PES-KES News 1996 (December)
Merry Christmas everyone!
It’s been a very busy year for our family. We are again expecting another addition to our family, which we are anticipating with joy in early July. Everyone seems convinced that this will be a girl, and of course, this remains to be seen!
A highlight of our year was when God graced us by miraculously restoring Michael’s hearing from “he can hear only vowels but no consonants” to “everything’s normal”. Thank you, Jesus!
We were blessed with many visitors throughout the year, including 10 Aussies, 6 Olympic visitors, and many other family and friends at different times. It’s always great to catch up with old friends and meet new ones along the way.
The Olympics were of course a major event here in Atlanta. We were able to see badminton, volleyball, and track & field in person, and also enjoyed seeing the Centennial Olympic Park and other sights downtown.
We were able to go camping several times, in our tent, and in cabins. Despite our very roomy van, and the ability to remove one row of seats, camping equipment for 5 takes up quite a lot of room!
We completely redid the outside of our home this summer (meaning we paid other people to do it!) – new roof, new paint job, new guttering. It looks great now – boy, did it need it badly!
Michael is now 17 months old, and everywhere we go, people ask if he’s always so sweet (yes, he is). He started walking late last month, and is so proud of himself being able to get around. He is our biggest climber, and gets into all sorts of mischief, keeping his brothers very busy trying to keep things out of his reach. Favorite book – “Are you my mother?”
Jonathan is almost 3 now, and is our puzzle fanatic this year. He surprises us by being able to work 50 piece puzzles unassisted – “I did it!” He insists on wearing his cowboy boots everywhere – even has to take them to his bedroom so they’ll be ready to put on as soon as he wakes up. His favorite song is Twinkle Twinkle Little Sun (a variation), which is his usual request before naps and bedtime. Favorite book – any large picture dictionary that takes at least 1/2 hour to read!
Peter just turned 5 – we celebrated with a big cowboy birthday party (he has his cowboy boots too!). He spends a lot of time lately practicing writing all his letters and numbers, which he enjoys very much. He loves to run, read, swing, and is big on dramatic play. His favorite times are learning times, and he has lots of questions about everything! Favorite book – he has many!
Karen is currently experiencing her usual pregnancy nausea. This year she has enjoyed making creative photo albums, reading extensively, being involved with women’s and prayer groups, teaching Sunday School, walking, singing and playing in several special events, writing songs, hosting our many visitors, and of course, talking!
Paul is taking a break from Sunday School teaching for a few months, as he has been gearing up for a 11-day missions trip to Brazil in January. Along with a team of 27 from our church, he will be mostly in Sao Paolo, the world’s 2nd largest city, with 21 million people. He’s been busy at work, still contracting at Georgia Pacific downtown. He redecorated our guest bathroom, including tiling and wallpapering, which was quite a job! Along with some painting and other projects, he’s been busy around the house too. He enjoys surfing the net whenever he gets the chance.
Starting in January, we are doing a 6-month counselor training course. We thought we’d fill in the spare time we have between babies (just kidding). We are looking forward to doing that together. It ends a couple of weeks before our little one is due, so the timing was perfect.
A few Sculley quotes:
Karen said to Jonathan, “Can you believe that?” He said, “Yes, we can!”
Peter – “I think we’re going to have a baby girl because I prayed to God for a girl. But if it’s a boy, we should call him, ‘We’ll love you forever.'”
Jonathan – “nyes”, “ganks”, likes to talk about “last week” (any past event)
We love you. May the Lord bless you.
Paul, Karen, Peter, Jonathan & Michael
