Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Joneses. I love to share this snapshot of our last year. 2019, like previous years, has been increasingly fast paced and challenging, yet abundantly rewarding in so many ways. We have created wonderful memories and shared exciting experiences but most of all included living out the routine of daily life of a homeschooling family of six. For those friends and family that are a part of our growing legacy, thank you and we’re blessed to know and share in life with you.
First a quick update on our journey as foster parents. Our foster child first placed in our home last June (2018) is still with us. Despite his being in our family for ~18 months, there are still a lot of uncertainties related to specifics in the case. That said, as I shared last year and feel just as strongly this year, if given the opportunity we’d joyfully adopt our very loved kiddo #4. As he grows older, we’re seeing more of his growing personality, hearing more of his almost always funny toddler vocabulary, and enjoying the privilege of providing a loving home full of Gospel Truth, care, fun, learning and development.
As we wrap up 2019, we’ll conclude our 4th year at the Mission Church in Renton. We love our church family and how supportive and involved our friends there have come to be. I could not be more excited about how God has used our church and family within to minister to Eric and I through the years of our being there.
In 2019, we were blessed to have some opportunity to travel and explore. In February, we rented a house on Lake Wenatchee for a couple day getaway in the snow. The lake was so peaceful and we all had a really fun time sledding and playing in the snow. Little did we know that several weeks later, our house would get nearly 12 inches of snow during the week that Eric happened to be traveling for work in India. 🙂 Later in May, we stayed a little over a week in Maui. Eric and I had been twice prior to having kids and we were excited to experience it now as a family. The kids loved the beach exploration, turtles, whales, hiking, lavender farm, rainbows and of course warm sun! in July, we spent a long weekend with friends camping at Kalaloch, got a second helping of beach time, and launched from there to explore the Olympic Peninsula and Hoh Rainforest. We wrapped up our summer with our yearly co-op camping trip which is always an awesome time! These getaways have been especially sweet and memorable to me.
Calvin is 9 years old and smart as a scholar. Calvin loves school, teaching his siblings and to be honest teaching his mom and dad too. In the last year Calvin has developed a strong liking for cars. He and Eric often exchange car stats and dream about racing. Calvins’ in his third year of cub scouts, and has developed a couple close friends from the group. Calvin, Eric, and his friend and parent did a two night backpacking trip in August. It was, for Calvin and Eric, a major highlight for 2019. In his spare time, Calvin is often making something awesome and impressive from Legos. I can’t wait to see what the next year holds for this cool kid!
Georgia, six now, is in her second year of ballet and really loving it. She can even almost do the splits which considering her genetic background is super amazing! Georgia is so sweet and sensitive to others. I am blessed to see her personality develop each day as mom and teacher. She loves math, art, and learning about animals. Georgia is thoroughly enjoying horse riding lessons and is perhaps the most smitten of our kids to our Holland Lop Bunny we got in July- Willa. Georgia is a dreamer and thinks without limits. She’s inspiring.
Hazel turned five in September. Hazel is an excellent student, is enjoying learning to read, and is generally into learning from her older brother and sister. Hazel also does horse riding lessons and ballet. She’s loads of fun, is our jokester in the house and was recently dubbed the craziest in the family by Calvin. Despite her fun loving personality, Hazel is very sensitive, can cuddle for an eternity, and very much values feeling included and cared for. As a mom who loves to cuddle her kiddo’s, Hazel is good with me!
I am in my 4th year homeschooling and have come to love the lifestyle and am thankful for the opportunity to share so much with my family. My kids and I all enjoy living books, nature journaling, crafting, and a bunch of fun activities that we get to do on weekdays during school hours. We are in our third year at Rooted Christian Home School Co-op, an awesome community of great families. We all genuinely enjoy our friends at the co-op whether performing science experiments in class, camping in the mountains, or meeting up for field trips together. In 2019, I now have three children I am responsible for educating, which at times can be stressful but I am always thankful for the Lord’s constant grace in this journey.
In July, Eric’s team went through a re-organization at work and for much of the year, Eric was required to oversee a lot of change. Moving into 2020, he feels really good about how the year is shaping up. He’ll have been at amazon seven years in January! I’ve been with Eric now for nearly 20 years, married for 13. While not always easy, I’m very thankful for his leadership, sacrifice, and love for me and our family.
From all of us in the Jones family, have a Wonderful Christmas and New Years. See you all soon.
RachelWalkerPhotography.com always captures our family beautifully.
