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…
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…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 4th
and 5th 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 2nd 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
