Our 2007 Christmas card

Just thought I'd share our letter and pic from this year!

Dear friends and family,

As many of you know, Joey and I have had quite the hand dealt to us this year. And as I was trying to figure out how to recap the year, I realized I just needed to lay it out… the good, the bad and the ugly. So you may laugh when you see our picture, but that’s okay! It was meant to correspond with the letter and our theme for wrapping up this year: the good, the bad and the ugly!

Where to begin? Well we began the year living with Joey’s dad up in Cambridge and moved back to our house in early May. We spent some time redoing our kitchen and bathroom and settled back in nicely to our place. It is good to be home. J

In January I spent a week with my sister in Hawaii celebrating a friends wedding, which was amazing! And then had the opportunity to travel to Germany for a week with some college girlfriends, which was also a fabulous experience!

Joey wrapped up the hockey season and started rotating again in the cities and is now just 4 ½ months from graduating from Medical school! We’ll be spending the entire month of January traveling around the United States (in the car) while he interviews at different residency programs. We find out on our 4^th anniversary (March 20^th) where he’ll be placed and whether we’ll be moving or staying!

You might also have noticed that our dog Charlie is a repeat offender in joining us in the Christmas card. I figure we did it once, why not again? He’s doing well. He continues to be oddly scared of everything in his path, including his newfound anxiety surrounding his food dish. But nevertheless he sends you his loveJ.

Now onto the bad....many of you know that after dealing with infertility for 2 years and working with a specialist, Joey and I had decided to pursue adoption. We could not have felt better about it and began preparing for a new baby to come into our home.

Sadly just 4 months after making our decision, we got the news that our agency was committing fraud and lost its license. Our hearts were broken. Just when we thought things were starting to look up, they crumbled all around us. But as from the start of this process, we continue to know how faithful our God is and we believe He is taking care of us through all of this.

Please keep us in your prayers as we work through this. God has taught us SO MUCH MORE than we could ever have imagined through this hardship, and we wouldn’t change that for anything. But it’s been a long road and we’re ready to be done. And we’re praying that will be soon.

We have received an unending amount of support from our families and friends during this time and we couldn’t praise God enough for that. And we thank God for all of you which he has placed in our lives through different seasons! We pray that God would bless you and your family during this season where we remember the birth of our Savior.

With love,

Rachel & Joey