Christmas Letter 2018

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Watts family! We hope you have had a good year and hope you will have an even better 2019. We stayed close to home this year, especially when we got hit with a big snowstorm in January!

The temperature got down to the single digits, which is rare for Nashville. We enjoyed having some unscheduled family time.

Through the winter and into the spring, we toured and applied to middle schools for Adam. (Middle school starts in the fifth grade in our county.) We realized in the process that things sure have changed... we toured more middle schools than either of us did colleges for ourselves. We finally arrived at a decision to go with Valor Collegiate Academy in early May.

At the end of May, it was time to say goodbye to Granbery Elementary. The faculty and staff there loved our whole family so well for five years. Patrick’s parents were able to come to town for the graduation, and so Adam had all four of his grandparents in attendance.

Summer was busy with day camps and church activities for Adam. He went to Camp Invention, Vacation Bible School, and Music Arts Camp. Patrick’s sister, Allison, her husband Dave, and their daughter Abby came to visit in June, and Adam enjoyed showing her around the house and the neighborhood. Patrick, Adam, and the Greenes trekked up to Ohio to visit Patrick and Allison’s grandparents, who despite being in their late nineties, still are sharp as tacks and love to love on us.

In August, Adam went to two days of “Culture Camp” to learn all about his new school and get to know his new classmates. He started fifth grade on August 7th, and quickly started making friends and learning the ropes of middle school. It’s been an adjustment for all of us with new teachers, more homework, a new schedule, and no more school bus.

Adam made his own Halloween costume this year, and he was an iPhone! He made the phone out of a big cardboard box, and the charger was a small styrofoam cooler.

Lydia has been busy crafting and being the mom of a middle schooler. Some new medicine has helped her this year, but she’s still adjusting to some side effects.

Patrick’s job at LifeWay is still going well. They’ve been in

the new building for a year now, and he’s already moved from the fifth floor to the eighth floor. He’s now been trained to be a certified scrum product owner. He primarily works on web-based software for churches.

We love hearing from our friends and family at Christmastime. Please keep us with us on Facebook or email us at patrickandlydia(at)gmail.com.

Blessings,

Patrick, Lydia, and Adam

It's Elementary, Watts

"Love is at the root of everything. 
All learning. All parenting. All relationships. 
Love, or the lack of it." 
-Fred Rogers

Kindergarten was just five years ago, but in many ways, it seems like it was a different lifetime. We've faced so many challenges along the way. I'm so glad I didn't know what was ahead when we put our tiny five-year-old on the giant school bus that morning in August of 2013.

Fast forward to last week's fourth grade graduation. Adam's wonderful fourth grade teacher got choked up as she read the names of her students. I wish every student could experience the love and concern she shows her students and their families. While I couldn't be as involved at school as I would like to be, the times I observed her interacting with students were nothing short of magical. She made each child feel important and special and created an environment where the students were excited to learn. We went up to the school to vote after classes were over on the last day, and Adam gave her a big hug. He's not a big hugger, and so this was a huge deal.

His teacher this year was just one of the fantastic staff and faculty who have loved us so well over these past five years. We truly had a team at Granbery that has walked beside us and loved us through many challenges and triumphs.

2017 Watts Family Year Ender

Dear friends and family,

We hope you have had a great 2017 and are looking forward to the new year. We’ve had lots of ups and downs this year in the Watts family.

Patrick and Adam have made several trips to see family this year, including a Spring Break trip to Texas and three trips to Ohio to see Patrick’s grandparents, who just celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary. Their Memorial Day trip included stops at Dinosaur World in Kentucky and Kings Island near Cincinnati.

In June, they went to CentriKid camp in Campbellsville, KY. This was a new experience for both of them, and they had a blast!

We had the amazing experience of being in the “line of totality” of the solar eclipse on August 21. Patrick’s cousin, Ray, is an astronomy professor and came to observe the eclipse in our driveway. It was a fantastic learning experience for all three of us and especially for Adam, who wants to be an astronomer when he grows up.

In October, Adam came down with what we thought was a bad cold, but he was soon diagnosed with pneumonia. After a week of treatment at home, our pediatrician sent us to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital at Williamson Medical Center for an in-patient stay to get IV antibiotics. Adam responded more quickly than expected to treatment there, and we were sent home at the end of our second day. This happened during Adam’s fall break, and so he had quite the story to tell when he went back to school. Unfortunately, Patrick then came down with it... followed shortly thereafter by Lydia as well, but we both managed to avoid the hospital. We are grateful to live in Nashville with great medical care. All of October and most of November were consumed with illness, and so we got a little behind on Christmas preparations and cards.

Also in November, Patrick’s office moved to LifeWay’s new building in the Capitol View development in Nashville’s “North Gulch”. Nashville is growing by leaps and bounds, and the area around the new building is surrounded by new businesses and residential buildings. The new, high-tech building is a big change from the aging buildings on the old campus, but many of the architectural elements were incorporated into LifeWay’s new home. Patrick continues to work on web-based projects including a training site for church planters with the North American Mission Board.

Adam is a fourth grader this year, which in our school district, is the last year of elementary school. We have been looking at our options for middle school next year and are prayerfully considering what will be the best fit for him and our family.





We enjoy everyone’s Christmas cards and greetings. Even if we aren’t able to see you in person, our family and friends are always close to our hearts. We would love to hear from you. We pray you will have a happy and healthy new year.

-Patrick, Lydia, and Adam Watts