2018 inthebooks

When we think of reviewing a year, what is the purpose?  Why?, one of my sons asked, when I brought up the idea of putting together a bit of a Year in Review of 2018.  Why, indeed?

We write to remember--- what the Lord has done.  Remember the works of His hand, His might, His gentle guidance, His kind words, His admonitions.  Surely He has been good through it all, the little blip that was 2018 for us.  And, we write to remember because our memories are so horribly poor.  Surely some gems and treasures will be forever lost and forgotten-- ever so quickly-- if we don't put proverbial pen to paper.

Last year, Ezekiel turned 11 and had one of the bigger school transitions, ascending to 6th grade and junior high-- Evans Jr. High!  With that siesmic shift, our family parted ways from the land of ElementaryEd.  All done.  Pepper Ridge and its amazing teachers and staff were so fabulous to and for our 4 little people for a critical 12 years of our family's life.  Mrs. Edwards! Mrs. Morgan!  Mrs. Lovin! Mrs. Ficek!  Mr. Mroz!  Just to name a few.  It was our final time to experience the big Opening Doors, the Future is Yours 5th Grade Graduation/Celebration at Heartland Community College and it was a tad bittersweet.

Z-man beat his sibs in the Turkey Trot 5K at Miller Park on Thxgvg Day!  :D

Sixth grade meant joining the youth group at Grace for Zeke so that we could have one out-of-this-world year with ALL FOUR RICE KIDS in youth group.  Amazing craziness, fun, the truth of God's Word all around.  We're so grateful for our friends Dave & Marianne Gross and the huge ways they pour into the young people along with the other volunteer leaders. It's a blessing beyond measure.  Another highlight coming from the move to junior high was Z's ability to join Cross Country at Evans.  As a new 6th grader, he broke 13:30 for the 2 mile race during the fall season and when the school had a 5K event, he won first place among all sixth graders!  Yowza!  He's speedy!  And the team experience had a lovely, maturing effect on this young man.  :)

One more event that gave us some sweet time with Ezekiel was when the older three were in Mississipi and we took Grandpa Schuster and Bue [Boo-ay] & Tambi [Tom-bee] [that's G-pa & G-ma in Ngaju, an Indonesian language] to Galena, IL for 2-day getaway as they aren't traveling so much these days.  We had never been there, and the quaint little town was a breath of fresh air.  The shop with countless flavors of popcorn was a favorite.

Maren became a big teenager - well, a smallish one, really - in June and began 8th grade in August for her final year at Evans.  Rulin' the school, and all that.  She happily added some inches of height during the year. Then in December, Dr. Bowers added some braces!  Mar loves hanging out with friends and has some great ones at school and church.  Going on the youth group retreats are a big hit for her, as was the missions trip to Mississippi that more than 40 of them went on.  Actually, she was a tad nervous about that one because most of her closest homies couldn't go, so she was hanging with Sylvia and friends... which turned out alright!  :D  That trip was with Relevant Ministries, which was established after Hurricane Katrina to help affected people in tangible ways.  The kids helped with some outreach opportunities and home renovation projects.

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Maren enjoys playing viola and was chosen in the fall via audition to go to the Illinois Music Education Assoc. [ILMEA] concert, which was a neat honor that took place in November at Olivet Nazarene University's campus where students from around the region come together to get some great instruction for the day and then perform together in the afternoon in a great venue. Mar also ran the 100 and 200 in track in the spring, which was fun!

with Ahnnika, friend from school

with Reagan at track meet

can't forget carlos!

the church posse

Sylvia started the year by getting her braces OFF in January!  Yippee for straight teeth and corrected bites! In the Spring of her freshman year, she ran track and did pole vault once more. She kept busy with babysitting through the year, moreso in the summer.  The Schurters are some of her regulars and she loves those five littles to death! Sylvia has taken private cello lessons for more than a year now with Mrs. Sara Garrett and continues to improve.  She, too, was selected for the ILMEA concert for senior highers, and also played a Vivaldi Sonata at the Solo and Ensemble contest.  In her sophomore year, she has turned 16, taken the ACT (round one), and just after Christmas got her driver's license. Whoa Nelly!  She even did the test in the rain, so there should be bonus points for that, right?

photo cred: shreya ramachandran :)

Sylvi also loved the trip to MS, but didn't love the sunburn she got.  She, along with the rest of us, had another travelling highlight of the year, a family vacation to Door County, Wisconsin in late July.  O, it was so much fun just to get AWAY!  The weather was amazing and we were able to enjoy a Plein Air art show, bike through Peninsula State Park, kayak along the coast and out to a little island, meander through quaint town after quaint town of cute shops and beaches, go cherry picking at Lautenbach's, eat Green and Gold pizza [cheese curds, broccoli, awesome!] at the fabulous Wild Tomato, and end with a wild speed boat ride out along the Lake Michigan side of the peninsula, seeing the lighthouses and shipwrecks.  Very freeing.  :D

Well, in more sobering news... ;), this has been a big year for Whitton, as he began his senior year in the fall and turned 18 in November.  [I guess it's really more sobering for the parents!]  He's taking a load of AP classes and staying on top of those like a boss.  But first, in the Spring [junior year], he made the varsity baseball team at Normal West and that team just had great chemistry and Whitton so enjoyed being on that team.  Plus, they had an excellent year and they were Super Sectional Champs in class 4A, the largest in Illinois, making it to the Sweet 16.  He also enjoyed having the opportunity to have a role in spiritual leadership, often leading the team in prayer before games-- and after tough losses.  A highlight of baseball was a trip to Gulf Shores, AL over Spring Break which Susan and the other three got to tag along for!  Super fun.

Whitton has proved to be a guy with a good work ethic as he's kept his job on the waitstaff at Luther Oaks, the continuing care retirement community, since getting it in August '17.  He worked more in the summer as well, and he's now one of the servers with the most seniority, though during school he's not working as much.  [He did, however work from 8-3 on Christmas Day!]  He says he has "slowly become the favorite."  LOL.  It's a bonus that he gets to see his Grandpa when he's working, since Dad/Jerry lives there!  Whitton has been active in quite a few other things, too.  This is his second year as a Mentor in West's FMP [Freshman Mentoring Program].  He's able to build relationships with a small group of freshmen each year and guide them through the transition to high school, helping them with all kinds of things.  He also helps in student leadership at youth group and at Fellowship of Christian Athletes at school.

He is fairly certain he'll study Business Administration or Economics in college and he's right in the thick of making that big decision of where to go in these coming months.  He has an interview coming up about a possible scholarship at Cedarville Univ. in Ohio, which is where Ben went, and a school that has really been developing in some great ways in recent years.  Whitton was able to take an Econ class at CU over 2 weeks in the summer and he really loved the professor and the students he got to know.  So we shall see!  He's (frantically?) filling out a lot of scholarship applications now, because friends, money doesn't grow on trees in this family!  We have to give a shout-out to the Jason Franklin's online ACT class [Better Prep Success] which helped him raise his score by a few points!  We really look forwad to seeing where God will lead Whitton-- and all of the kids!  If you don't know him, Whitton is a very social person.  We're so thankful for his good friends.  He has been dating Mara for two years now, and we're thankful for her sweet spirit, example of diligence, and her kind ways.  She is beautiful inside and out. They had a great time at the Prom in the Spring, then Homecoming in the Fall-- again!  :)

Ben has been working as hard as ever at State Farm.  There have been some tumultuous times for many at HQ here as cutbacks were made in many departments.  We've had friends who have lost jobs or had to move to keep them.  So we're very grateful that God has chosen to let Ben keep his job.  Also Ben has been voted in as an Elder at church for the next few years, and he's humbled and looking forward to growing in that role of servant leadership.  It's an honor.  Our church- Grace Church in Normal, IL- has been in transition this year as we've been searching for a new senior pastor.  God answered many prayers in bringing Niall Philyaw to us and he just started in December.  Looking forward to this new chapter in our walk with the Lord as a church body.

Susan has continued on as the chair of Grace's Global Outreach Ministry, and man, that is also a great honor to serve in that role.  This year Grace was able to help send out some new Global Partners [the Lipics, working in Sicily], we did our every-3rd-year revision of our booklet of partner (sometimes called missionaries :)) profiles, we mobilized a number of Short-Term Mission trips, hosted a Missions Weekend event called Metamorphosis with guest speaker Dr. Larry Jones [our friend!] from the Seed Company, along with some other things.  :)  The best parts of that 'job' are the relationships with a) "my" GO Team, and b) with our 45 Global Partner families- about half of which are 'active' and half are retired or semi-retired.  Susan also delivers a couple local magazines, Healthy Cells and Pastelle, once a month, which gets her out into the community. She's been in a Precepts Bible Study on I Peter this year with a great group of women led by Marianne Gross and also gone to the Moms In Prayer group for Normal West on Friday mornings.  Both of those fuel the soul big time.  She had been coordinating a class, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, but let that go this year as we wait for interest to rise again in this area.  Thankfully, there's a class in a nearby town this Spring (starting now!).  She thinks about part-time work coming into the picture... kind of often.

 

Susan's Dad, Jerry, has been in town a year and a half now and it's great having him just 4 minutes away!  He's gotten into Rock Steady Boxing, a phenomenal class geared specifically to those FIGHTing Parkinson's Disease.  The class leader, Molly is like a little explosion of positivity and encouragement for every person in her class.  If you know anyone with PD, please share as RSB is all over the country.  [And no, they do not actually box each other, but incorporate many of the exercises that boxers do. :) ]  Ben's parents, Mike & Carol, are not too far away in Mattoon, IL, and they love to come up to see their grandkids in their various activities fairly often.  In Carol's family, we have had the bittersweet experience in recent months of losing her wonderful older brother, Uncle Ron Bundy and shortly thereafter, his lovely bride, Aunt Marlene.  They lived vibrant, joy-filled, godly lives in southern California and were a bright shining testimony for Christ for so many decades.  Soon after that, Carol's brother-in-law, our Uncle Ed Seiford, passed away at the age of 93.  He too was a faithful follower of Jesus.  He and Aunt Helen narrowly missed celebrating 70 years of marriage, but we're all thankful that He is now with Jesus.  We're grateful to God for these stalwart examples of living for Him in our heritage.  He gets the glory for that.

 

So what will 2019 hold?  God knows.  We will not despair.  Indeed.  There is nothing new under the sun.  We will trust our Father.  And because He is who He says He is, this is an incredible time to be alive.  If not for Him, all would be lost, friends, because He has authored the only eternal salvation that exists.  If you haven't yet, I hope you will place your hope and trust in Him today.  As I (Susan) see the months ahead at this moment, I am bent toward seeing the sadness in our year of having our firstborn move away in August, if that's how God leads. But I see a wholelotta happiness, too, in the events and happenings around that.  Such a dichotomy.  Joy that he's ready to go, sorrow that he won't be around as much.  Ah well.  An adventure on the horizon that God will paint with his own hand.  Glory.  We don't deserve it.  We have much love in our hearts for our many friends and family from many places and times in our lives.  Blessings poured out on you in this grand new year.

~Susan, for Ben, Whitton, Sylvia, Maren, Ezekiel... and Carlos :)
ps - here are a few more pics, since i didn't put enough within the letter.
 

This is one of my favorite photos of the year for me.  Like photographically... but also the people.  :D

Must make a note here!  This is my cousin, Jill, on the right and on the left is Susan, Jill's biological sister and my bio cousin who we just recently came to know!  It's very exciting and a little surreal!  

This was in Indiana at Jill's house on the day we celebrated Jill & Scott's daughter, Dusty's, adoption being finalized!  Praise God that FINALLY this beautiful family of five is now all legally knit together!!!