Hi Everyone!

We hope you are doing well and enjoying December. Our Country has experienced pain and grief this week and I am so thankful to personally know a God who cares about us, understands every emotion that we experience, and is yearning to give us hope even when we feel how lost the world is. If any one wants to know more about God’s love for you and His hope, we would love to talk with you.

December has been a a whirlwind of events for us here. Jeff finished this quarter and is relieved to have all of his papers done. He is anxious to know how he did, but he won’t find out until mid-January. I can’t believe he only has 3 quarters left before he graduates! He is doing fabulous! We even have an answer to prayer, it seems Jeff has a practicum for the spring quarter.

I just finished my second week at my new job! I am caring for a sweet little 5 month old girl in the mornings. It took us some time to get use to each other but I am really enjoying getting to know her.

Some fun facts: she doesn’t like to be read to very much (which makes me a little sad), she is so eager to crawl and go somewhere, she seems to be starting to teeth, and she doesn’t like to be rocked in small movements but in squats. Yes, I am going to have awesome legs by this summer! I am also still working with Mr. Z, which has almost been a year now.

This past weekend we had the pleasure and delight of having the Cardells come visit us. It was a short weekend trip, but we loved getting to show them around here. We were able to spend some time with Sherry, Bette’s sister, and with some of Jeff’s cousins who live in other areas of Southern California. I think we were most excited about giving them a tour of Fuller, Reality LA, and our cute little home. It is nice to have them experience our life here as a couple. We also had fun in Santa Monica and exploring LA  and Chinatown via the Metro. Here are some fun pics from the weekend:

We have also been working on a new newsletter to go out soon. It is our “should-have-been-November-but-it-is-going-to-be-December” Newsletter. We hope to get them out on Tuesday, we if you want to get one send us an email at thecardells@gmail.com. We do have one request of those who do get the newsletter, we would love to get your feedback. We want to know what questions you have, what doesn’t make sense, what more information you want, and how we can be praying for you. The feedback is helpful to us and many people probably have the same questions that we need to answer. We live in a bubble at Fuller, where missions terms are used in everyday language, and we don’t want to assume you that we are making sense. Sometimes we have a hard enough time understanding one another, much less express that to others. Your feedback/encouragement/questions help.

This month our Reality LA community group also commissioned a dear friend, Kim, to go to Brazil for 2 years. She is going through her masters program as a missionary. We have loved getting to know Kim over the last year, and we are so excited for her and getting to see her in this experience. Here is her blog if you want to know more info about Kim or her program: http://kimberlybeth89.blogspot.com.

We will be here in California for Christmas this year. We are excited to start some traditions of our own and enjoy as special time as a family. We will miss you all in Georgia, and thinking about you!

Talk to you soon,

Lauren