Dear Friends and Family,
Merry CHRISTmas! It's that time of year again, and we are so excited when we look back on the year and see what God has done for us this year. The Bible says in Psalm 72:18 "Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who ONLY doeth WONDROUS things." Obviously, we, like everyone else, go through tough times in our lives, and we have this year as well. But when we look back, it is so awesome to see how God has been with us through the tough times as well as the great times. The Bible also says "As for God, his way is PERFECT." I'm so thankful that HE is in control of our lives, not me! It has been such an encouragement for us this year to be reminded of the fact that God loves us, cares about us, and ALWAYS does what is BEST for us. HE has a plan for our lives, and though we may not always understand what God is doing at the time, we can trust Him to only do WONDROUS things.
I'm going to share with you the every day things in our lives first, and then tell you about all the extra things that we were able to enjoy this year.
First of all, we moved here to attend our church, Shawnee Baptist. This year our opportunities for ministry at our church have expanded, and we are so thankful for those opportunities to reach others for Christ. Chris drives a bus route every Sunday morning to pick up kids and adults for Sunday school and church. I ride along to help with that as well. We also both sing in the choir, which we have really enjoyed, and I work in the nursery at least once a month. In September, our asst. pastor approached us about joining the teen ministry as youth workers. We were able to meet with the youth pastors in early October, and started our ministry with the teens the first week of November. Chris is co-teaching the 9th&10th grade teen Sunday school class and we are excited about working with teens again. We are enjoying getting to know the teens and the other youth workers as well.
As far as work is concerned, we are pretty much doing the same things we were doing last year at this time. This is the first year since we've been married that we have both worked for the same company the WHOLE YEAR! I continue to do nursing home health care with special needs kids. I have been caring for the same patient full-time for almost a year now, and almost feel like he's my own baby. He just turned 2, and is learning so much and doing new things almost every day. I have also had the privilege of witnessing some to his mom, other nurses that I have oriented to the case, and some of my unsaved co-workers in the staffing agency office.
Chris continues to work at Cross Chrysler/Jeep as a sales associate. God has truly blessed him this year in his job. He earned the award of Salesman of the Month 3 months this year - in January, March, and April. It was awesome to see him earn that award the first full month that he was working as a salesman. At the company Christmas party, it was announced that Chris had won the SALESMAN of the YEAR award as well! We know that all the glory goes to God for these accomplishments, but I must say that I am so thankful for a husband that is willing to work hard and put in long hours to take care of our family. The financial blessings have been nice, but Chris, too, has been able to witness to many of his co-workers over the past year. One day he had over an hour long conversation with one of his managers about Creation vs. Evolution, the Bible being God's Word, and various other spiritual topics. It is encouraging to be able to share God's Word with those that do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The other major thing that happened this year for us is that we were able, after 6 months of paying double housing costs, to sell our house in Maryland. We closed on that house on March 30. Then, the Lord led us to look for a house to buy here. We found one after going out with our realtor one time, and our offer was accepted. July 17th we moved into our new home, and we LOVE it! So, for yet another Christmas letter, we have a different address! This is an ongoing joke with Chris and me... hopefully we won't have to give you a new address again for a VERY LONG time!
Now - for the entertainment in our lives:
February – February 11th brought a new niece into our family... Korissa Ann was born to Chris' sister, Kim and her husband, David. Korissa is their first baby.
April - We flew down to Jacksonville, FL, for a Chromy family reunion/Mom's 60th birthday party over Easter weekend. We had a great time seeing all of my immediate family, though the time was short. We hadn't all been together at one time since Steve's wedding in 2005. The day after we got home, Chris surprised me by bringing home a new car for me. It's a 2007 Chrysler Sebring sedan, Inferno Red, and I LOVE IT! What a great surprise! :-)
Also in April, we attended a local celebration day here... Thunder over Louisville. This is the kick-off to the Kentucky Derby Festival which is the two weeks before the KY Derby. It is basically KY's version of Mardi Gras, but they do have some pretty neat events to attend. Thunder over Louisville consists of, among other things, a 6 hour air show, and at the end of the day, one of the largest fireworks displays in the world! It is AWESOME! The fireworks are actually choreographed to music, but we didn't sit in a place where we could actually hear the music. Anyway, it was a great time!
May - The first weekend of May is the KY Derby. Pretty much every business in this area is shut down that day b/c everyone is at the Derby. Chris had the day off, so we decided to take a day trip over to St. Louis, MO. (I know, I know - you can't BELIEVE that we didn't go to the DERBY! We don't gamble and we don't drink, so we didn't really want to spend the day around a bunch of people who were doing just that!) Instead, we enjoyed a great date together... we attended a St. Louis Cardinals game in early afternoon, then went over to see the St. Louis Gateway Arch, and were home by about 9pm. We are trying to attend a game at every Major League Baseball Park in the States, so we had a great day and checked off another ballpark on the list.
May was also a HUGE month of graduations for the Mitchell family. Chris' older brother, Tim, graduated with his 2nd Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering. He earned a 4.0 GPA, along with being a husband and dad, working, and serving in his church. That's a full plate! Then, Chris' sister, Julianne, graduated with her Associate's Degree from Pensacola Christian College. She had a brain aneurysm when she was seven, so since then has always had struggles with her academics. We are so proud of her for her determination to graduate from college, and she did it! A couple days later, another of Chris' brothers, **
name removed for privacy** graduated from Marine boot camp at Parris Island. We are so proud to have an immediate family member serving our country in the Marines. Then, later in the month, Chris' oldest niece, Kimberly, graduated from Kindergarten! Wow - what a busy month! Chris and I were only able to attend Julianne's graduation together; then Chris returned home to work, while I attended the Marine graduation with Chris' family.
June - We attended our first baseball game at Louisville Slugger Field. We have a minor league team here called the Louisville Bats, and Chris' boss has season tickets to the games. He gives away the tickets for free, so we were able to attend 3 games this season. Hey, what can I say? It's a pretty nice cheap Saturday evening date! :-) The big event in June was my baby brother, Nathan's wedding. He and Caroline got married on June 30th. It was a beautiful wedding. It was really nice to have all of the family together again for the second time in 3 months when we hadn't been together in almost 2 years!
July - On the way home from Nathan's wedding, we made a little detour through Cleveland Ohio to attend a Cleveland Indians game at Jacobs Field (another ballpark off the list!) The big even of July was our 7th Anniversary trip, which was a surprise for me. Chris planned the whole trip, and we had a GREAT time! We went to Chicago (Chris had never been there other than driving through, and I hadn't been there since my college days) for about 3 days. We stayed in a REALLY nice hotel (they had bellhops and everything!) right off Michigan Avenue across from the Hancock Building. While we were in town, we attended two more baseball games... one at Wrigley Field to watch the Cubs, and the other at US Cellular Field to watch the White Sox. I told Chris that he has the best wife in the world b/c she actually ENJOYED going to ballgames on her anniversary trip! :-) We also walked up and down Michigan Ave and the shoreline of Lake Michigan, visited the Shedd Aquarium and Navy Pier, and generally just relaxed and enjoyed the time together. It was a great surprise, and it was over WAY too quickly!
August - August 10th brought another new niece into the family... again on Chris' side! Jacquline Abigail was born to Chris' brother, Burt and his wife, Julie. Jacquline is their first baby as well. We are always excited to have another member join the family!
We didn't actually take any trips in August! We stayed home to work to pay off all of our gallivanting that we did all summer! We both celebrated birthdays... our birthdays are only a week apart. I turned the big 30 this year, but I don't mind at all. We had an open house/Chris' birthday party on his birthday, and also had a fun surprise as some friends of ours were traveling through town and took us out to lunch. We hadn't seen these friends in about a year. Then, the Thursday before my birthday, one of my patients that I took care of in MD and his family were in the area visiting family, and they came over and spent the afternoon visiting us. It was fun to see them again.
September - According to Chris, this was the best month of all! First of all, I was able to attend our Ladies' Retreat at the camp sponsored by our church. It was a great time of fun and fellowship. But - the weekend of the 15th, we made a VERY QUICK weekend trip to Boston. As most of you know, Chris grew up just outside of Boston until he was 12, so this is his "hometown." He is a die hard Boston sports fan. He decided that we couldn't go to Wrigley Field for a game and not go to Fenway Park! We got tickets to the second game of the last NY Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox series of the season. We had a BLAST at the game! It was the best crowd of fans at any game or ballpark I've ever been to! They were cheering the WHOLE TIME! Of course, I might be slightly biased by my husband's brainwashing... but it was really cool! In the morning before the game, we took a quick tour of Boston, seeing most of the historical sites... Freedom Trail, Quincy Market, Paul Revere's House, the Old North Church, the USS Constitution, etc. We packed a lot of things into a short amount of time, but again, it was great to have the time together and making memories!
October - We found out in late October that there will be another niece or nephew joining the family this next year (Lord willing)... My older brother, Steve, and his wife, Kathryn, are expecting their first baby in late June! Again, we are always excited to have more babies added to the family! :-)
Since then, we have basically stayed home and worked! Now we're saving up for our next vacation next summer (Lord willing!) and you guessed it, it includes going to games at several ballparks! :-) We were able to go to visit some friends of ours in Lexington, KY, (about an hour &1/2 from here) for Thanksgiving. It was a great time of fellowship and we enjoyed the day. For Christmas, we are staying home as well. We do have family planning to come down to our house for Christmas this year... we're just not sure yet if it will be Chris' sister and her family or my parents.
Well, I think that about covers everything! If you are really interested in seeing pictures from our excursions this year, they are all posted on our personal website.
Again, Merry CHRISTmas to you all! Don't forget the REASON for this season we are celebrating... The Lord Jesus Christ! We are celebrating his birth on this earth, but don't forget that the only reason He left Heaven for earth was to take the penalty for our sins by dying on the cross. The story doesn't end there, however. He was then buried, and rose again on the 3rd day. He conquered death, so that we could have eternal life in Heaven with Him. How do we receive the gift of eternal life in Heaven? We have to accept the fact that we are sinners, believe by faith that Jesus died in our place for the punishment of those sins, and confess our sin to God and ask Him to forgive us and save us from our sin. Have you done that? Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? If not, you are missing the BEST CHRISTMAS GIFT OF ALL! (If you have any questions or want to know more about accepting Christ as your personal Savior, you can give us a call anytime!)
Wishing you the very Merriest of CHRISTmases and a BLESSED NEW YEAR!
Serving Christ,
Chris and Heather Beth
Psalm 91:1, Lam 3:22-23
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Grandma&Grandpa Decker 2001
Dick Chromy - High School Graduation 1966
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7th Grade
7th&8th Grade classes at Faith in Sterling, IL
Nathan, Caroline, Heather, Chris
