I wrote a letter at the beginning of December that I intented to include in our Christmas cards. Unfortunately due to unexpected tragedies that we faced in December and the beginning of January, I never got the cards out. So below is the letter that I would have included. It should catch you up on our young life together thus far. More to come!!
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Dearest Friends and Family,
Hola from way up North! Some of you probably didn’t know that we’ve been transferred to Michigan for a year! We’ve not been the best at updating everyone on our lives or sending Christmas cards since we got married, so I’ll do my best to catch everyone up now.
We started married life in Opelika, AL, where I finished my student teaching (PRAISE THE LORD that it’s over!) and graduated from Auburn in December 2006. We then moved to married student housing at Georgia Tech (in down town Atlanta) so that Jim could finish classes and his AWESOME senior design project and then graduate in August 2007. During this time, I started a job as a Spanish teacher at Grayson High School in Loganville, Georgia, and was driving 40+ minutes to work and 1 hour 10 minutes+ home! The drive was tough, but Grayson was such a good teaching experience for me. I started teaching Spanish I and III the first year and the second year, I traded the Spanish I for the mucho more challenging task of teaching Spanish V. It was truly a blessing to be given the chance to teach upper levels right out of college and through this opportunity, I discovered that Spanish III and V are really my niche, and I hope to have the opportunity to teach them again one day. I also made some amazing friends in my department, and God gave me the opportunity to mentor several of my students through problems with classes, parents, work, dating and other issues. I know that he placed me at Grayson for a reason, and it was very hard to leave that “family” when we moved North.
To catch you up on Jim’s activities of the last year, he took a job with CH2M Hill as a controls engineer, and we moved to Lilburn, Georgia, which is in the suburbs of Atlanta and provided me with a much shorter commute! Jim did very well his first year receiving RAVE reviews from both his mentor and his boss, and he was soon assigned to the project here in Michigan. Here he serves as CH2M Hill’s on-site controls engineer in charge of installing the instrumentation for the BASF chemical plant that they are constructing as well as troubleshooting any controls/instrumentation glitches that arise. We are looking to be here until sometime next summer when we will head back to Atlanta and hopefully buy a house.
God has really been blessing us all this time and using us to advance his kingdom. To begin he provided us with wonderful churches in Atlanta and Trenton (Michigan). In Atlanta, I was involved with our church’s multi-ethnic ministry as a Spanish translator and a helper at the clothes bazaars (where we distributed free clothes to needy Hispanic families in the area.) God also allowed me the privilege of leading one of my students to faith in Christ, and it has been such a blessing to watch her grow! Since we moved to Michigan, God has given Jim the opportunity to be a witness to some of his co-workers, and He provided us with a great group of Christian friends through our life group at our church. We have had wonderful opportunities to serve other group members in special ways, and it has been a blessing for me to have a group of ladies to pal around with since I am not working while we are here. On that note, God has blessed me with the opportunity to stay at home and work on my skills as a wife. I made jars and jars of jam when fruit came in season this year. I have also taught myself to make bread, yeast rolls and cinnamon rolls from SCRATCH, which is something that I have always longed to undertake! I am learning to sew, as well, which is an adventure in and of itself.
I have continued to be very involved in Nicaragua, Central America, which as many of you know is dear to my heart. I am raising continual support to send Kenia Gutierrez (a wonderful young Nicaraguan sister in Christ and my dear friend) to college, and I have lead teams from Canopy Roads, (my parents’ church in Tallahassee, Florida) on mission to Nicaragua the last two summers. I will be part of the pre-trip team going down in January or February of 2009 (if the political situation in Nicaragua will allow) to plan our trip for next August, and can’t wait to see my “Nica family” again!
Unfortunately the last of our news is sad. We recently lost the new baby that we were hoping to welcome in July. Many of you have been faithfully praying for us through this whole ordeal, and we truly believe that this is what has carried us through it all. We very much appreciate your continued prayers as we look to our heavenly Father for the healing that only he can give and for the hope of future children.
That covers all our news. Thank you for your precious friendship, and we continue to covet your prayers as we strive to serve our Lord, wherever He may send us.
Merry Christmas,
Jim and Ally
