2010 Outlook and Highlights of 2009

Tip-off 2010…For the New Year 2010 Jessica met her Calvin roommates in NYC. She spent a week thereafter visiting people in G.R., including Ben at his house shared with the McClellans. In February, she begins a new job at Denver Child Advocacy Center; Ben has started his final semester at Calvin College; Bethany initiated studies at Metro State College in downtown Denver; Sam is diving this spring and finishing his Eagle Scout requirements; Honor Roll Rachel is a second semester 8th grader; Claudette is preparing for her counseling licensure; Tom is taking a Spanish class.

*During January of 2009, Bethany and Ben travelled to Mexico City and Guatemala. Bethany returned home to work at Il Vicino restaurant for the spring and summer, while Ben spent the spring semester in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in conjunction with his studies at Calvin College. Bethany’s friends from YWAM in Switzerland visited for a week in April: Jana Klassen, of Abbotsford, B.C., and Hannah Coleman, of Richland, WA. Bethany visited Darrelle Good in May at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. At the end of July, during a hot spell, Bethany visited Jana in British Columbia.
*With the new year, Tom, Claudette, Sam, Rachel, Koko continued the Teen C.B.S. study of John’s Gospel begun in Fall ’08.
*Tom’s brother Luke and Julie and kids moved back to Denver from Boston and plugged into new jobs at Corporate Express and Qwest. By November, they occupied a new home in the Stapleton area.
*Jessica prepared to spend the year in Ecuador where she worked from Feb. to Dec., first in Quito, later in Shell. She came home in late May for the wedding of her h.s. friend Katie to Riley Flynn. Then she traveled to G.R. and returned to Denver along with Lauren and Sean Baker.
In mid-September, Bethany left to join Jessica in Shell, Ecuador. They shared a nice patio apartment where they did lots of cooking and entertaining. With Jessica working as a pharmacy tech at the hospital, Bethany volunteered at an orphanage and practiced Spanish. Together and accompanied by friends, they did some sightseeing to Banos, Cuenca and the Inca ruins of Inga Pirca, Guayaquil, and Puerto Lopez.
*In February, Sam was awarded Life Scout; he played baseball for HHS in the spring and summer. He got his driver’s license in June and in July hiked some 80 miles around Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. In preparation for the rigors of Philmont, he spent numerous spring evenings at planning meetings and four weekends doing practice hikes and shakedown camping trips. Throughout the summer he was either golfing or caddying.
*During the school year, Claudette was the Moms in Touch prayer team leader for Euclid Middle School. In April, she attended a meaningful “Rachel’s Vineyard” abortion-recovery training coordinated by the Catholic Church. As a way to clear her mind from counseling, her house projects included sanding and restaining all the kitchen cabinets and reupholstering two wing-back chairs.
*Koko was active throughout the winter and spring with skiing, track, friends.
*Sam, Koko, and Rachel (re)started piano lessons. They performed a recital April 26.
+Koko finished her school year with us and travelled with Dr. Tom and Laurie Ferber, also affiliated with Young Life’s Amicus exchange program, to points west including the Grand Canyon, before returning for a week while all the kids and Ale Arrecis were in Denver. She then headed east, first to tour Washington, D.C., and then a U.S. finale camp in Virginia, ultimately heading home to Sulz am Neckar, Germany, for her last two years of high school.
+After school was out at the end of May, Tom and Jessica drove to Michigan. Jessica visited friends in G.R. and returned to Denver with the Bakers. Tom returned with Sam (who’d flown out earlier) in the car accompanying Ben, who rode his motorcycle across the Upper Peninsula, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa. Ben’s girlfriend Ale Arrecis from Guatemala, joined the trip in Minnesota. At Sioux City, the moto ended up in a rental truck to get to Denver. For the summer, Ben helped remodel Pomegranate Place, a center for women’s ministry. During his spare time, he built a compost system for our garden and cultivated the crops, which were aided by frequent rain storms. Another benefit of all the moisture was an abundant hay season. Ben and Tom worked loading hay with John and Diana during a weatherful July day on a hillside overlooking a picturesque valley in Douglas County. Sam and Ben finished the job another day to get the Flying Ass Ranch stocked for the fall. Sam and John competed during an August golf outing while Tom and Ben chased balls around. Tom’s summer project was to type his Dad’s WW II diary from his days as an Air Force firefighter on Guam, etc.
+On a lovely night in July, the family enjoyed a free symphony concert at Red Rocks amphitheater.
+At the end of July, Rachel the gymnast got first place in state for her age and classification. Her workouts are typically M, W, Th. eve. 5:30-7:45, plus open gym on Sat. w/ Sam…along with various socializing with gymnasts. As school began in August, Rachel was a W.E.B. student orientation leader.
# For the Labor Day weekend, joined by Claudine, we ventured to South Dakota to see Rushmore and Spearfish.
# Sam, Claudette, Rachel, Tom began a new Teen C.B.S. year of studying the prophet Isaiah. Claudette became the cookie lady for the Monday night Teen C.B.S. dinners. Also with Teen C.B.S., we helped one night with Operation Christmas Child.
# Claudette and Tom, with the help of neighbor Lois Jones, created a new flower garden adjacent to the front porch over a few weekends in September.
# Tom was involved with Dave Cheadle in mentoring Denver Seminary student Chris Morgan. The Broncos went 6-0 while we watched together on Sunday afternoons, thus a saintly initiation of the football season. Then we changed our meeting times.
# Rachel suffered a minor break of her left ankle doing gymnastics on October 26. She got the cast off November 23, followed by a boot. She was able to get back in the gym by Christmas vacation.
# The snow was sufficient on October 29 to provide a day off school. We got another foot on November 15, followed by a cold snap in early December, along with more snowfall. We are having true winter this year following the wet summer. Thanksgiving Day at John and Diana’s featured both warm companionship and porch-sitting weather.
# Among our Christmas preparations and activities, Jessica and Bethany returned from Ecuador December 15. Ben from Grand Rapids and Ale from Guatemala arrived December 17. Following Midnight Mass at the Church of the Holy Ghost in downtown Denver, we had 18 folks for dinner on Christmas Day: our 7, plus Ale, C’s mom, Tom’s folks, Kathie and Gene and Brad DeRamus, Andy and Abby DeRamus, John and Diana.