merry christmas 2009

Greetings Family & Friends!

2009 has been yet another exceptional year.  Like many years that have come and gone, we’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on God’s goodness to us, His faithfulness, and provision.  We celebrated 11 years of marriage and are now in our 7th year of ministry at Constance Free Church!

We continue to wait on our adoption referral.  After “officially” waiting for 14 months now, we’re anxious to meet the precious little miracle that will expand our family.  Though we haven’t met yet, we’re looking forward to the day when God unites us with the child that we already love.  The nursery is decorated and we anticipate that our referral should come sometime around March of 2010.  

This year was filled with a lot of unique musical experiences ...

In June, we were privileged to take a band from Constance Free Church to play at the Joyful Noise Music Festival here in Minneapolis.  We played nearly all original music for a crowd that consisted of around 5,000 excited concert-goers.  The day concluded with an amazing evening concert featuring Lincoln Brewster and MercyMe.

Many of you may have also heard that Dan had the opportunity to lead a 1000 voice choir which accompanied Michael W Smith at our local Christian radio station’s 60th anniversary concert.  The choir was comprised of people from more than 150 local churches, ministries, and Christian colleges.  In addition to their involvement with Michael W Smith, the choir also sang two featured songs accompanied by the band from Constance Free Church, one of which Dan (and his songwriting partner) wrote specifically for the occasion.  It was an amazing, unique, and humbling experience!

Earlier this month, our church also hosted a concert that featured our middle school, high school, latino, and adult bands and choir.  It was an energetic and exciting celebration which featured a lot of original Christmas music that Dan has written throughout the years.

In addition to all of those experiences, we also spent a lot of time on the water this year enjoying our newest pastime - kayaking!  We’ve visited a lot of beautiful Minnesota lakes and especially enjoyed the times when we got to share the lake with all of the bald eagles.  As far as we know, they don’t make baby seats for kayaks, but we’re hoping that somehow we’ll still be able to venture out next summer with the family!

We managed to travel a lot last year too ... we visited Grandma and Grandpa Leverence in Florida back in February, dropped by to see our friend Mark Wilson in Columbus, and managed to make it home to Michigan twice this year (once around Memorial Day and then again for our annual ThanksChristmas trip in November).  For the next few months, we’re planning to stay fairly close to home until we board the plane bound for Ethiopia sometime this Spring!

We hope you all experience a meaningful Christmas filled with hope, wonder, and awe.  Please know how dearly we love each of you.  We pray that God  will continue to bless you and your families this Christmas and into the coming new year! 

Merry Christmas.