Christmas 1998
Merry Christmas, everyone!
This has been a very exciting year for us. As many of you know, the biggest and smallest thing that happened to us this year was Brittany. She was born on January 27th at 7:47 AM, weighing in at 5 lbs. 2 oz. The nurses all called her “peanut”. Her fetal position (frank breech) resulted in a condition called “hip displasia” (ball and socket don’t form together), and infantile torticullis (hyper-tensed neck muscle). Both were correctable through physical therapy and a tiny orthopedic hip brace and she has recovered 100%. As the holidays approach, she is now 10 months old and a whirlwind of activity. She crawls, walks while holding both hands or furniture, pulls herself up and sets herself down, drinks from a straw, waves bye-bye and claps. Her vocabulary consists of Mama, Daddy, bye-bye, and a jumble of other things we can’t decipher yet. She has two teeth and is working on a third. She also had her first halloween as a flower and played the “duck pond” game at the church fall festival. Her favorite toy is giant stuffed rat which she picked out at Target. And to top it all off, her favorite thing to do is smile!!! She has been a constant source of amazement, entertainment, frustration, worry, and most of all, love. I think we’ll keep her.
Aside from keeping track of “little snugly”, Janet has proven her self to be The Garage Sale Queen. If you’ve not seen her bargain, you’ve lived an incomplete life. Combining her unique talents with Brittany’s need for clothes has resulted in the birth of a new business. Janet finds the best children’s clothes available on the Austin garage sale market, scans images of the clothes and auctions them over the Internet auction web site EBay (www.ebay.com, search for seller kep@acm.org). She has received rave reviews from customers world-wide over the quality/price. Aside from her fledgling business, she is also the coordinator for a women’s Bible study group within our church, and also helps out with the child care ministry there.
As for myself, I am still doing software development with Lotus Notes. For most of the year, I was with the software services company PSW Technologies, but as of November 15th, I am working for Tivoli Systems, an IBM company that makes software to manage computers over large networks. I’m doing the same job, but more money! Aside from getting to work on some really cool projects, I had the opportunity to attend a developer conference in Palm Springs, California, and see the desert.
This coming year is also shaping up to be an adventure. Brittany will be a toddler, I’ll be settling into a new company, and our church is getting acquainted with a new pastor.
I would also like to remind everyone to reflect on all the things that we have to thank God for. We have families who love us, food, shelter, jobs, and many other things that lots of people around us do not have. Directly or indirectly, these are all gifts to us from God. The greatest one though, is that he came to Earth as Jesus, and through his death on the cross gave us the gift of eternal pardon from our sin, and the freedom to choose a relationship in his love that I believe will exist after our life on Earth is complete. Please take a moment during the busy holiday to remember what it cost him, what it means to us, and that it is offered freely to you.
Somehow this makes it easier to accept that this Christmas I’m not getting a “Furby”!
Have a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!
Love,
Kent, Janet, and Brittany