Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Rays!
We hope this year has been a good one and this e-letter finds you well. 2021 was another eventful year for us.
At the end of January Matt was diagnosed with COVID-19 but his case was very mild. He isolated in the bedroom for a week, which was tough for everyone. Matt went a little nuts without the family and Christine went a little nuts parenting solo and dropping meals outside the bedroom door for Matt. We had to postpone Anna's 2nd birthday dinner until Matt was out of isolation. It was interesting to say the least.
COVID-19 hit us again around Thanksgiving. We were about to head out to Christine's parents' house for Thanksgiving when Joshua was diagnosed with COVID after finding out a classmate had it. Our plans were changed and we spent Thanksgiving alone as a family. All the kids seem to have had it, though we only tested Joshua, and all the kids had mild cases. Christine jokes that our year began and ended with COVID.
We began 2021 as a family of four. We end 2021 as a family of six. The day after Easter our foster son moved in with us. He had lived with us for five months previously and needed to live with a foster family again and requested us, roughly one year after leaving us the first time. He will turn 17 on Christmas Eve. Then on May 20th our son Gideon was born at 4:02 p.m. weighing 7lbs 12oz. The other kids and grandma and grandpa had to wait at home to see him until we brought him home from the hospital due to, you guessed it, coronavirus protocol. Our house is full and the kids enjoy each other very much.
As if adding two humans wasn't enough, we also added a dog this year. Our yellow lab Reece moved into our house on January 4th. She's a great dog and is so good with the kids, even when Gideon craws up her back as she snoozes. It's hard to believe she's been with us for less than a full year. Walking her has probably added years to Matt and Christine's lives.
It's at this juncture of the letter we feel the need to assure you that Matt and Christine aren't gluttons for punishment. This year seems eventful enough without adding trips to the Omaha Zoo, the family farm in Southwest Iowa and the Ray Family Reunion in Minnesota (which included a few no-shows due to positive COVID-19 tests).
God has been so good to us this year. Each one of our little kids has a lullaby song unique to him or her. Little Gideon's is "God is So Good". That song seems a good theme for our year. Not everything was planned or went according to plan; some things went completely awry and some things went far better than we could have hoped for and some good came in unplanned, but through it all God has been so good.
At the end of the year we take inventory of our year: Our year was great. At Christmas we take time to remember the good news of great joy. In 2021 God has been with us, He has been Emmanuel. Jesus' birth isn't just a cute story of a baby's birth, Jesus' birth is the reason we can celebrate 2021 and look hopefully toward 2022.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Rays!
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