Dec. 2006
O du frohliche, o du salige, gnadenbringende Weihnachtszeit!
Dear friends & family around the world,
My greeting is in German and means something about joyful and blessed at Christmas time. I (Judy) have just come home from our third German program. We have two more to give before Christmas. I signed up to sing in a German Heritage chorale. You can read about momma’s night out on my blog at http://www.judysbooks.blogspot.com./ or check out http://www.wendellglick.com/ and you might even see a picture of me if you look under events! I have had a very enjoyable time learning to sing German with about 25 other people and presenting it to the older citizens in Waterloo region. They are really enjoying it. Most of us have the challenge of not understanding what we are singing. We can say the words properly but don’t understand the meaning. When we first started rehearsing I thought I would never be able to sing this fluently but by the end I was starting to spontaneously burst out in German praise at home!
I looked in my files to see what I told you last year and see we have done some of the same things again. We had two enjoyable weekends putting Clarence’s truck in the Fergus Truck show along with some other Liberty guys and my brother Merlin and Glen Myer. Merlin & Glen both won first place for their categories which was fun. We placed second at the Special Olympics convoy. You can check that out at http://www.sosoconvoy.com/ If you look under the photo gallery you will see one photo where Clarence’s Kenworth is in 2nd place. The lead guy raised a $1000 more dollars than we did so we had to settle for second. It is a fun way to help my sisters out.
Our summer was very busy. It felt like the holidays did not start until August. Donovan conference to school until the end of June then the first two weeks of July we had summer Bible school and I taught the youngest class. That was so much fun. I enjoyed that immensely. Then after that I had two weeks of speech therapy for Jackson plus do the truck show. Then we got ready for a week at the cottage which was very enjoyable.
At the end of May Jackson had surgery to put tubes in both his ears. What an amazing difference. His vocabulary has increased so dramatically. Within the first week we noticed an improvement. We can have a conversation with him now. He also attends JK every morning which he enjoys very much. It is no problem to get him out the door and on to the bus. I volunteer every Wed. Morning in his class. This really gives me a handle on how he is doing. Jackson has been accepted into a Language Enrichment Program at Kids Ability. This program will increase his vocabulary and improve his listening skills. That would involve going to school 3 afternoons a week for 11 weeks. It will involve commitment on our part as we have to drive him there and pick him up.
Jackson has had some struggles grasping the basic letter & number concepts at school. I keep telling myself he is only 3 years old. Let’s give him a little more time. But recently their was a little incident at school that was very amusing but told us he is listening. The theme of the week was transportation. The teacher was discussing with the class what different kinds of transportation start with the letter T. I was observing all this and I could see the thought process going through the teacher’s head. She was thinking now here’s a question Jackson can answer. So she says, "Jackson what does your daddy drive?" Without hesitation he replies, "a Kenworth!" I burst out laughing and the teacher clarifies again no, Jackson what does your daddy drive and again he says Kenworth. I am still laughing as the teacher turns questioning eyes to me. I said, " he’s right, a Kenworth is the model of a truck." The teacher had to give up! She explained to the rest of the class that truck starts with T.
Donovan is doing very well in Grade 1 at Countryside. His teacher is Miss Martin who is my friend Janet. We were in the same grade at school. It felt kind of funny the first time I sat down with her for a parent teacher conference! We are very pleased with his grasp on reading and number facts. We also had some special moments when he recited Psalm 23 and John 3:14-19. It brought tears to our eyes to hear our innocent son tell us the gospel and recite one of the most comforting passages in Scripture. It made the decision to send him to a Christian school very worthwhile.
Currently my parents are spending 5 weeks in Ghana with my sister Kathryn and her family for Christmas. We look forward to having Kathryn and her family home for a 6 month furlough starting in late winter. My sister and her husband have adopted two teenage brothers Emmanuel & Ebenezer. We have not met them yet, nor have we met their youngest son who is now one. So we will have some acquaintances to make.
This past Oct. We received the disappointing news that Clarence’s dad has been diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. This is a disease that affects the muscles. There is no cure for it and is usually fatal within 3 - 5 years. They have already had to stop their main source of income because he could not handle the heavy winter clothes he needed to wear to run his outdoor market stand. He also needs a cane. This also causes a problem because he has only one arm. He lost the other arm in a farm accident years ago. So if uses the cane he really can’t doing anything with his hands even something as simple as shaking hands because he needs it for the cane. So please pray for us as we face this as a family and cope with this loss. Clarence lost his mother to breast cancer the first year I was dating him. This feels like a double blow. As time goes on and it gets to the point that he is bedridden dad and George(brother) have utmost confidence in their church, Old Order Mennonite, to help provide the care he needs.
Every year at this time I wonder what the next year will bring and ask for strength to face what lies ahead. We will be especially be doing that again. We claim the promise that "it is God who doth go before thee."
God bless You. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
O du frohliche, o du salige, gnadenbringende Weihnachtszeit!
Dear friends & family around the world,
My greeting is in German and means something about joyful and blessed at Christmas time. I (Judy) have just come home from our third German program. We have two more to give before Christmas. I signed up to sing in a German Heritage chorale. You can read about momma’s night out on my blog at http://www.judysbooks.blogspot.com./ or check out http://www.wendellglick.com/ and you might even see a picture of me if you look under events! I have had a very enjoyable time learning to sing German with about 25 other people and presenting it to the older citizens in Waterloo region. They are really enjoying it. Most of us have the challenge of not understanding what we are singing. We can say the words properly but don’t understand the meaning. When we first started rehearsing I thought I would never be able to sing this fluently but by the end I was starting to spontaneously burst out in German praise at home!
I looked in my files to see what I told you last year and see we have done some of the same things again. We had two enjoyable weekends putting Clarence’s truck in the Fergus Truck show along with some other Liberty guys and my brother Merlin and Glen Myer. Merlin & Glen both won first place for their categories which was fun. We placed second at the Special Olympics convoy. You can check that out at http://www.sosoconvoy.com/ If you look under the photo gallery you will see one photo where Clarence’s Kenworth is in 2nd place. The lead guy raised a $1000 more dollars than we did so we had to settle for second. It is a fun way to help my sisters out.
Our summer was very busy. It felt like the holidays did not start until August. Donovan conference to school until the end of June then the first two weeks of July we had summer Bible school and I taught the youngest class. That was so much fun. I enjoyed that immensely. Then after that I had two weeks of speech therapy for Jackson plus do the truck show. Then we got ready for a week at the cottage which was very enjoyable.
At the end of May Jackson had surgery to put tubes in both his ears. What an amazing difference. His vocabulary has increased so dramatically. Within the first week we noticed an improvement. We can have a conversation with him now. He also attends JK every morning which he enjoys very much. It is no problem to get him out the door and on to the bus. I volunteer every Wed. Morning in his class. This really gives me a handle on how he is doing. Jackson has been accepted into a Language Enrichment Program at Kids Ability. This program will increase his vocabulary and improve his listening skills. That would involve going to school 3 afternoons a week for 11 weeks. It will involve commitment on our part as we have to drive him there and pick him up.
Jackson has had some struggles grasping the basic letter & number concepts at school. I keep telling myself he is only 3 years old. Let’s give him a little more time. But recently their was a little incident at school that was very amusing but told us he is listening. The theme of the week was transportation. The teacher was discussing with the class what different kinds of transportation start with the letter T. I was observing all this and I could see the thought process going through the teacher’s head. She was thinking now here’s a question Jackson can answer. So she says, "Jackson what does your daddy drive?" Without hesitation he replies, "a Kenworth!" I burst out laughing and the teacher clarifies again no, Jackson what does your daddy drive and again he says Kenworth. I am still laughing as the teacher turns questioning eyes to me. I said, " he’s right, a Kenworth is the model of a truck." The teacher had to give up! She explained to the rest of the class that truck starts with T.
Donovan is doing very well in Grade 1 at Countryside. His teacher is Miss Martin who is my friend Janet. We were in the same grade at school. It felt kind of funny the first time I sat down with her for a parent teacher conference! We are very pleased with his grasp on reading and number facts. We also had some special moments when he recited Psalm 23 and John 3:14-19. It brought tears to our eyes to hear our innocent son tell us the gospel and recite one of the most comforting passages in Scripture. It made the decision to send him to a Christian school very worthwhile.
Currently my parents are spending 5 weeks in Ghana with my sister Kathryn and her family for Christmas. We look forward to having Kathryn and her family home for a 6 month furlough starting in late winter. My sister and her husband have adopted two teenage brothers Emmanuel & Ebenezer. We have not met them yet, nor have we met their youngest son who is now one. So we will have some acquaintances to make.
This past Oct. We received the disappointing news that Clarence’s dad has been diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. This is a disease that affects the muscles. There is no cure for it and is usually fatal within 3 - 5 years. They have already had to stop their main source of income because he could not handle the heavy winter clothes he needed to wear to run his outdoor market stand. He also needs a cane. This also causes a problem because he has only one arm. He lost the other arm in a farm accident years ago. So if uses the cane he really can’t doing anything with his hands even something as simple as shaking hands because he needs it for the cane. So please pray for us as we face this as a family and cope with this loss. Clarence lost his mother to breast cancer the first year I was dating him. This feels like a double blow. As time goes on and it gets to the point that he is bedridden dad and George(brother) have utmost confidence in their church, Old Order Mennonite, to help provide the care he needs.
Every year at this time I wonder what the next year will bring and ask for strength to face what lies ahead. We will be especially be doing that again. We claim the promise that "it is God who doth go before thee."
God bless You. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
posted by Judy at 12:38 PM
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