Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!

I sit in my kitchen drinking some fresh strong coffee and just am in awe of our life. 

We have just returned home from church and feel just so alive and well and at home.

It was so good to be connected and see our church family.

We are so blest with  all the support and love from our community, family and friends. 

We are overwhelmed and humbled and so grateful for each person in our life. 

We are reminded once again of God's goodness and faithfulness in our life.

2017 was full of surprises and lots of travelling.

This year we spent much time on the road travelling to see Mike's dad Tim,

as he suffered numerous health issues during this past year.

We are happy to share that he seems to be as stable as he will get and is doing well. 

We had the opportunity to go camping this year for a week and decided to head to Taber and spend time with him . It was a healthy and fun way to be together. 

In February I decided  to head to Ecuador on my own.

I went wearing numerous hats. Board member of the Santiago Partnership, Facilitator to leading teams for ECCC and friend of Joel & Kim. I went for a number of different personal reasons.

A time to see what God is doing through the Santiago Partnership and how I can continue to help.

A time to reflect on the "next" in my life and a time to fully trust God in my life.

I was terrified to get on a plane again...and needed to do this. 

The time there was life changing for me.

I am so grateful that God put this desire to serve with the Santiago Partnership on my heart.

I continue to help and serve - selling scarves here in Canada and other items to help support this amazing ministry. www.santiagopartnership.org

This year, we spent time with friends, at new lakes, visiting friends in the hospital, new coffee shops new drives, new cabins, new camping spots, new travel adventures, mountains, new food

and so many more new experiences. 

In the fall we spent some time in BC and were able to be there for my nieces wedding.

We also celebrated birthdays in a big way this year and I was blest with some fun parties and surprises in the beautiful mountains by my hubby and family. 

OF COURSE OUR BIGGEST NEWS...

ELI IS HOME

As mentioned in our last Christmas letter...we waited for our match and travel date...

well it all happened within a few weeks and we were off to Vietnam on Nov 27 of 2017

retuning home just before Christmas.

We have many crazy fun stories and memories of our time.

It seems like it didn't even happen yet we look and see a little one

running around our home so we know it did!

We are home and a family of four. 

God is good. 

2017 was a continuation of a great life in Norquay Sk.

Mike as always, is busy with his work and he continues to draft and this year he also had a new kitchen to build, which is his favorite thing to do.
He also serves on the board at Covenant Heights Bible camp as their treasurer.
This summer, he spent as much time as he could riding - loving his trike- we even had the opportunity to go away for our anniversary on our trike this year for a few days. It was awesome.
We have a few friends here that ride so a few of us have gathered and gone out for rides together. We even hooked up with a Harley ride from Yorkton, which was fun.
We spent lots of time with Mike's family this past year and are grateful we could go and see dad when we needed to.
Winter - he does love to ice fish...so I am sure he will be in some shack soon fishing - without me...of course.
The newest news would be that he has sold his yellow truck...yup...he decided that his interests in biking and fishing .... took up most of his time. So... we move on.

Natasha well, I just do what I do...I continue to serve the Norquay Covenant Church as Associate Pastor and love the work I do. I continue to take my Mental Health Counselling courses and am close to completing everything.  I have a passion to help in the healing process in peoples lives and love walking along side individuals and hearing their stories. It's an exciting time for me in my life here in Norquay and work I am called to do. I continue to work with the students here and one of the highlights this past year is that we went on our first inner-city missions trip to Saskatoon serving at a soup kitchen. It was a great time with students. I continue to serve on our Denomination's board, ECCC and also the Santiago Partnership board in Ecuador.
We also spent some time in BC this year in May then September with my family. It was nice to be in the mountains and see family and friends.
I continue to create, (still hoping for that glass blowing kiln...) write, take pictures and blog when I can. It's therapy for me as we learn to share our stories with each other.

Hana is loving school and enjoying her life here. She is such a joy and smart and beautiful inside & out.
She continues to play soccer and hockey and is enjoying both more and more each year.
She is also taking piano and enjoys playing.
As I mentioned last year she loved taking pictures so this year we gave her an instant camera...well she loves it!
She went to Squirt camp this year and Covenant Heights Bible camp and loved it.
She cried all the way home because she did not want to leave...or was over tired. lol
She still loves kids club and Sunday school and church. Loves the singing and learning about Jesus.
Grade 1 has been so great for her - she is reading and doing math and loves to learn.
I continue taking her to the seniors lodge here in Norquay and we do puzzles and we hang out with her favorite people there. We hope to start again in January.
Her favorite thing to do is play with her friends. And lego...she loves her lego.
She is loving her little brother and loves taking care of  him. It is a great thing.

Eli is adjusting to his new family and home. We all are. It has been a crazy whirl wind month and we all made it home for Christmas. He is very curious and fun and loud and busy. He is a joy. He is very cuddly and loves to play. Everything is new to him and us. It's a great big beautiful time in our lives. He is a tiny little guy - turning 2 in March yet only in 12 month clothing. But in the last month he has gained lots of weight and is filling in very fast!! He loves all kinds of food and climbs on everything. He loves to follow his big sister and get her attention. We are staying close to home as we adjust and bond as a family. His Child Dedication is on Sunday February 4th and look forward to dedicating our Son into God's hands. ( we bought him a traditional Vietnamese shirt for this day  and pray it fits!!)

So we enter into 2018 with me on a Parental leave  hanging out with my new son,

Mike back at work, Hana back in school and ...who knows the rest of the story for 2018.

There will be laughter , joy , sadness ,hard moments, long days , long nights and so much more all we do know is that  God is good and in control and we give Him all the glory for this season of our life. 

So today we settling into a quite New Years Eve and we marvel and thank God for all that is good and pray for all the is hard and we just settle into a family of four. 

God is good. 

Merry Christmas & Happy New years. 

Mike, Tasha, Hana & Eli. 

It is a great thing.