Merry Christmas, 2024

             

      Dear Ones~                              

The more observant of you may notice that this Christmas newsletter must cover TWO years instead of one, as I was never able to get Christmas cards out last year.  Was I being a slouch?!  Perhaps.  But more so, it was due to my putting on a DIY wedding for Corynn and her now-husband Kemuel less than a week after Christmas, 2023.  Rather than Christmas card mailing, the month of December was filled with addressing wedding invitations.  Rather than Christmas letter-writing, I was making hundreds of pounds of beef barbacoa, chicken and beans for a Chipotle-inspired taco bar to serve our 260+ guests!   

So let this letter be a doubly hearty HULLO and a twice-as-jovial MERRY CHRISTMAS, to make up for lost time!

Corynn and Kemuel had a beautiful wedding, despite most of our family (and indeed, the bride herself!) being down with a severe flu/illness during that week.   Loving one another in sickness and in health began early in their marriage!  😊  The blessings and beauty of that day have extended throughout their first year of marriage… and what a pleasure it has been to watch them both be knit together.  Whatever Kemuel sets his mind to seems to succeed and whatever Corynn sets her hands to is made more beautiful.  What a dynamic duo.  Would you believe, not even one year later,  the Lord in His kindness provided them with an opportunity to purchase a home for themselves with an attached shop for Kemuel’s roofing business?!  It is a little house tucked in the woods and has regular bear visitors (much to Corynn’s chagrin… the first few nights they were welcomed by three bears right outside the bedroom window!)  It has a pond, more bathrooms than we have (though, in truth, that doesn’t take much), beautiful kitchen cabinets (that don’t slam!), an island that can be sprawled out on without feet dangling (I tested that theory) and an absolute DREAM of a shop out back.  Best part?   It is only 12 minutes away from us!  Praise the Lord! 

Since my last letter, Corynn flew the coop, and Andrew has found his wings…

  Andrew, 18, recently graduated, concluding his homeschooling requirements for the state but I have no doubt that it is just the beginning of a lifetime of continued learning and growth.  He is and always will be a ‘learner’, that’s just his style.   Andrew saved money for years and, this spring, was able to buy a really amazing truck as his first vehicle.  Boy, the months leading up to purchasing it were exhausting as he scoured Facebook marketplace for what he wanted and got stressed when things never worked out just right.  And then POOF!  The Lord provided the perfect truck at the perfect time.  (Just like his Mama had assured him.)  That truck has taken him to work roofing for the Avoda Company (Kemuel’s company),  to EMT training at a local hospital and on road trips to Virginia and Tennessee.  For a week or so this year, he ditched his truck and took a PLANE to Moscow, Idaho to attend the Called Conference, a conference for young adults put on by New St. Andrews College.  I feel those wings a-flapping and when the worry and stress of that starts to creep in, I am left trying to assure myself that the Lord’s timing/plans for Andrew’s life will be just right too.   I cannot see into the future, but I can see clearly this moment… and I see a guy who is dedicated to doing a job well AND wisely, who shows initiative, who is dependable, gets his hands dirty but washes them before supper; who is at the top of his EMT training class and is known as ‘the natural’, who respects his parents, shows restraint and calm in times of conflict, who sings loudly during church and is the first to clean up the pew books afterwards.

Adele’ turned sweet 16 this year and celebrated by road-tripping to Myrtle Beach with the Newman grandparents, Uncle Nathan and Aunt Leia.  Her first airplane ride!  Her first boardwalk!  Her first toe-dip in the ocean!  She came home and her feet barely touched the ground for a week!  She has developed an affinity for Jane Austen, P.G. Wodehouse and Agatha Christie and is now 43+ pages into writing a novel of her own.   When she isn’t writing novels, she is writing her pen pals.  Mail is one of her great joys.  She was over the moon with all the sweet messages and advice she received for her birthday this year (many thanks to all of you wonderful people who sent her cards!) Adele’ is greatly anticipating getting her license this year and the freedom that will afford her.  (I wonder how long I can put that off?!)   She loves children and is great with them and desperately wants babysitting jobs, so here’s your notice if you happen to have young children and need a sitter! 😉  She has discovered that she may not hate math as much as she thought she did, that outings with friends are the BEST FUN (road trips to VA are the best of the best), and that she CAN, in fact, belt out music (as long as it is with the piano).  She is patient and helpful and sweet.  Adele’ does not need to be the center of attention, but even when she tucks herself in the background, she shines.  She is quick to allow me to share in her joys and sorrows and those joys and sorrows are taking on a much more grown-up patina these days. 

In the last Christmas letter, Judah was still singing soprano.  Now at 14, he has sloughed off most of his boyishness and unlike Peter Pan, has officially begun to grow up.  Literally.   He grew over 8 inches since that letter and this one; he now stands taller than his Mama.  Size 13 shoes makes finding shoes to fit his ever-growing feet a struggle.  But he is not just growing up physically.  In the absence of Matt and Andrew at their respective jobs, I lean heavily upon Judah to help me out with all the manly tasks that need to be done around here.  (There are many.)  He is the full-time milker of our jersey milk cow during the week (Matt gives him a day off on the weekend) and that chore comes twice a day, rain or snow or shine.  He was the full-time mower this summer, not only around here, but also for a neighbor with a mowing business.  He is called upon to do firewood, carpentry, construction work, clean up… and not just by us but by many others needing a strong, strappin’, hard-working boy (turns out that kind of boy is a hot commodity). One of the lessons Judah has had to learn this year is how to accommodate his calendar/time/commitments to help all the people who are calling upon him for employment without sacrificing his homeschooling.  It can be challenging!  He worked so hard and so often this summer that he was able to save up and purchase a nice hunting bow set as well as finally fulfilling his dream (of many years) to have a dirt bike of his own.    Last year, in addition to all the rest, a rigorous challenge was put out in his local Trail Life chapter that the three highest badgework completers would win a ride on a private airplane to Maine, for a trip of camping, hiking and fresh lobster tasting.  When Judah sets his mind to something, he is all in… he worked incredibly hard and he won a spot on that plane!  That was an adventure of a lifetime and would have shown up on last Christmas’ newsletter had there been one.  (PS. He discovered he loves lobster. And planes.)  Judah is the one Newman less drawn to books.  Instead, in those rare, relaxed moments at home, he is at the piano, tickling the ivories.   He graces our church services with his playing too.  Oh, what a gift his musical talents are to this house. 

Ineke, (9), this very moment, is on her way to New York City with Grandma and Grandpa Newman, to see the Rockettes perform a Christmas show with her cousin CC.  My, what well-travelled children we have!  (I thought homeschoolers didn’t get out much?!)  She is over the moon excited because she has a real love for dance, theater and gymnastics.  Not a day goes by without her stretching into gymnastics splits or spinning off on one-handed cartwheels.  Papa has built her a bar and a balance beam to keep her busy and she steals my exercise mat on a daily basis.  She is almost able to do a perfect split!  Since the last Christmas letter, Ineke has become wonderful at reading and participates in reading aloud the Bible in the mornings, right alongside her older siblings.  She may have even corrected her older siblings in their reading a time or two.  😊  Thankfully, while she is old enough to read on her own, she is not too old to snuggle into my side and listen to stories.  She has been learning to play songs on the piano, has been added to the dishwashing rotation and is in charge of caring for our new pup Sadie.  OR Sadiekins, as we like to call her.  (Faithful Ruby is no more but a bit of her courses through Sadies’ veins). 

Moses Matthew is still larger than life both in his stature and his character.  He is 5 years old but wears size 10/12 in clothes.  I tell him that it was no accident that God made him to be a mountain of a man and to use that gift well.  Someday, he may just be a mighty man of valor.  He loves drawing and draws so many pictures in a day that sometimes I have to do a bit of artwork excavation just to get into the fridge. (At peak, the fridge had 18 drawings on it…)  Since then, I have encouraged him to pass his plethora of pictures out to people, so he often has a wad of drawings to hand out wherever he goes.  One of my favorite times is when it is his turn to pray aloud… just tonight he prayed “Lord, thank you for being with us and protecting us.  Help us not to lie.  Give us courage and strength to be your strong people.  Thank you for flushing our sins away from us and help us to be good. And give us lots more days to live.  Thank you for this nourishing food.  And be with Papa on his way home, keep him safe.  In Jesus’ name.”  His prayers are 1 Timothy 4:12 lived out across the dinner table.  Moses loves books and insists on hearing at least a pile of them a day.  (He could sit for dozens.)  He is generous with his compliments and recently learned to whistle!  His favorite animal is a marmoset “because the babies are as small as my thumb”.  He recently told me out of the blue “Mama, I think growing up is the most fun thing to do.” 

My other Matthew, the O.G. Matthew, my love, their Papa, the M.A.N… is currently at work.  It is 9:27pm.  He left at 6:30 this morning.  Dairy One has made some changes that have required Matt and others to temporarily step up and step in to fill up some voids.  It has been a hard few months!  But it has been astounding and inspiring to see the tenacity, determination, commitment, sacrifice and hard work that they have willingly and cheerfully shown through it.  Matt is strong, he is faithful, he is tireless and good.  He does what is right, whether it is comfortable or not.  He constantly gives of himself; he leads by example… I admire him so.    As everyone knows by now… when Matt isn’t working, He is still working- just differently.  His “relaxation work” almost always involves wood.  For Corynn’s wedding, he built a timber-framed arbor for the bride and groom to be wed under.  It felt to me like a Fathers’ beautiful blessing over their heads and their marriage.  This summer, he took on a much larger project and began to rebuild our old chicken coop.  Instead of replacing the small remnant of the chicken coop that was here when we moved in, he decided to timber frame a building the size of the original coop- which happens to be three times the size!  (We do not need THAT many chickens!)  The rest of the space will be used as a “garden shed’ but, truly, a more apt name would be a garden mansion.  (That’s his handiwork in our Christmas photo.) 

                As for me… I am learning (not so gracefully, most times) that time is fleeting, nothing is permanent, gifts are all around us (and often not noticed) and that hard providences are blessings too.  The Lord uses trials, difficulties and afflictions to draw us closer to him, to strengthen our faith, to tear down our idols, to shine light into darkness, to refine, purify and GROW us, and to declare to us, over and over, that we are wholly dependent upon his mercy but to rejoice, because He is merciful.  Trials may not be pleasant, but they are always good for us.  As hard providences seem to have come to me for several years in a row now, I suspect I am a slow learner.  😉  But the Lord continues to bring me through the valleys, brings light to the dark, comfort to me in my afflictions, graces me with His goodness and love; And promises to work all things together for good.  This is the God we serve.  And THIS is why Christmas is so palpable to the world.  This is the very thing He did so long ago… when The God of the Universe graced the world with His goodness, wrapped in baby flesh.  He slashed through the darkness with His illuminating Light and the heavens broke out in song.  He tore down idols and tyrant Kings, He gave mercy and goodness to a people, utterly incapable.  He brought strength to the weak, power to the lowly, JOY to the world.  He brought Glory from despair.  It’s easy to forget that darkness and despair have always been part of that story too.  A necessary part.  Without it, we cannot be blinded by His light. 

May you all be positively blinded by His goodness and mercies this Christmas Season and throughout the coming year.  May God’s light fill you all with joy and hope… and then, may we radiate it to the world.  Merry Christmas! 

Love,    Rebecca  (for the whole family)