Our 2008 Holiday Letter

What an amazing journey our family has been on this year! It has been a real blessing to know that we have family and friends that are always there for each other when you need them, and that God is ALWAYS in control if you just place your life in his caring hands.From the beginning 2008 proved to be challenging and at times a little overwhelming. Dan was faced in March with learning that the remaining hearing he had was beginning to fail and that he could lose all of it suddenly or gradually over a period of a few years. Luckily, living in this area, we were referred to John’s Hopkins and were able to meet with some of the best doctors for cochlear implant surgery. A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. The cochlear implant is often referred to as a bionic ear. Unlike hearing aids, the cochlear implant does not amplify sound, but works by directly stimulating any functioning auditory nerves inside the cochlea with electric impulses. Needless to say this has been a journey for all our family and friends. Dan completed the surgical part in early October and for the next 5 weeks was completely deaf while healing. On November 12 he was activated. We now live with “RoboDan”! Everyday is an exciting adventure as he adjusts to his new way of hearing. But he is doing wonderfully and is glad her has it. (Check out his blog: http://danscochlear.blogspot.com/ ).After many nervous weeks we were able to finally move into our newly built home in July, which has allowed for much more space for everyone, and a great place for all of our family and friends to enjoy time together. For awhile we thought we might not actually get to move when the townhouse sale fell through at the last minute and pushed the closing date on the new house back over a month. But by Gods grace it all worked out. Logan (Tammie’s nephew) and TJ (Niece's boyfriend) as well as many others helped with the moving process. Robyn (Tammie’s sister from California) was also able to help organizing the whole kitchen as well as other rooms. Tammie’s parents, although not here on moving day were extremely helpful in the decorating process as well as the walk through before closing. We are now settled and enjoying all the visitors that have been over.

Danielle has now entered her last year of Middle School and became a teenager. At the end of her 7th grade year, after 10 years of waiting and watching others, she built a card board boat (one of her Science projects at school) for the annual boat races in the campus pool. She did well and finished the race– we were all thankful she didn’t sink like many others did! She has one more chance to perfect it this year before moving on to high school. Danielle also enjoyed her Baptism with Megan (cousin) at Sligo SDA church in September. Although she had been baptized years before at New Hope SDA Church, she decided to re-affirm her relationship with God. It proved to be a wonderful experience for both girls, and it was a very exciting day for the whole family, as Uncle Rob and Aunt Aimee welcomed their new baby Caleb that very same morning!As always, Danielle has been very active with sports and activities this year through school. She played Lacrosse goalie in the spring, Volleyball in the fall and as we enter the winter season she is on the basketball team. She also enjoys her school service learning group whose focus is breast cancer awareness. Now we are looking forward to the remainder of her year and holding on to each experience as she wraps up this phase of her life.There were many other wonderful things to celebrate during the course of 2008. Tammie’s niece, Kelsey Trifone, graduated from High School and began college at West Virginia University. Charlotte and Bob (Dan’s parents) celebrated their 50th Anniversary in August . As mentioned above, we welcomed baby Caleb Conway in September. Friends Ron & Gina Turner also welcomed a new baby Isabelle Turner. We are looking forward to Christmas with family and friends, and a year end celebration for Tammie as she turns the big “40” on New Year’s Eve.As you can see this year has been especially eventful. We enter this Holiday season grateful for all that God has done for us we continue to live knowing that each day will draw us closer to our wonderful Father in Heaven where we will be reunited and rejoice in his goodness.