Merry Christmas! (our Christmas letter... for posterity and just incase you missed it)

Because this paper just won’t afford the space, and to show you how high-techie we have become, we will give you a website to venture to with each of our entries. This will tell you far more information than we can muster in one little letter.

To begin: The joy of our life has been Augustine! Born Feb 12th he has thus far lived up to his in-utero nick-name: Hurricane Augie. Jeff and Kel agree that the most standout lesson our son has taught us is how to be less selfish! It has been the most amazing learning experience, to be parents… and truly the most wonderful. I always thought that people felt they had to say how much they loved their children after an hour of saying how difficult it was to give up freedom, sleep, eating hot meals, making out on the couch or reading a more than one page of a book at a time. I now really understand that you can love someone more than you thought possible, even when they can be the most draining… I guess it is because he is the most filling too. For lots of pictures and updates you can frequent: http://augiebloggie.blogspot.com/

Jeff and Kel and several dear friends started a church in August. Just a week ago we moved into a fantastic new building. We are so blessed to have a congregation of about 40 dedicated, loving people beginning this experiment with us. How amazing it has been. Our goal is to reach the college and post-college aged people on the UNC campus who have never found a community with whom they could love and experience God. This has been such a blessing to us, to serve with and be served by the people of Atlas. As further proof of God’s graciousness, Jeff has been asked to submit his resume to the UNC philosophy department with the possibility of a job in the fall. Cross your fingers for us… better yet pray! To see the church go to http://www.whatisatlas.com/home To read up on Jeff’s one-day-I’ll-write-a-book thoughts (so you can say you knew him when) go to http://healingmalchus.blogspot.com/

Kel has been working part time for Frontier High School, and gets to do some administrative work from home. It has been a wonderful year. The kids love Augie. They think he is their own! I still love to teach, maybe more than ever. It feels like a great balance of stay at home mom and freedom to work. The best part is that Jeff and Kel get to “baby swap” which means one parent is always with the boy. We have also had a great deal of help from our families… as you can imagine, they hate to baby-sit ;). To see her school go to: http://frontieracademy.net/

We have loved to see our friends and family grow with us and support us. We hope you will have blessings in the New Year… and to see each of you soon and often!

Marmie and Papa got to have the first Christmas experience with us of the season... they came to visit last weekend and Augie got all sorts of great stuff! Unfortunately he did not think that opening the gifts was all that great, but he loves his OU outfit... go Sooners (I try not to say that too loud, as all our money went to CU)

Portraits by Augie

I am sure I have said something like this before, but every few days I am more sure that you cannot fully appreciate being human without having a child.

The process of learning is phenominal. How quickly Augie learns things. Here, he is standing on a book that he pulled over to the table for that express purpose. Some how, even at 10 months, he pulls the big and heavy ones down slowly so he doesn't hit his head. I always want to call our friends Mark and Curtis to tell them about all his natural climbing and balancing skills. His logic, his problem solving deduction... just like a real mountain climber.

And, surely, another part of the joy that we get is his delight in pulling books off shelves and rearranging toys. I guess I just think, how much we take for granted. It is almost impossible for me to remeber the days he couldn't crawl, control his arms or manipulate his world. Soon I won't remember when he couldn't talk or draw... although I have a feeling I will always remeber the toxic diapers ...

Although Aug was born on a day with snow I think that this is the first time he noticed it. (It doesn't show up well in the picture.)

Today I made myself lay still with Augie for over an hour. It is so hard some times to slow down and actually enjoy this little man. I do love to take naps with him, but after a while I think... oh this needs cleaning or that needs grading. Not today. Today, even after I was quite awake I stay on the couch, I watched the snow fall and I listened to August's breathing. Jeff took our picture and then I took several more from my fuzzy-warm-couch vantage. Hope you get a few hours to rest and enjoy the season like we did... and if you don't have the time, make it ;)

What an amazing thing it is to watch Augie play and learn. He is so concentrated. I am really impressed at his deduction. Our favorite thing is when he whispers to himself as he figures stuff out. "Bah, dah, bah, pha, da..." almost like it is a secret. I wonder all the time, how much of this will he remember? I know snippits of my life before, oh, age 5. I can't recall if I played in our downstairs playroom often or just one or two days. The memories run together. I wonder if he is just processing colors and sounds, or making up names and stories in his head. Can kids at 9 months play pretend? We love to watch him explore, almost to a fault. It's all I can do to keep him from pulling on chords and banging breakables because I want him to be able to feel and taste and learn everything.

I met the mom of a 12 week old last night... and it put how short this time in Augie's life had been into perspective. Will her baby ever nurse well, will she sleep, will she look at me... and as I got a chance to encourage her I looked at my little man crawling and talking to everyone, pushing a little tin bell. How extrodinary it is that God allows us to be parents, to feel an iota of what He gets to feel for us. To watch with delight the massive amount of learning that happens in the first 2 years. To enjoy it so much, since we forget our own learning once we have grown.