2007 Christmas Letter

If you only have three seconds to read our Christmas letter:

• We're having a baby boy in February!
• Thanks for being our friends!

If you only have one minute to read our Christmas letter:

• We're having a baby boy in February!
• Patrick had three business trips to Orlando this year, so we bought annual passes and went to Disney World six times.
• Patrick's still at LifeWay, and he's expecting too... a little later than Lydia.
• Lydia loved working all year at DaVita, but she's now made the transition to stay at home mom.
• Thanks for being our friends!

If you've got a little more time...

Dear Friends and Family,

2007 has shaped up to be quite the year for us. For many reasons, it's going to go down as one of the most memorable in our marriage.

The year started off quietly enough, with a little snow, but soon took off. We made the decision in February to bite the bullet and buy annual passes to Walt Disney World since Patrick had three business trips to Orlando this year. We ended up down there a total of six times... all throughout the year. Really, it was just research for future trips, of course. :D

Our first trip to the World was at Valentine's Day, and Lydia got to see a wedding on the steps of Cinderella Castle.

The first surprise of 2007 happened when Patrick got rear-ended on the way to work by a member of a contemporary Christian music group who, luckily, was well insured. Since we were teaching about money in our Sunday School class, we walked the walk and combined the insurance money and tax refund for our replacement car which we refer to as our baby Lexus.

Elsewhere on the home front this Spring, we (finally) painted our bedroom and entryway, and got some help from a decorator on picking out some matching furniture. The place is starting to look a little less Pulte and a little more Watts.

In April, we followed along our friends' fifteen minutes of Internet fame and my parents' trip to Australia, and had our second trip to the World. This one was about as spur of the moment as Lydia and I get.

May was the beginning of a work travel season for Patrick that took him to Portland, OR, Chattanooga, Chicago, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Orlando, Ridgecrest, Orlando, Glorieta and Orlando. We also procured our Nintendo Wii this month.

In June, we went to Star Wars Weekend at the Disney Studio park. We rode the Rockin' Roller Coaster and Star Tours and all of the other rides. When we went to Animal Kingdom and rode the "Rafiki's Planet Watch" train, a very tame ride indeed, Lydia thought that she was getting some kind of motion sickness... something she's not prone to do. She returned to Nashville and left Patrick there for the Baptist Church Music Conference. That night, in the lobby of the Winter Park Florida Hilton, she called... and Patrick found out he was going to be a daddy!

That same day, we also found out that our church's long time music minister was planning to retire. After 30 years, it's going to be a challenge to find Mark's successor, and your prayers are appreciated.

The rest of June, all of July, all of August and part of September, Lydia was pretty much down for the count with "everytime sickness." (Forget "morning" sickness.) She empathized with one of the pregnancy books she read - during the time you're the most excited about your pregnancy, you feel the worst. The summer was a lot of travel, and Lydia was a trooper. We went to Reganne's third birthday party in Boise, ID. We probably spent 18 hours a day in the hotel room making sure Lydia had enough energy for the other six. When we went to SonPower, I made the excuse, "she doesn't want to be hanging around 1200 teenagers..." and everyone bought it (or at least they were nice and told me they did.) Luckily, right in the middle of SonPower, she did feel well enough to go to the Magic Kingdom (in a wheelchair) for the Fouth of July Fireworks.

In September, we made the front page of the Travel section with a story about doing Disney on the cheap thanks to a referral to Ms. Cheap from our friend Christina. We each had our respective birthdays, and by our fifth Disney trip of the year, Lydia was feeling almost back to normal. It was about this same time that we had visual confirmation via ultrasound that our child is going to be a boy!

October brought a quick trip to see Patrick's sister and brother-in-law in Atlanta and make an Ikea run for our son's baby furniture. We had a minor unexpected issue with our washing machine, but that allowed us to get a pretty new front loader.

November was spent preparing for Pop and Polly's 65th wedding anniversary party in Centerville, Ohio. It was a special time, not only because it was such an honor to serve Patrick's great-grandparents, but because all of Patrick's immediate family was there, unscattered from the far winds of Texas, Idaho, Georgia and Tennessee.

Now that it's December, and we've completed our last Disney trip, it feels like we're in the home stretch. In less than two months, we'll be welcoming the new addition to our family, and, as so many have told us, our lives will never be the same. Please continue to pray for us as we seek to live out God's will for our lives.

Thanks!

--Patrick and Lydia (and yet-to-be-announced new addition...!)