Greetings,
Let me start by telling a little about each of the kids. Caleb is 21 and has been in the Navy for a year and a half. His ship, the USS Carter Hall, is now in the Mediterranean for an 8-month stay. He works in the galley (kitchen). He mans the grill on the ship. I guess he can fry anything! The last time we saw him, which was last August, he had put a little weight on. He must be a GOOD cook. Caleb called a few days ago from Italy. What a surprise! He got to see Rome! He also told us that he is being sent back to the states around January 1st to prepare for cooking school, which starts February 9th. He will come home for a few days before taking off for Texas. After school is done he will get new orders, so he may not be sent back to the same ship. Maybe he can hint that he would like to be stationed in Japan. He had to turn his cell phone off while out to sea since it won’t work out there, so we keep in touch by email. We are trusting God to take good care of our son.
Grace is 19 and has taken a year off (maybe more) from college to work and save up money. She wants to be a teacher. She is working at a day care center right near our house so she can walk to work. She has friends in Muskegon, which is about a 45 minute drive away, and spends as much time out there as she can. It hardly seems that she lives at home anymore. It is quite a change to have two children out of the house….just three more to go!
Joshua is 17 and a junior in high school. Academics still are not his forte. His favorite classes are weight training and business. He still loves building up his body and someday would like to own his own business. Josh is no longer receiving physical therapy. He has learned all that he can to be efficient in a wheelchair. He is independent in everything. Sometimes he needs a little help reaching things up high, but otherwise he can do everything for himself. The biggest news is that he does have some muscle control in his lower back, hips and upper legs. We found that out during biofeedback sessions at the Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital. Now we are anxiously waiting for a December 1st doctor’s appointment to see if she will let Josh participate in a new therapy program that will help Josh walk again. This program is in the Detroit area, but is going to open a branch in Rockford (just 30 minutes north of Grand Rapids) in December. This is the kind of therapy we have been asking for from the beginning and haven’t been able to get permission from the doctor. If the doctor writes a prescription, then it will be paid by our insurance. It is very expensive and we must have the help of our insurance. To check out updates on Josh’s progress you can go to these two sites on the internet: www.angelfire.com/hi5/holtpage and www.joshwholt.blogspot.com .
Kristi is 15 and a sophomore in high school. She made the varsity women’s choir this year. We are all pretty proud of that since she is only a sophomore. Both of the girls spend lots of time straightening their hair each day with a heated hair straightener. What girls must do to look beautiful! I wish hair straighteners had been around when I was a teen. Straight hair was “in” back then and I wanted what I did not have. Kristi keeps busy with her friends and still has her strong-willed attitude. I am hoping someday it will be an asset. She is very compassionate as well and will probably go into the teaching or health care field.
Isaiah will be 13 on December 15th and is in the 7th grade. Our youngest is in Jr. High! We will have four teenagers then. It already feels like we have that many. They definitely keep us busy. Isaiah is a very smart young man and could do much better in school if he put his mind to it. He started the year out in his usual manner, goofing off and getting detentions, but is starting to come around. I think it might have something to do with all the chores at home. I don’t think he likes doing EVERY chore in the house. Since I went to conferences a few weeks ago, he hasn’t had a single detention. Well, what do you know! It’s about time!!! Some day we will laugh about all this, but it has been tough going through it.
As most of you already know, Josh, Isaiah, and I had been living at the Residence Inn since Josh was released from Mary Free Bed on June 30, 2004. We were finally able to reunite the family in a beautifully modified home on June 10th of this year, just two weeks short of a year. During that year I was able to adapt and do what had to be done, but Josh really struggled being away from the house and neighborhood. He felt extremely cooped up at the hotel. When we moved back into the house it was not done, but at least we were home. We are still waiting for a few other jobs to get done as the builder tries to fit us in among his other current projects.
This summer was a bit trying. A couple weeks after moving into our house I had some surgery done. It was rather uncomfortable recuperating while the builders were still working on the house. During the week after my surgery, I just couldn’t keep my temperature down even with heavy-duty antibiotics, so on July 1st I went into the emergency room and we thought the problem would be fixed with a big dose of another antibiotic. No deal. So on July 4th I was admitted back into the hospital for what was supposed to be an overnight stay to do some tests. Eight days later, many tests and a drain poked into my abdomen to drain out an infection that couldn’t be reached by the antibiotics, I was finally able to come home. Then about a week or two after that, Eric decided that he wasn’t going to let me have all the limelight to myself and had to be rushed to the doctor’s office for severe pain in his abdomen. Isn’t it strange how a little itty-bitty 2-centimeter kidney stone can cause so much trouble? We thought he was a goner for sure. I hear that the pain rates right up there with childbirth. I guess kidney stones are paybacks for the men!!! He just might have a better appreciation for my labor of love, times five!
Just a brief note about our pets. We gave our two cockatiels away to one of Josh’s friends this fall. Isaiah is extremely happy about that. Cleaning up bird poop is not at the top of his list, or even the bottom. He still has to scoop cat poop though, and lots of it at times. Our wayward female cat likes to sneak out the door as we come in. She had three little kitties this past spring and three more this fall. The first three kitties were in high demand and we had no problem of finding good homes for them. One of them had beautiful light blue eyes and white fur. She is named Pumpkin and lives at Grandma Holt’s house. The other two were totally black like their mother. In this last batch, all three kitties are black. One of Kristi’s friends took one kitty home just the other night. Grace would like to keep one, so we have one more to go. Now it is time to get mommy cat fixed.
We certainly hope your Christmas is a time of family, friends, and the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ. Without His sacrifice of love for us, we would have and be nothing! There would be no HOPE…and we definitely need hope in this chaotic world we live in.
God bless your family for another year.
All our love,
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