Dear Family and Friends, 12/13/14
I always try to think of a creative way to
start the letter, but creativity doesn’t seem to be flowing yet so I’ll just
jump right in to the letter. I’ve told
my kids, “make sure that the letter is worth the stamp,” and you and I will
both be getting my money’s worth out of each stamp! As always, the past year was busy; I’ll run
through the months and then the individuals.
If you only want to skim it, or even scan down to the person that
interests you, you are welcome.
January: The year started with the death of my Grandma Tate; I’m so thankful that we had just been able to see her. Dad and I made the trip to NC for her funeral (mom was already there) and also brought back her dog Oscar as a new addition to our family. Carol turned 38 and Kara turned 6 on the 10th.
February: Joel
turned 14 on the 9th. The
month had an excessive amount of snow, it was mostly a month of survival!
March:
During the kid’s Spring
Break, we went to Chicago, then Belvidere to see Grandpa and Grandma
Bumgardner, then to MO to have our taxes prepared; also attended the AIBCI
Men’s retreat in Colchester, IL with Rand Hummel (I was privileged to be the
pianist – very little is more musically satisfying than accompanying 100+ men singing
together).
April: My sister and her family spent a week with us; it was a
special blessing to see them following Matt’s accident just before Christmas
last year. Carol, Laura, and my sister –
Naomi, attended the AIBCI Ladies’ retreat in Danville, IL.
May: We began the month in
Arkansas/Louisiana; my graduation from Louisiana Baptist University was coupled
with a week of family vacation at a cabin in Arkansas – my thanks to them for
their patience while I studied. I was a
chaperone for Grant’s class trip to the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. Laura turned 13 on the 6th. Carol and I celebrated 15 years of marriage
on the 8th. My parents
celebrated 40 years of marriage; my siblings and I spent an evening at a
restaurant with our spouses and my parents just reminiscing and thanking the
Lord – a very precious time. My youngest
brother, Michael got married – the next marriage in the Deatrick Family will
likely be one of my kids! Baseball
season started and somewhere we found time to march in the Memorial Day parade
again.
June: Gardner turned 4 on the 15th.
Carol’s brother and family stopped through for a visit from NC. We had two nights of baseball every week (I
coached the boy’s team). Joel and Laura
spent a week at Grandpa and Grandma Bumgardner’s house, then went to Camp Joy
in WI. Joel went to MO to spend the
summer working for my brother, Stephen.
Laura completed a “safe-sitters” course through the Gibson Area
Hospital. We had a Special Sunday at
church with 10 first-time visitors.
July: John turned 9 on the 7th; he
spent several days with Grandpa and Grandma Bumgardner at the end of the month. We spent a week in MO where the kids attend
VBS at the church that my dad pastors; I worked a couple of days with my
brother, Stephen building a garage. I
turned 38 on the 23rd. Grant
and John both made the league All Star team and I coached several of those
games. We hosted a cookout for our
entire baseball team – we met a bunch of great kids and families in the
community! We ended the month at Camp
Joy; it was an anonymous gift to our family!
August: After
Family Camp, Grant stayed with Grandpa and Grandma Bumgardner for a few
days. School started again for the
kids. We froze 187 lbs. of sweet corn.
September:
We had a Labor Day cookout
with our church people. Grant turned 11
on the 10th. We found out
that baby #8 will be another boy!
October: Josiah
turned 8 on the 30th. My
brother, Stephen, and his family visited with us and gave us 250 lbs of apples
from their little orchard (we made 66 quarts of apple sauce). I went to Springfield as a chaperone with
John’s class. The ladies of the church
gave Carol a baby shower. My brother,
Nathan and his wife stopped through to visit.
My former professor, Dr. Childs, spent 4 days preaching and encouraging
our church. Carol began a 3 month series
of ladies’ meetings at the church.
November: We got a couple of deer from my family in
MO, all of which we turned into sausage.
We spent Thanksgiving with my Aunt, Uncle, and Grandma in MO.
December: My brother, Michael and his wife were just
here for a day and night (Daniel’s family is the only one who hasn’t been here
this year). We are in the midst of a
major family move; anticipating the arrival of the next baby we are putting the
boys in the largest room in the house and then putting another bathroom in
upstairs. Carol’s parents will be here
on the 22nd and my parent’s will be here on the 25th. The end of the year seems to be quickly upon
us!
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Joel
– is a freshmen in high
school; he will be taking driver’s education during the spring semester. He is 6’ tall (when I checked two weeks
ago). He has a stable demeanor and is
not easily flustered (believe it or not, I’m not too nervous about him driving). He knows his way around the garage and my
tools quite well and I can usually delegate many of the maintenance issues of
the house to him. He is on the
scholastic bowl team at school and has practice 3-4 days a week; he loves the
academic challenge. He is the “go-to”
math expert for all of the other kids, and far surpasses my mathematical
understanding. He is also planning to
participate in the high school math club as well as baseball this coming spring. His literature selections have broadened this
year into some of the different sciences.
He continues to progress musically and is one of our regular church
pianists. We are daily reminded that his
time in our home in limited. A few
months ago he told me, “Dad, you could be a great-grandpa in less than 30
years!” I replied, “that means that you
could be a grandpa in less than 30 years!”
Time hastens on . . .
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Laura
– is in her final year of
junior high. I characterize her as a
diligent student; sometimes I tell her that she has studied enough and that she
needs to do some other things (like dishes).
She also has a very stable demeanor; she is a quick, logical thinker and
is competent at about anything that she does.
She and Joel are very close as siblings and she really missed him when
he was gone this summer. She has
aspirations of being a teacher and seems to be well gifted for such a
life. Her musical abilities have
increased too; she plays the second piano every Wednesday evening and on an
occasional Sunday service. She and I
have sang a few duets in church, I learned that she has a pretty nice alto
voice. We know that she will be an
indispensable help to us once the baby is born in January.
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Grant
– is in his final year of
elementary school. He plays the trumpet
in band – exceptionally, in my semi-educated opinion; I anticipate that he will
be playing the trumpet for our church services by the end of the school
year. He is a very good student and a
better socialite. I don’t think there is
anyone at the school that he doesn’t know – and probably like. As such a social creature, we ran into a
problem this summer at baseball games. When
Grant was pitching, nearly every kid to whom he pitched was his friend from
school. He loved seeing all of his old
friends, even if they were on the other team; it got to the point one day that
I went out to the mound (as the coach) and told him, “If you wave and smile at
one more batter that you are supposed to be trying to get out, I’m going to
take you out of the game!” However, it
is a character trait for which I’m very thankful, except on the ball
field.
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John
– is the same high energy
person that he has been since he was a baby.
Sometimes we encourage him to be a bit more sedate, but we also
recognize that is his personality. He
does well in school, but we have to prime him for information from class other
than P.E. or recess (although he does love math and numbers). 2014 was his first year playing baseball on a
team; his demeanor was often on dramatic display – his intensity level made
losing very bitter and winning very sweet.
He played catcher quite often, though it was a bit strange because he is
left handed. John seldom walks or eats
or talks slowly, thankfully, he loves books and will often sit on the couch to
read for a while. He loves music and
singing and I can usually pick out his voice during the congregational singing
at church.
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Josiah
– has come out of his
shell a bit more, yet he is still quite serious. He thinks deeply about serious subjects, yet
he still participates in lighter things with the other kids. He is organized and prompt, yet he shares a
room with several brothers who don’t have those characteristics to the same
degree – sometimes it causes conflict.
He will move to a new school next year, but he is rather independent and
so is up for the challenge. His reading
has progressed markedly this year; for a while he didn’t seem to have the same
desire as the other kids, but he is right along with the rest of them now. He will start baseball next summer and will
likely do very well (the kids have played so much in the yard that it is almost
second nature to catch and throw); I think I will probably be coaching his team
this coming year.
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Kara – is my little sweet heart. She loves to give us hugs and we are very
thankful for her constant affirmations of love.
She is also a good student and loves school. The beginning of the year was a bit hard for
her; she had to get glasses and since she had a lazy eye she had to wear a
patch for a couple of months. Though she
is only 6, she is very stately in her deportment – it makes me wonder what she
will be like as a lady. Kara has been
asking me a lot of questions regarding faith – every day, I pray for her
understanding and that God would give us wisdom to be able to answer her
simply.
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Gardner
– the opportunity came for
us to start Gardner in pre-school and we decided to go ahead and do it. He attends the same school as Josiah and Kara,
but he gets out at 11, so we still have his individual company for part of the
day. He loves school and has been
learning many things in preparation for kindergarten next year. Gardner loves Oscar, and often falls asleep on the couch or loveseat using him as
a pillow; Oscar doesn’t seem to mind
and I’m presuming even likes it. Gardner
is sorting out his feelings about having another baby in the house – he has
been the youngest for more than 4 years and realizes that things are going to
change. Life is sometimes confusing to
him, he found a picture from several years ago in which Carol was expecting
Kara and holding little Josiah in her arms; Gardner asked “where was I in this
picture?” I told him, “you
weren’t.” He couldn’t imagine not being.
It is amazing to me how understanding
grows – in a couple of years, this concept will be “old hat” for him, but right
now it troubles him.
We are so
thankful for our children. Our parental
theme this year has been: “parent with grace.”
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Oscar - has been with us for almost a year
now. I wonder sometimes how much dogs
remember and if he is wistful for my Grandparents. He has adapted well – especially considering
that he is now in a house with much activity.
He loves the kids – when we leave to take them to school, he is almost
always laying on the loveseat with his head on his paws watching a bit
dejectedly – he sleeps on the love seat all morning, then gets up excitedly to
meet Gardner when he comes home at 11.
After lunch, he takes a nap with Gardner or on the loveseat, and then is
super hyper when the other kids come home at 3.
He almost always meets me at the door because he gets a milk bone every time
I come in the house. We were concerned
with the frequency and severity of his seizures; but the doctor said that it is
likely congenital and to just try to make him comfortable. He has medicine twice a day (if we can find
some way to disguise it) and though the seizures haven’t stopped, they are less
severe and less frequent. He has been a
beneficial addition to our home.
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Carol
– is regularly focused on
the rest of us – very selflessly. I
believe it is true that “the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” I look forward to seeing the results of her
faithfulness, her prayers, and her instruction in the years to come as our
children become adults. As a wife, she
is more than I ever imagined as a 22 year old; God’s grace to me is very
evident through her. She undertook to
memorize the epistle to Titus this year – as a pastor’s wife, she believed it
would help her grow as a part of the pastor’s home. This pregnancy has been a bit more trying as
she is almost 5 years older than she was with the last one, yet there is always
glad anticipation of that new life. We’ve
decided to name him, Gilead – the place of healing balm.
Levi, I finished my doctorate, but quite
candidly – it is about the same as passing a birthday – one day seems just like
the next. Now, I’m trying to catch up on
all of the things on my “to-do-list” that I’ve avoided for the last 7
years. I’ve learned much this year,
especially regarding faith; George Mueller has been my biographical theme (from
several authors). I’ve determined to
memorize as much Scripture as possible – ingesting the Scripture is giving the
Holy Spirit the tools to guide me. The
value of having large portions of Scripture in my mind and heart has been
incalculable. Psalm 1:2, the blessed man
. . . (is the one) . . . whose “delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His
law doth he meditate day and night.”
Love the Deatricks,
Levi, Carol, Joel, Laura, Grant, John, Josiah, Kara, Gardner,
and Oscar 305 E. Franklin St., Paxton, IL 60957 (217)781-4081 lcdeatrick@gmail.com
acaroltomyking@gmail.com Facebook: Levi-Carol Deatrick
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