pancho and Felíz