Christmas Letter 2013

My favorite time of the year has come upon us again.  Here is a recap of the MN Ekelunds’ 2013.

I am going to include a couple newspaper article links in this letter because we were in the news a couple times.  First time was in May when we decided to bike to school in May for “Bike or Walk to School or Work Week.”  You can read about it here.  It was a fun challenge and gave me a chance to spend longer quality time with the kiddos before school.

The summer brought the exciting news that baby #6 will be joining us in March 2014.  We had the ultrasound and…

…didn’t find out the sex because we love surprises.

We had some visitors from the east coast come to see us this summer.  What a fun time we had!  My dad came twice; my brother and sister-in-law came to see us for the first time; and my aunt Margery, uncle Kevin and cousin Sandra also travelled out to “the middle of nowhere Minnesota” as they put it.  We had fun showing them around our community and travelling to the Minneapolis for some city fun as well.

As far as employment goes, due to low enrollment across the state, my teaching assignment was greatly reduced this year, but I still taught one section this fall to keep my feet wet.  Adam began working as a personal care attendant (PCA) and just loves that aspect of helping people that need it.  It was a great fit for him.  He continued working at UPS as well.  The big news came in late September when he felt something bad happen to his back one day.  He went to the doctor and found out he had a couple herniated discs.  He was put on work restrictions for a month and is now on workman’s comp.  The good news is that the neurosurgeon thinks that he does not need surgery or steroids at this time.  He will hopefully heal with rest.  Unfortunately, we don’t know how long the healing process is going to take.  While all this stress was happening, some members of our church here got together and blessed us by cleaning, painting, re-purposing, re-organizing, and finishing projects that neither Adam nor I could do.  It is an amazing testimony of the body of Christ at work.  Here is the article from the paper about it, and I also wrote my version of the unexpected blessing in the post before this one.

Caleb will be turning double digits (10!) at the beginning of 2014.  Where did the time go?  He was #17 again in football this summer and loved it.  His team was one win away from another undefeated season.  In school, he began playing the violin and in a few short months he is doing really well!  He is also able to be a part of the Prairie Science Class held at Prairie Wetlands Learning Center.  This program is for 4^th and 5^th graders.  The students go out to the prairie for half the school day and they are in a traditional classroom for the other half.  After he came home from school on the first day, I asked him how it went.  He said, “Mom, it was AMAZING!”  We are very fortunate to have this program available to our students.

  

Hannah spent time this summer at an arts camp down at the local gallery.  They learned layering using different media and she even did a self-portrait made with “things that represented her” like photos, homework papers, other art she had created.  She is really quite the artist.  She has the same 2^nd grade teacher that Caleb had and is doing really well academically too.

  

Timothy is 6 now!  He has the same Kindergarten teacher that Hannah had and is loving being with his school friends.  He lost his first tooth the day before picture day at school and is loving his new room upstairs with his older brother.

Sarah will be 4 years old on Christmas.  She has a very sensitive heart and makes sure those around her are cared for.  Like when I am nauseated due to pregnancy, she will rub my back without me asking.  She also loves playing with her little brother while the kids are at school.  Of course there are frustrating times when he “ruins EVERYTHING,” but she is a great big sister.  She got her first haircut even though she was afraid it would hurt.  She was so excited to show her brothers and dad her "small hair."

Joshua turned 1 this year and had a birthday party with his Godmother and birthday buddy, Melissa.  He is now beginning to talk.  It is still one-word sentences now, but his vocabulary has increased so much these past couple months.  I have, once again, included a primer for posterity:

Caba – Caleb

‘Nah - Hannah

Timpy – Timothy

S’rah – Sarah

Herse – Horse

Gup - Get up (as in get up in our laps)

Strs – Stairs (his latest favorite activity)

Nug – Snuggle (my personal favorite)

After just recently receiving the blessing of our “new home,” I often find myself thinking, “How can I possibly receive such a gift?  How can I pay my friends back?”  The answer is that I can’t.  There were over 50 people involved in the whole weekend makeover doing various things.  It is very humbling to receive such a blessing.

At this time of year when gifts are given and received, we celebrate a much bigger blessing, the blessing wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.  This baby was God’s Son sent to us to ultimately pay for our sins and make us blameless in God’s sight.  “How can I pay Him back?”  I can’t.  I just need to receive the free gift He gave.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—“  Ephesians 2:8

Thank you, Lord, for the amazing gift of Your Son.

Love,

Rebekah Adam Caleb Hannah Timothy Sarah Joshua & Baby

Our New Home

Standing alone in a room that had just been full of commotion that is now silent, the magnitude of what we had been given was beginning to hit us.  As we watched the last of the “welcome home” guests leave, Adam and I stood in an unbelievably beautiful living room, a room in a house that was radically different only 48 hours earlier.  “What… what just happened…?”  Adam said, dumbfounded. “I don’t know…” I replied.  And overwhelmed, I began to cry.

I don’t believe in coincidences.   Some people do -- random events that converge a surprisingly, sometimes astounding ways.  The chance meeting of an old friend when you were just thinking of them, receiving a “random” gift or hug or kind word when that is exactly what you needed.  Well, this kind of “coincidence” happened on Tuesday, November 12th when Christine Lawson picked up the phone after our family seemingly randomly popped into her mind.  “Can I bring over tacos tonight for dinner?” she asked. I happily accepted.   Dinner made for us by a friend?  Thank you Lord!  She didn’t know about how life was hitting us at this moment, she just wanted to bring over dinner.  But dinner made for us, was a calm that came in the midst of an emotional, spiritual, and physical storm.  Coincidence?  No way.  This is God’s provision for the needs of His children, expressed through the body of Christ.

Beginning late last year, I have been expecting and therefore preparing for some changes coming this fall.  I knew that due to factors beyond my control, my workload would be greatly reduced, and with it, my paycheck.  Part way through this year, I knew that even more changes would be coming, as we found out that Ekelund baby #6 was on the way.  A joyful time, true, but one which also brought with it fatigue and stress.  And most recently, as all these changes began unfolding, Adam hurt his back and was unable to work at his jobs, with a long recovery on the horizon.  With all of these changes happening at once, it seemed like a perfect storm was brewing, and despite our confidence that God *would* provide for his children, it was difficult to shake the fear of not knowing how an uncontrollable and difficult circumstance will be resolved.

So, Tuesday night we were treated to a yummy meal of tacos and all the fixin’s.  We, in turn, “treated” Christine to an hour or so of just sitting on our couch as we talked and ate.  Having four kids of her own back at home under the age of 5, she let us know that getting out for an hour and talking on our couch actually was a treat!  Yay!  J  We chatted about all sorts of different things.  Then, as she looked around our cluttered living room, she said, “Hey, would you ever be able to get away for a weekend so I could do “stuff” in your house?  Would it be alright if I just went through and put some things in totes for you?”  Those words were amazing and sweet words to my ears, but unfortunately, we just couldn’t afford time away with our current situation, but she could put anything she wanted into totes.  I just didn’t have the energy for anything.  She understood and said that she would think about it, but would love for me to come over to her house on Thursday morning for coffee/relaxation and the little kids could have a play date.

Thursday morning came, and Sarah, Joshua, and I went to her home.  She let us know that she had called her partner in crime, Mandy, and they were going to go over to my house that morning and “take some notes.”  Adam came over to Christine’s and we watched the kiddos while the girls “took notes.”  When they came back, we were told that we needed to pack a bag and vacate our home the next day at 4pm with an all-expense paid two-night stay in a local hotel.  Everything else was a closely guarded secret.  I was excited to think that my kitchen floor may finally be mopped!

Amazed, excited, and bewildered at what might be going on in our house, we arrived Friday afternoon at a hotel suite that was stocked with snacks and gift cards for meals, featuring a king size bed, pull-out couch, two TVs, and whirlpool in the room!  The kids were elated that one of the hotel amenities was a pool and hot tub.  They definitely would have slept in their bathing suits if the suits hadn’t been wet from already enjoying pool time right after we arrived.

We received sporadic phone calls throughout the weekend, asking about shoe sizes, favorite toys, or any needs we might have (!!) all the while hearing hammers pounding and many, many people talking in the background.  “We don’t deserve this,” we said to each other many times throughout the weekend.

On Sunday around 4pm, we got the call that it was time to come home.  We pulled into the driveway to see a group of people in our garage and Christine at our front door with a big grin on her face.  She told us to come in and proceeded to shock us with a COMPLETE home makeover.  Everything had been de-cluttered, cleaned, painted, repurposed, and organized.  There were many new items and new-to-us items also installed.  Stop for a moment and think of a drawer or a closet or a room in your house that is so full of stuff that you just don’t think you can or want to organize it.  Now bring that to a grander scale of an entire 1300 square foot house that is a culmination of 10 years of living.  It is like this 10 year burden that all seemed to come to a head last week was lifted in 48 hours through the love of others.

After the incredible tour of our new home, some of the volunteers, or we like to say Bethel Church Missionaries, gathered in the living room with us.  We fumbled around for words that conveyed our thanks and gratitude when, in truth, words could not possibly express our hearts’ feelings.  Joel led a prayer that glorified our Father in heaven for what happened this weekend, and we were left alone in our new home.

Ultimately, we were given an incredible, awesome, unbelievable, and life-changing gift.  Our lives were changed because of what happened this weekend.  We were given a fresh start, a new home, a chance to breathe, relief from a burden that was hanging over our heads to which we saw no end.  The only thing we can say in response to this past weekend’s events is “Thank you, God.  Thank you for the body of Christ.  Thank you God for Your love that comes to and flows through us to one another.  Thank you for being the tie that binds us together; the Source of our love for each other.”

I feel so truly deeply touched an overwhelmed by what people have done here that I am daily brought to tears, because, what did I do to deserve this?  Nothing.  I did nothing (!), and frankly I don't deserve this.  It is too much for me to comprehend a gift like this.  How can I receive it?  How can I use any words to express how I feel, when they fall so vastly short of my deep gratitude in the face of this unbelievable love for us.  And my mind turns to our Savior.  I live every day in the peace, forgiveness, and salvation that came from another – and infinitely more undeserved – gift.  But how do I react to that?  Am I overcome to the point of tears?  Am I elated to the point of laughter and singing?  Am I humbled to the point of silent thankfulness?  Truly, what is my reaction to God’s ultimate gift of his Son? 

Lord, help me to be confronted daily with the magnitude of the gift of your Son, what He sacrificed for someone as undeserving as me.  Let my life be a light and a testimony of what forgiveness from God means, and truly shout from a mountaintop in my heart, “You, Lord, Your Name alone be praised!”

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”   -Ephesians 3:20-21