Category Archives: Matt

Easter 2016

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.

IMG_89852016 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.

 

Grandson #1 On the Way!

Matt and Ali announced this week that a little Larson boy will join our family in January!  What exciting news!  We are thrilled to be grandparents! We are praying for this little guy already, and for Matt and Ali as Ali wrote this on her blog:

After declining all of the genetic testing for our baby, I somehow decided that it would be okay to get screened for the cystic fibrosis gene – it was a simple cheek swab that would tell me if I was a carrier for this disease or not.  Seemed pretty easy!  The odds of even being a carrier are 1 in 30, so I figured I may as well find out.  With no family history of cystic fibrosis that I could find, I was pretty shocked to learn two weeks later that indeed I was a carrier of the gene (a recessive gene, hence the lack of family history).  I was told not to worry, the chances that Matt had the gene as well were again 1 in 30 (so the chances of us BOTH having it were extremely small), and we both had to be carriers for any child to be born with the disease.  And so, Matt dutifully went in to the doctor’s office, got his cheek swabbed, and waited.
Two weeks later, I got the call from my OB that – odds be damned – Matt is indeed a carrier of the CF gene as well.  Who would have known?  This information was followed shortly with something along the lines of…”this means that your baby has a 1 in 4 chance of being born with CF…”, “keep in mind that there’s a 75% chance that  your baby will be born healthy…”, “some CF gene-carrying parents choose to do IVF for future children so as to make sure the gene is not passed on…”, “I’d like you to make an appointment with a high risk OB just for a consultation…”, and some other stuff that is all a little blurred at the moment.  One in four.  That’s all that kept running through my head.
After many many, many tears, I came home and did a little research about CF (feel free to visit http://www.cff.org) and was happy to learn that many CF kids go on to live happy, generally healthy lives, but sad to read the staggering fact that “the predicted median age of survival for a person with CF is in the mid-30s.”  Wow…

I’m not quite ready to talk about this all that much, but I did want to get my thoughts out there for now (the tears don’t come as easily as when I say it out loud).  Matt and I are both digesting/processing all of this information and praying that our baby, with CF or not, is happy and healthy.  We trust that God has a plan that is bigger than our own, both now and in the future, and that our baby is in His hands for the next five months (and forever).  As a friend was gracious in reminding me, I feel comfort that God is more powerful than me or any doctor.  And as she has offered to pray with Eph. 3:20 in mind (“now to Him who is able to do IMMEASURABLY more than all we can ask or imagine…”), so too do we.  No matter what, we know that he/she will be incredibly loved by the two of us and by the amazing friends and family surrounding us.

This week, Ali wrote:

We are also learning to be grateful in this precarious situation we’ve found ourselves in.  We trust that God is at work in all of this, and despite the unknown future, we are grateful for the little one growing and developing at this very minute.  We are grateful for the lessons in patience, trust, love, and grace that we continue to be learning through all of this.  And though we did not love hearing some of the news at this week’s appointment with the high risk doctor, we were SO grateful to find out the sex of our little peanut early!

May Flowers and Foxes

Along with May flowers, we have all kinds of celebrations happening in our family!

JACOB is finishing his first year at Bethel, wrapping up the studies and choir, and is looking forward to being a camp counselor this summer at Camp Shamineau, near Motley, MN.

SARA is busy applying for jobs, interviewing, finishing her senior thesis, and studying for finals.  Her last Bethel Choir concert is tonight at 7:30pm in Benson Great Hall.  It has been such a joy to have both Sara and Jacob singing together under the leadership of Dr. Dennis Port.  While there will be tears of sadness tonight, we look forward to many more wonderful concerts!  On Monday, May 9 at 8:00 pm, Sara will have her Senior Voice Recital in Benson Great Hall.  We would love to have as many family and friends there as possible!   Baccaaureate is May 20th and Commencement will be May 21st at 4:00 pm.  Sara is graduating with two majors: Biochemistry/Molecular Biology (B.S.) and Chemistry (B.A.).  In addition, she has already begun her Master of Arts in Teaching through Bethel University College of Adult and Professional Studies.

DAVID is waiting to hear from medicals schools and working full-time at Cabelas.  He is gearing up to host a party for…

EMMA is graduating from UND with her Masters on May 14th!  She has had a very busy year of research, writing, teaching at UND, working at Starbucks and teaching tennis. We are planning to drive up to Grand Forks for the celebration on Sunday, May 15th. David and Emma will celebrate 3 years of marriage in July!

MATT continues his work at Medtronic, leading worship at their church and playing in a few bands, but the BIG news is that MAY 30th, Memorial Day, is the JEOPARDY! show…be sure to watch that day, wherever you are!

ALI is working on obtaining her Master in Teaching, and has just received word she will be student teaching in Denver Public Schools, just a few blocks from their house.  Matt and Ali recently celebrated their 2nd wedding anniversary and are planning a trip to Minnesota in June.

BARRY is getting used to his new job, still misses patients and aspects of the old job, but more time to be home has been wonderful!  PAM is loving her new part-time job as Ministry Assistant for Women’s Ministry at Bethlehem Baptist Church and continues her volunteer roles in Vernacular Video Mission International.

We had a fox family move in across the street, and you can view video here.

Merry Christmas from the Larsons!


2010 has been an event-FULL year for our family and we are grateful to God for His grace and mercy in all that has transpired! We began 2010 with a mission trip to the Philippines that was amazing for Barry, Jacob and I.  Shortly after returning, we announced our plans to leave Austin for the Twin Cities.  Barry had accepted a position with Geriatric Services of MN, where he is now caring for the frailest of the elderly in settings where they need to be seen: long & short term care facilities on the north and west sides of Mpls.  We began our move to Mounds View in May, Barry started working in June and I bounced back and forth for a few weeks, and then settled in July.

Jacob (18) ran the 4 X 800m in the State track meet (his relay team crushed the AHS records!) and graduated from AHS in June.  He worked all summer at the municipal pool in Austin, saving up for Bethel University, where he is now a freshman.  He is loving college, especially singing in the Bethel Choir.  Festival of Christmas was fabulous!

Sara (21) is newly engaged (12-19-10) to be married to Dave Merritt!  (son of Bob and Laurie) The date will be announced sometime later.  Sara is a senior at Bethel double-majoring in Chemistry/Biochemistry, is a TA and alto section leader for the Bethel Choir. Dave is in his 2nd year of law school at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and is planning to start his career with Faegre & Benson in Mpls.

David and Emma live in Grand Forks, ND with Wilson, their yellow lab. David (23) works full time for Cabela’s and is applying to medical school.  He and Wilson love to hunt together!  Emma (23) is teaching an undergraduate class at UND and working on her Master’s thesis, in addition to teaching/coaching tennis and supervising at Starbucks.

Matt and Ali live in Denver, CO with Lincoln, their “little stinker”! Matt (27) is employed by Medtronic in the neuroscience division and leads worship at Denver Community Church (DCC) around once a month.  He also plays with Ali’s dad, Chip, in a band.  Ali (29) resigned from her job in mid-2010 to begin a Masters degree in Education.  It is quite a change for her, but she is loving the learning and the challenge.  Ali will turn 30 on Dec 25!!

We are LOVING being closer to our family in the Twin Cities, but miss our dear friends in Austin! We think visitors are fantastic, so please plan to come see us!

If you comment and leave your email, I will send you our new address.

Larson updates…March 09

img_2056_2My baby is 17 today(written 2-27-09)!  Time sure flies by!

Jacob Andrew Larson is an amazingly talented guy…but I guess I am a bit biased!  He’s active in sports (soccer and track are his main focus) and he is also much involved in music, playing the string bass in the high school orchestra, electric bass in the youth praise band and sings in the choir and Austinaires (select show choir) and is a member of the MN All State Men’s Choir!

It has been so long since I have updated this blog, that I’m not sure if I should just start over….since I last wrote, I had surgery to reattach the hamstring tendons and have gone through rehab.  I have regained nearly all my mobility and flexibility, and just have a bit of soreness to deal with.

We have had so much happen in the last year….

 

 

 

  • img_1251David and Emma got married
  • Sara was crowned Miss Capital Cityimg_3119

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Matt and Ali got engaged and are getting married in 3 weeks! (March 28 in Boulder, CO)
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WOW….I am going to try to be better at keeping up with this blog, along with all the other stuff of life.  I have started a Bible-reading blog, too.(Click on the link…)  Don’t let the word “blog” scare you!  It is just a website that has the capability for me to write daily updates, and anyone who would like can read it and make comments.

Pam