As we reflect on this past year, we have been clinging to God's truths -
2 Peter 1:3-8
3 Jesus has the power of God, by which he has given us everything we need to live and to serve God. We have these things because we know him. Jesus called us by his glory and goodness. 4 Through these he gave us the very great and precious promises. With these gifts you can share in God’s nature, and the world will not ruin you with its evil desires. 5 Because you have these blessings, do your best to add these things to your lives: to your faith, add goodness; and to your goodness, add knowledge; 6 and to your knowledge, add self-control; and to your self-control, add patience; and to your patience, add service for God; 7 and to your service for God, add kindness for your brothers and sisters in Christ; and to this kindness, add love. 8 If all these things are in you and are growing, they will help you to be useful and productive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ellie (age 10) is breezing through her last year in elementary school. She is having a great time starting gymnastics again (just 1 day a week now). She loves music - it’s her second year in Singing Eagles (her school’s choir for 4th and 5th graders). She also started taking piano lessons and loves practicing daily.
Kasia (age 9) is thriving in 4th grade. She hit a growth spurt and is now almost 5 feet tall! She has continued her music love by joining the Singing Eagles with her sister and decided to take piano lessons after graduating Children’s Music Academy in the Spring.
All 3 of the girls are thriving in their winter skiing adventures! Mom gets quiet time when they’re in the mountains and they get dad time. They are all enjoying Awana on Wednesday nights, giving mom and dad weekly date nights. They really enjoyed our 2 1/2 weeks road trip of the MidWest that we affectionately termed "Our American Girl Tour" visiting 4 American Girl Stores along the way (and passing on store #5 in Kansas City even though we were there).
Christopher (age 4) is trusting us more each time we visit. He got to meet the entire family in May when we all travelled to Haiti. God blessed us with the opportunity to spend quality time with him at the orphanage in August and then Christy got another chance to see him in November. He’s strong-willed and sweet wrapped up in all-boy antics. We love seeing more of personality each time we're there.
Amelia (2 months) is the newest member of the Hires’ team. While Christy was in Haiti in November, God put in on her heart that this precious miracle would be our 5th baby. When she returned home, the entire family confirmed that God was making our family complete. We were able to finish our part of the dossier in 2 weeks (that's uber-fast) but there is a long road ahead of us as we wait for our dossier to be translated, legalized and for her paperwork to be complete before we enter the Haitian system. We trust God’s hand will be with her through this wait time.
Tracy continues to work for teknovare with a steady contract in Seattle for now. It’s nice that he gets to see his brother’s family on a regular basis. He continued running in 2012 by finishing 3 half marathons. Even with all that running, he still prefers his mountain bike. He’s skiing with the girls this winter season.
Christy is coming up on her 10 year anniversary with Ist Security Escrow Company. She'll be there until Christopher comes home. It's a blessing to stay busy during our wait. She was able to accomplish 6 half marathons this year, with one race in Oregon! She said good-bye to co-leading Women to Women at church in the spring but found a great Monday night Bible study this fall. She’s involved with the adoption group at our church and is really treasuring her trips to Haiti to visit our Haitian babies.
We covet your prayers that our faith will not be shaken and are looking forward to many changes in 2013!
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