I thought about dazzling you with descriptions of our hiking adventure in the Alps, our remote beach vacation to Brazil, pictures of our new McMansion, Dave’s three new sports cars, my plastic surgery successes, and our girls’ beauty pageant trophies and school awards (definitely Ivy League material!). But, I decided to leave all of that out and just give you a quick review of our 2008! Ha, ha!
January- Carmen got her feeding tube. We celebrated one year home with Carmen!
Feburary- Dave, Carmen and I went to our church’s annual Valentines Day banquet. Carmen also went to a whole bunch of doctor visits this month.
March- We went to the Annual Tay Sachs Family Conference in Tampa, Fl. This was a highlight of our year — spending a weekend with families who understand everything. And meeting precious children who are so very loved. After the conference, we spent one day at Disney World!
April- Carmen was hospitalized with RSV. Later in the month she was again hospitalized with breathing problems.
May- We became debt-free! We started Hospice services for Carmen.
June- This was our month of adventures. We got stuck in the mall during a tornado and Lauren swallowed a marble. We went to a picnic and literally got drenched 5 minutes after arriving. Even our hotdogs were soaked through!
July- Lauren spent two weeks with her NY grandparents. Carmen turned two. 160 people came to Carmen’s birthday party, including my mom and two of my brothers as well as Dave’s parents, grandmother and aunt. (My MOPS group hosted Carmen’s party.)
August- Dave and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary! Good friends watched Carmen so we could go to New York City for a night.
September- Lauren got glasses! And started 4 year old preschool.
October- Dave turned 34.
November- Lana turned 33.
December- Lauren turned 5.
Well, there you go. I bet most of you had a more interesting and exciting year! Ours was filled with real moments. Ups and downs. Laughs and good cries. I wonder what 2009 has in store for us.
Merry Christmas!!!
Love, Dave, Lana, Lauren and Carmen
P.S. While I was typing this, I heard sirens. They kept getting louder and louder. I looked out our front window and 5 fire trucks and an entourage of emergency vehicles drove through our neighborhood. I looked all around for the blazing fire. Nope, its Santa. On the back of a fire engine. Waving. It’s been 30 minutes and I can still hear them making their way through the town. We live in a weird country. I can’t stop laughing!
P.S.S. Happy 29th month birthday to Carmen! We love you lots and are so very glad you are here with us! And also, happy 34th birthday to Uncle Tony today.
Lauren’s gingerbread house, a birthday present from two good friends
We must delight in the accomplishments and successes of life. Your list is outstanding as a full view of that “new normal”. Praising the Lord for His normal…. Afterall, the Alps are too high, Brazil is too hot, McMansions create high taxes, sports cars depreciate, plastic surgery eliminates smiles, trophies and awards need dusting. Only the Lord is the same yesterday, today and forever. Hallelujah!! So, Merry Christmas!!!!!!
Well said Betty Short!
Dave and Lana,
We are all far more “impressed” with hearing how you faithfully love your daughters than any vacation, property, or achievement. Being faithful in the “small” stuff counts way more than anything. I wish we were all as willing to be honest and real in our Christmas letters as you were. You are like a breath of fresh air in a smog filled world.
Hi, You forgot to say you share your life with total strangers and change some hearts every day. Then again, you would not say that would you. Guess thats why I am. God bless. Merry Christmas. In Christ, Joe
Your year actually sounded a lot like ours have for the past two years (hospitalizations, endless medical tests, countless doctors appointments a week, etc.). We fully understand about how families adjust to the new “normal”. Congratulations on being debt-free, that is quite an accomplishment. Did you follow any program or have any hints you could share?
April, thank you. We didn’t follow any program to become debt-free. I’m not sure we had a formal approach but here are a few things we did that helped us:
* We started with a baseline and captured the details within MS Excel. We captured how much money was coming in each month, what our “fixed” and discretionary expenses were, how much money we owed, etc.
* We made a concerted effort to spend less than we made each month. We didn’t budget, per se, but we knew how much was coming in and we limited how much we spent based on that. To help track the outgoing money…
* We put just about everything on credit card so we could see exactly where our money was going. We also made sure that we paid off our credit cards every month so we weren’t paying interest.
* Actually seeing where our money was going really helped. We reviewed our statements periodically and identified areas to cut back (e.g. too much money on coffee, don’t really need fiber internet connection when DSL would work just fine, etc).
* We saved for things we wanted and limited our “want” purchases. We did buy unnecessary things along the way. But we tried to limit them and only bought them when we had enough money to buy them outright (again, via credit card but only after the money was in the bank to cover the expenses).
* Finally, when we had extra money, we made additional payments against our debts.
A few other notes:
* Lana and I were both committed to this goal, which was important.
* It took us almost ten years to payoff everything. We had more debt than many (2 undergraduate degrees plus 1 graduate degree, a car in 2006, etc) but not as much as some. We don’t currently “own” a house so that actually helped too (I know, this is debatable…but for us there is no question about it; we spend less when we rent than when we own. We made far more progress on debt-reduction during our rental periods than during our “owning” periods.).
* We were much better in some months/years than others but we were constantly working toward this goal.
* To make it somewhat fun, we held periodic “no spend” contests. We would pick a time period (say, a week at a time) and see if we could go the whole time without spending anything unnecessary. Instead of buying lunch out, as an example, Lana would pack a lunch for me.
* One final note. It was really helpful to have others with whom we discussed specific expenses. If we were thinking of buying something, I called my brothers and parents to ask them what they thought. They often helped us think through purchasing decisions better than we were able to on our own.
Phew! That was a much longer response than I intended. Hope it was somewhat helpful.
Dave
I loved your Christmas letter. What you didn’t mention, though, is the palace that God is building in your hearts. C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, said, “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of–throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
I can see God at work in your hearts and lives. May God bless you for your faithfulness!
Carolyn
In my not-usually humble opinion, CS Lewis is one of God’s greatest gifts to mankind.
Thanks Carolyn!