Dear Ones,
Well, hello there! If you are anything like me, you’ve probably
already scoured the enclosed Christmas picture (we all know that ALWAYS takes
precedence to any letters…) and what, pray tell, did you notice?! Anything new?
Perhaps different? Surprising? Most definitely adorable?!
Why yes! We have A NEW BABY to snuggle and
squeeze!!!!!! Meet Naomi Elisheva
Laudermilch, Corynn and Kemuel’s precious gift and sweet delight, born on
November 2nd. From her head full of
fluffy brown troll hair, to that tiny “Pipsqueak” turning out to be over 9
pounds at birth, to the fact that ‘she’ is a ‘she’ at all, instead of the boy
that nearly everyone expected; Naomi has exceeded our expectations in every
way.
It is a surreal thing to witness a piece of
you, your legacy, entering into and shaping a future that you will not
see. As a young mother, you work
tirelessly to be everything to everyone and it is often a very thankless
job. But when those children that you
mothered, that you prayed for, worried over; that you served, that you fed,
clothed, nursed, read to, bathed, answered (a million times each day),
disciplined, encouraged, protected… when they grow up and get married and have
children of their own- only then do you truly understand how momentous that
work was. How profoundly impactful those
efforts are to the world. And how exponential the yield your
fruitfulness will become. You are world-changers.
And if you start that
good work early- get married, have babies, raise them in the Lord- if you do
that early enough, you might just get spry and youthful grandparents (like
myself, for example 😉) and great-grandparents to enjoy
and dote on your children for many years to come, Lord willing! What a gift!
Go make some babies, y’all! It’s
the best.
(Who would have thunk a
Christmas letter might have THAT bit of encouragement in it?! Only ours, my friends. Only ours. 😊)
As you can imagine,
Corynn and Kemuel are having the best year ever and loving every minute of this
new and cuddly (and exhausting and sleep-deprived) season that they are
in. It has been (and will be) so fun and wonderful
to watch them grow and flourish as parents.
I see Corynn blossoming into motherhood with grace and excitement and
patience and my heart swells with pride.
I am supremely grateful for them living close enough to be able to
witness it up close; I do not take this gift for granted. Beyond the baby and the booming business, Kemuel
and the Avoda crew finished building the Laudermilch home this year, a
formidable project and you should see how beautiful it is! The quality workmanship, the artistry and the
selflessness behind that project astounds me even still.
Andrew (19) has had a
challenging year in many ways and yet he continues to rise up and meet those
challenges head-on, with a certain fervor and verve. Through them, he is learning valuable lessons
about himself and the world around him. He
has worked for the Avoda company this year and he has proven himself to be an asset
to the company. He just finished a 6-week
intensive in which he logged nearly 170 hours just of overtime! He, too, worked with the Avoda company on
building the Laudermilch home and in doing so, gained valuable skills that will
bless his own homeowning in the future. With
the company, he was able to travel to several roofing/business conferences
throughout the country, which doubled as work AND pleasure trips. He bought himself a suit and sure looks
dapper in it when he wears it! At one
point this spring, he and a friend hosted a community dance party- lots of
food, lots of dancing, lots of people! I
guess that means it was a success! But
mostly this year, Andrew was on a roof. He
roofed in blazing heat this summer, drenching his shirt so much that salt
ripples had dried within the cotton of his shirt and likewise, in the negative
wind-chill frigid temps of winter, when I wondered if he might come home
without the tip of his nose. He does it
all without complaint and with incredible tenacity. He works from dark to dark, throughout the
year, but still finds time to shovel out a neighbor’s driveway, prune fruit
trees or bring in some firewood. He needs
to work less and play more, frankly, and that is not the advice most young men
need to hear these days. I realize this
makes him extraordinary. (But I do still
hope he plays more in the coming year!)
Adele’ (17) is so
precariously close to adulthood it frightens me. She is wise and sweet and generous. Just as wonderful are the things she is not…
she is not boy crazy or self-absorbed or superficial. She works as a house cleaner for several
neighbors and enjoys her job, especially when she can listen to audiobooks
while cleaning. (I don’t even want to
know how many books she has read/listened to this year… my paltry list will
pale in comparison.) The highlight of
her year was being asked to be Maid of Honor at her friends’ wedding and what a
grown-up responsibility and honor that was~ one that she fulfilled with grace,
sacrifice and skill. She was most nervous
about giving her speech…but she NAILED it.
She has pushed herself out of her comfort zone so much this year and has
become less introverted, more considerate, more brave and more resilient. Adele’ is my own little Pied Piper because a
thing she has taken to doing the past few years is walking children to the
nearby community park. It began with
brothers and sisters but as time passed, she began picking up children along
her route and taking them along with her.
She is the Pied Piper of Warren Center, with the exception being that
she returns the children to their families’ after their romp. (A far kinder ending than Brownings’ version,
if you ask me!)
Judah (15) is now so
manly that sometimes, if I catch him out of the corner of my eye, I can’t tell
if it is Judah or Andrew standing there.
He and Andrew are neck and neck, standing at about 6’4 (maybe
more?!). Maybe Judah is just a tad bit
taller by now… but only by his perfectly chic, sleek hairdo. With Papa and Andrew working so much, the
brunt of the manual labor falls on him… bringing in wood, milking cows, mowing,
burning papers and so forth. I
appreciate his strength and abilities so much, especially when he uses them for
good. Other people appreciate them too,
as his help is in high demand with friends and neighbors throughout the
year. The highlights of his year were
attending a junior Game Warden camp, snowboarding, archery season, camping,
shooting his first buck AND his first doe, and trapping muskrats for the first
time ever. Despite all the camouflage
clothing and the hunting talk, Judah still enjoys tickling the ivories of the
piano, which he does at home and at church (one of my greatest pleasures!) and
can belt out Phantom of the Opera with the best of them. I hope for my birthday this year, both of my
boys let me record them singing together The Music of the Night. (It is show-stopping.) (Hint, hint boys!)
Ineke (10 in less than
a week!) has a smile that lights up her whole face. She still has those beautiful crescent moon
eyes that make even the worst day turn happy.
She is dramatic and loves acting (she had fun memorizing her lines to
play Squanto in a skit this Thanksgiving).
She has the enviable (to me) talent of making herself into all sorts of
people and personalities with impressive accents and voices. Ineke as a story-telling Brit, is a
wonder. She enjoyed roller-skating this
summer and doing gymnastics all year long- in the yard, and living room, and on
the trampoline, and on the porch… you get the idea. She is strong and athletic and loves to
dance. She loved reading Anne of Green
Gables this year. Twice. She also loves holding babies and can’t seem
to get enough of holding any and all that she can find, most especially her
Naomi-love. She got to go on a ‘girls’
trip to North Carolina which was a high honor for her to be included and just a
hoot; it was the best fun a girl can have, sharing a backseat with two
giggly friends, eating snacks all the live-long day and with a chunkie baby to
snuggle with at the end of the road. We
survived flash flooding on a highway and swam in a flooded boat launch
surrounded by wading trees and floating log ‘alligators’ (and possibly, flooded
sewage- I don’t want to think about it) and picnicked on the side of the road
and sweated in the North Carolina humidity.
In her mind, it was a DREAM!
Moses (6) is an avid
naturalist and loves exploring outside.
He has an uncanny ability of catching insects mid-jump and butterflies
mid-flight- and with just his pincher fingers!
He caught more flies with his fingertips than I can count. He wanted to pin his captures onto a specimen
board but the girls couldn’t bear the thought of him killing them in cold blood,
so they convinced him to take pictures of them and make his very own nature
book instead. He enjoyed going on a
caterpillar hunt and then watching as they went through their magical monarch morphing. The highlight of Moses’ year was going to
see NOAH at Sight and Sound Theatre- thanks to Grandpa and Grandma- and that
happens to be a highlight of my year as well. (Most of ours, really!) It was so amazing! Moses loves to listen to stories and I love
to read them because I get some snuggles in at the same time. One night when I was lamenting how quickly
everyone is growing up, Moses assured me that “even when I am 65, I’m still
going to want to snuggle with you” so I plan on holding him to that. He also enjoys being with Papa and “inventing
things” and working in the barns. He
helped Papa split wood this year and he helps me unload the dishwasher and do
animal chores and he even made a mighty-tasting-looking omelet all by
himself. All this to say, he is growing
up fast and growing more independent and helpful by the day! Moses’ most favorite adjective to describe
good things is AMAZING and he uses it all the time. When he tells me my cooking is amazing, I
swell with pride. At least, I did until
he recently described Judah’s socks as smelling amazing. That word has since lost its’ luster. Though, Matt tells me that Moses asked him
what superb meant the other day… so maybe an upgrade is coming.
Matt did not build any
building this year and he didn’t remodel anything or upgrade anything. All of these are easy markers of a productive
life. Look at that building! Look at
what you’ve accomplished! When it is
done, it’s easy to notice. It is easy to
pinpoint. But often the most
productive and powerful things one can accomplish in their lives can’t
be measured easily because it is comprised of a million little moments of
faithfulness that are overlooked and unnoticed and no matter how hard you work
at it, the job is never complete. But
that faithfulness, planted and watered and fed and not noticed even a little
bit, is more powerful than any grand building could ever be. And this husband of mine is faithfully
planting, watering, leading and feeding souls not just within this house but in
relationships wherever he finds himself.
Work, church, neighbors, family, friends. Matt is doing powerful, productive work and accomplishing
great things and what humble, quiet but bountiful fruit it yields.
While no buildings are
being built, Matt did have to put some battens on Andrew’s cabin with the boys
last week. And as he did so, we were
reminded how precious and precarious life can be when Matt fell over 15 feet
off of a roof and landed squarely on his back.
Praise the Lord, though stiff and sore and banged up and bruised, he
somehow miraculously didn’t do any serious damage to himself! But that incident was a stark reminder to us
that each moment given to us is precious and finite. How quickly can life change! Might we use the time the Lord gives us
wisely.
This Christmas, it is
my hope that we may not grow weary in doing good. That we might do so, not for accolades or
recognition or praise but simply because we are becoming more Christ-like. Because we, too, can be world-changers. May we have eyes wide open to see the gifts
that are so abundant, they are redundant.
So obvious they are overlooked.
So powerful and yet so inconspicuous.
Merry Christmas to you all
and might the joy and truth of a Savior born, a King enthroned, a God in His
heaven stay with you all the year long.
With
love,
Rebecca
et
al.
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