We usually spend the winter wishing for snow, excited when the slightest dusting hits the ground. We love it - even the smallest bit brightens the brown and dreary months. This season our excitement comes with a pang of guilt as we remember there are still people living in tents and campers just a few miles down the road.
Hurricane Helene swept through our mountains at the very end of September, leaving a mark that will probably never be erased. Even as people work to clean and rebuild, there are scars on the landscape that simply cannot be put back as they once were. No matter how much we press on to put it back to “normal” the sad truth is, nothing that we remember of these ravaged spots will ever be back to normal.
I can’t tell you why, but our family was spared the worst in every way. We didn’t even realize what had really happened until we ventured out of our safe and untouched mountaintop into the valleys below and saw the utter destruction we had missed. I hesitate to say “blessed” because it seems to indicate that we are somehow more special than those who suffered. Survivor’s guilt is real.
Grateful doesn’t describe the half of it. And there was a silver lining - watching the outpouring of love from friends and neighbors and people from all over the world. Just the number of people that reached out asking if our family was safe was extremely touching - some we hardly knew! But there’s a sadness that I don’t think will fully hit us until this summer, when the temperature’s rise and the cool of the surrounding creeks and rivers call out… and we go to them only to find that we can’t even find that swimming hole we loved for years, the one with the swing and the big rock that the kids learned how to swim to. We can’t even find it because nothing is left. No trees, no rocks, no homes - nothing to define what was there. Even the course of the river is different. We can’t find that bend or that hole because… it’s simply gone.
It's hard to know how to describe our year. It’s hard not to define the entire year by that one catastrophic event in September, “The Storm”. It has taken months just to feel like things are back to "normal", especially when a trip anywhere still takes you past something covered in mud and debris. But there most certainly has been plenty of good and I want to share that too.
Abbey has moved into the tiny house!! What a feat! There are still some finishing touches needing done but other than that she is in her own space and using it as a studio for her students. She still performs with her band, Appalachian Heartstrings, and as a solo performer when she finds “gigs”. Ultimately she would like to find a way to make performance a larger portion of her income and she has applied to attend the music program at ETSU this fall! Abbey also became a world traveler this year. She visited a friend in LA this spring, the cross-country solo flight practice for a trip to IRELAND this summer. She spent two weeks volunteering as a camp counselor for Castledaly in Athlone, Ireland, and the last week traveling the country with missionaries Deanna and Ethan Coblenz. The experience was life-changing and gave Abbey the travel bug. Abbey had a heck of a year.
Hannah had a heck of a year too but not in quite the same way. She tore her ACL at the end of the soccer season and pretty much the rest of her year has revolved around surgery July 3, recovery, and endless physical therapy. It canceled all the fun plans like missions to NYC and Ireland and such 🙁. Recovering from ACL surgery is NO JOKE people. We’re talking 6-9 months and we’re still praying she’ll be able to play her Junior season this spring. But she is slowly looking more normal - almost no limp, no brace. We’re getting there… it has been a lesson in patience and grit for all of us. She recently won an art contest in school for the county Christmas card! And she was excited to attend Hart Square Village twice more for their fall and Christmas festival (thus the old-fashioned get up in the photo).
Micah and Hannah both decided to give high school a try this fall. Two classes on campus, two at home. It’s been a tricky balance but we finally found a rhythm and they have enjoyed the change of pace and the social aspect of it all. Friends every day! But it also has meant going every. single. day. And I tell you what, if there is one thing that wears a homeschooler out faster than anything, it’s consistency. Flexibility and freedom are a staple of our education and I don’t think we realized just how much until now.
Micah’s JV soccer team actually WON games this fall for the first time in YEARS! Micah also spent a week in NYC on a mission trip and got his driver’s permit, a snowboarding pass (making up for that broken wrist last season 🙁 ), a job at the new ski resort, and has been diligently helping rebuild a flooded home with some friends after school when they can (photo). To say that he’s never home is an understatement. And it’s hard for my mama’s heart to accept that he likes it this way. Grateful he is into healthy things!
Malachi is about to turn 13 in January even though I keep begging him not to turn into a teenager. It’s hard for me to imagine his sweet temperament engulfed by hormonal angst. I have enjoyed watching personalities blossom and have real conversations about life and the future but phew!! I could do without the sass. Either way he enjoys soccer so much, plays the guitar and he still loves heading into the woods to “build forts”. I love that he still plays with his younger siblings and loves to play games and hang out with Mom and Dad. May it never end…
Elias has become a READER in a major way this year. He devours anything within reach and my biggest challenge has been keeping quality books in his hands. I love to hear him giggle from his cozy corner as he’s lost in a book. He also is an amazing soccer player and has taken on a new hobby with the younger 4 of horseback riding lessons from a family friend. It has been a wonderful step into something completely new for all of us.
Moriah is probably the most social of all my butterflies. She LOVES people and being
with anyone at any time. She is quickly developing her skills on the piano, the fiddle, baking, reading, sewing, art, horseback riding and just about anything else she can learn, especially if another friend is involved!
And last, but not least, our little Zipporah. She still takes her position as the “baby” very seriously, but she was very excited to start kindergarten this year. Even big sister Hannah couldn’t dampen her enthusiasm with her tales of high school woe. “You have bad school” she commiserated. She counts the days down to
“horseback day” and finally worked up the courage to sit on one this month. She is still the sweetest, most compliant, polite, adorable little thing that it’s hard to believe she is growing up as much as she is.
It has been a full year of music and soccer and a few trips to the Smoky Mountains (the closest National Park to us that we FINALLY made it to). For our anniversary Tim and I took our first backpacking trip to the Smokies. It was glorious to hike 8 miles without a baby on my back! We then took everyone there on a camping trip for Moriah’s 8th birthday this fall.
And we also had the chance to take our spiritual parents, Ann and Pat Daigle there too! The pastor of our sweet Island church in Alaska, this was the first time we've had the opportunity to host them in our home since we moved 12 years ago. It was a wonderful visit with old friends.
We have worked to build our breeding business this year with the addition of “Zeke”, the future of Brambly Mountain farm’s puppies. He has met all our expectations and more with his intelligence, instinct, and characteristics very true to the Old Time Scotch Collie breed. We are excited to meet his pups in a few years! And our hopes are high for anither litter from Lucy this spring as we make plans to breed with a beautiful guy from West Virginia. Tim has been working to build his insurance clientele through 4Boys insurance this year in an attempt to at least get out of bus driving and summer school. If you live in NC and need auto, home, or health insurance give him a call! Free quote 😀 (No, I’m not ashamed to sell insurance from a Christmas letter if it means getting my husband out from under some stress!! 😂).
Christmas comes upon Christmas faster and faster these days. “I can’t believe it’s that time of year again!” we exclaim. It's important to remember all of the season’s goodness and special meaning so that we can rejoice in the good of the here and now and the good that is to come. Like Scrooge from the Christmas Carol who suddenly realizes he’s missed it, let’s not miss it. Let’s mourn for what was, rejoice in the now, and look to the future with hope. Because in Jesus there is only ever hope. The promise of restoration, possibly even better than before - just as Jesus came to save the world and not just the Isrealites. Seeing the good even when it looks so very bad - just as the hope of the world came to a dirty stable to a poor family. Realizing that there is love in places you would never expect like the Wise men heading to a hovel instead of a palace to find the new king. Maybe there’s more here than we realize now. Let’s look forward to the unexpectedness of that.
Comments