Christmas Letter!!

I am sorry to all of you that have not received our Christmas Picture/Letter yet. It isn't because I didn't have time to write one, I just haven't gotten all of them mailed yet. Please forgive me, getting to the post office to get more stamps is a trick!!!

So, for my faithful bloggers, I am going to type up the letter here and will hopefully get the real one out before the 1st!

Here we are, close to another Christmas for which we are excited to celebrate our Saviors birth. This is my favorite time of year, which is good, because it seems to come more quickly each year.

We started 2007 with a big change. On January 2nd our social worker asked if we would foster a newborn!! Ethan Alexander was 6 days old and cuter than cute! If that wasn't enough of a change, 5 days later Jason became the pastor of First Baptist Church.

In February we were able to have our first date, baby free, since Ada was born. This came courtesy of some dear friends...what a blessing!

March 30th brought happiness, with the finalization of Ada Grace's adoption. We are thankful to everyone who celebrated with us.

April 30th my mom (Pam) came to stay with the grandkids for a week. It was so nice to have that time with her. She was getting ready to leave May 6th, when the kids and I decided to go with her to see my Grandpa Norgaard, who had fallen. Ethan was able to meet his great grandfather and I was able to spend some wanderful time before Grandpa wemt Home to be with the Lord.

The first weekend in June we made a trip to Lake Crystal, Minnesota for my cousins HS graduation. We were also able to meet our two newborn nieces on Jason's side and see his Grandma Henry. The 24th was my golden birthday; Jason surprised me with a day of 4 wheeling in the hills. You all should try it sometime!

We celebrated the 4th with our church family and my parents. Our kids were not too sure about fireworks, but did enjoy Mt. Rushmore on the 5th. July was busy; Ethan was very sick and had 35 appointments (doctor & otherwise.)

The 10th of August was special, we celebrated our 5th anniversary. I cannot believe it has already been 5 years. How did we pack so much into these few short years? We still haven't figured that out! Thankfull God gives strength. We attened the annual Hartung BBQ at Jason's parents house and on the way there we drove into a hail storm. We watched tennis ball sized hail stones bounce off our van! We ended the month on a high note, with the closing of our house in Belle Fourche on the 31st.

September 27th our precious daughter turned 1! The weekend we had a princess party for her. Our two kids actually started scooting around ~ I wasn't ready to have mobile children yet. If that didn't keep me hopping, just after we returned home from Ethan's doctor appointments in Sioux Falls in October, they started going up stairs. We also added to our family, temporarily, when Andre (3), Christopher (2), and Kailey (5 months) joined us the last week of the month.

As I write this we are looking forward to sharing Thanksgiving with our parents and we do have so much to be thankful for! December 13th is a big court date for EThan, if all goes well it will be the beginning of the end, bringing us closer to adoption. We cannot forget that on the 27th Ethan will be 1 as well!

It has been a year full of many, many different things, but in the end all I can say is...God is SO good!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Jason, Ashley, Ada Grace, & Ethan