God is good, life is full….and I only seem to be able to get one post out every other year. However, God’s grace in the past couple of years has been amazing!

Here are a few glimpses of grace from the last 2 years:

In January 2014, my sister Cindy had surgery for breast cancer and began her journey of treatment which involved chemo and reconstruction. As of today, she is feeling stronger each day, no evidence of cancer, and we praise God for healing grace. One day after Cindy’s surgery, our brother-in-law, Steve, had surgery to replace a chunk of skull that doctors had to remove in Nov 2013 following a subduralhematoma. We praise God for sparing Steve’s life and for the remarkable recovery he has had! During that same time, my mom was diagnosed with osteomyelitis of the jaw, was on medication and waiting to see if she would need surgery.  She has now gotten this word from her dentist: “Prayer works…You are a miracle…the bone looks great!”

In May ’14, Jacob graduated from Bethel, and later that year landed a great new job. Yay!

August 7, 2014 Avery Virginia was born! What a sweet, delightful gift of grace! We found out a few weeks later that Avery has cystic fibrosis, a hard diagnosis, but God’s grace is sustaining us all, as we look to Him, our Great Physician.

November 2014, I went to the Philippines to deliver gospel-film-producing equipment, Bibles and other resources to pastors, and to teach women how to study the Bible inductively.

In December 2014, we gathered as a family in Colorado the week before Christmas.  We rented a house inWinter Park, on a dead end street, bordering a national forest…BEAUTIFUL!! One night at dinner, we went around the table and shared highlights and “lowlights” or challenges/hard stuff. What a special time, to laugh and cry together, thanking God for His goodness and grace even in the most difficult circumstances.

2015 highlights and lowlights:

• January- Avery had to have surgery to remove a mass in her sinuses, scary but resulted in much easier breathing and feeding.
• May- We finally closed on our house in Austin after 5 years of a roller coaster of “sold/not sold” and God showed us that this process was not about us but about trusting Him for what HE was doing in not only our lives, but lives of others that we met in the process.
• August- Avery turned 1! We are so thankful that God is sustaining and growing her, in spite of the rough patches.
• September- We sold and moved out of our Mounds View townhome (put everything in storage) …  and were grateful to move in with Suzie and Steve for 2 months.
• October- Trip of a lifetime to Israel. Incredible, amazing privilege to walk where Jesus walked!
• November- We said a sad, final goodbye to Sammy, our beloved golden retriever. Oh, how much we miss him! Moved into our new home in Blaine and welcomed the whole family for Thanksgiving a week later.
• December- quickly unpacked some more boxes and got the house ready for a fantastic Christmas houseful! The Denver Larsons were in MN for about a week, and we packed in all kinds of fun family time.

2016 so far:

I have taken on a new full-time position at Bethlehem, Interim Director of Women’s Ministry, and praying for a smooth transition to 3 part-time, campus-specific Ministers for Women.

Benjamin turned 4!! He loves Legos, reading and  attending their neighborhood school, Stedman.

Avery is almost 20 months old (check our Ali’s blog here)  and is a very busy young lady, learning all kinds of new things each day. She keeps mom and dad on their toes!

Matt is working for Medtronic, in a new position that helps track their technology that is currently in use by providers. Ali has her own photography business that is flourishing.

Our “great-grand puppies” were born in January to David and Emma’s dog, Wilson. They will be keeping one puppy, and one, newly named “Dakota,”  will be going to Denver to be a therapy dog for Avery as she goes through treatments each day.

David will be graduating from UND Medical School in May, and has just “matched” for a 5 year residency at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN for ENT (Ears, Nose & Throat.) Emma plans to keep teaching tennis and they are purchasing their first house.

Sara has stepped into a new job at 3M, at the same time finishing her Master of Science in Management of Technology. She graduates in May,  and she and Dave are also purchasing their first house.

Jacob lives in Robbinsdale, helps lead youth at Eagle Brook Church and enjoys his work with Creek Ridge Capital. He and Sara ran the Twin Cities marathon together last Fall.