The End of 2011

Tis been a long year, that's for sure!  LOTS of changes, lots of joy, and our own share of pain.

Our year actually started on October 23rd of 2010.  I had two months left in my pregnancy with Ezra...and we were moving.  We had known we would be leaving CMTS eventually...but not like that.  This is where the pain comes in ~  the intense desire to want to defend ourselves and say THEY were wrong.  But in reality...God had plans for us.  God planned a time of rest for my Joshua.  A much needed rest.  We moved into an empty apartment in the home of our friends, Claude and Sharon Morin.  Josh was also given a job putting together snowplows.  Not only that, but with the job came a pre-approved two week vacation when Ezra was born!!!!  What a Godsend!  

Josh started his job, and the girls and I learned to live together without Papa.  He would leave the house by 0645 and would come home between 5:30 and 11pm (on average it was 9 or 10 before he walked in the door during the snowfall months).  Ezra decided to take his time cooking, and was about a week and a half late.  What joy it was when he finally arrived after a short 6 hr labor.  My first Man child.  Truly love at first sight!

Josh continued working at Storks Automotive until the end of August.  We joined my parents as they set up for the Creation Festival in Pennsylvania in June.  When we came home, we knew it was about time to move on...but I would not let myself get too excited.  I was totally ready to see Josh more often, and totally ready to see what God had planned next for us...but I tried really hard not to put all my eggs in one basket (the basket of moving on). 

One night in early August, Josh came home from Storks and told me we needed to look up Christian Teen Treatment facilities or something like that.  We ended up finding several ranches we were interested in that first search.  We checked them out, and settled on LUC Boys Ranch.  We finally (after many attempts) got a hold of the Program Directors at the Boys Ranch, and Josh wowed them with his verbal resume!  I think Erik was salivating by the time he got off the phone!

Anyway...we moved to the Boys Ranch.  We left PA on Labor Day.  We drove to OH and spent a couple days with my family.  Then we dragged Mom and Dad on a road trip to see our new digs.  Dad must have been impressed!  He got to help skin a buffalo the night we arrived!  Mom started calling Dad 'Jeremiah Johnson.'

Family Christmas pic Sample #1

Family Christmas pic Sample #2

Sample #3

Yes, my table is dirty...get over it.  Ruth wiped it off, and she only wiped where we sat to eat!

We have been living at the Ranch for almost four months now.  Josh is settling in to his job...learning how to work on a ranch, and also how to deal with the guys who live here.  Most nights Josh comes home with stories...that actually remind us a whole lot of what we have been through (or are going through now) whilst raising our kiddos.  Kind of interesting if you think about it.

We switched houses at the beginning of December.  The house we moved into when we got here is big, beautiful (has 2 bathrooms), but wasn't Josh and Rebekah.  We could relax there, but didn't completely feel like it was ours, if that makes sense.  Josh, one night at work, had to go into one of the staff homes that was unoccupied to turn lights off.  The house is called The Farmhouse.

The Farmhouse is quite ghetto-looking from the outside.  Quite rundown, etc.  On the inside...oh my.  It is humongous!  Anyway, Josh started thinking that it would be the perfect place for our little family of six.  He felt cramped in the other house...most like a caged animal, actually.  There was no room for improvement on the other house.  This one has puh-lenty of room for improvement, and it has a basement where Josh can work on his woodworking projects to unwind at night.  (I should mention that a friend of mine knew about the Boys Ranch, and had been praying, since we started talking about moving here, that we would get the Farmhouse!)

Another cool thing that could be happening for Josh...is that since we have been here more than 3 months, Josh will be having a meeting with the higher-ups to see where they think he will fit best here.  From the scuttlebutt we have heard...it could be that Josh is being groomed to be the Farm Manager.  Do you know what that means?!?!?  It means he will continue doing farm chores, and child care just like he is now!  =P  It also means he will be more responsible for things that happen with the animals.

Anyway, that is it for the Larsons!  You may now go on with your New Years festivities!