Our Christmas Newsletter

Christmas 2007

Dear Ones,
We have a lot to praise the Lord for this year. We decided to tell about each family member in their favorite color!

VJ, at 18 months, is our precious little mischief maker! After 4 months of physical therapy to loosen up tight heel cords and strengthen trunk muscles, he is now walking, running, dancing, climbing and making up for lost time! It’s been hard keeping everything toddler proof! Some of his favorite activities are: looking in the garbage, opening the dishwasher and pulling out dirty dishes, pushing buttons on the computer and/or printer, walking around the table with his hands reaching for anything, pulling items out of the fridge door whenever someone opens it, and sneaking into Noah’s room to play. He loves swinging, popsicles, baths, snuggling, exploring, and playing with Katy and Noah. His favorite word is “Dada”. He is making lots of sounds, but not many words, so we have started teaching him sign language using “Signing Times” DVD, to keep his frustration down. So far, he signs “milk”, “more”, and “sleepy”. Thursday mornings he goes to pre-school at a local Baptist church. It’s amazing how much we can get done, at home, during that time! Next year he’ll go twice a week. J We love VJ.

Noah is our 7yo Jedi Knight! He continues to love all things Star Wars and is serious about training VJ to be a Jedi. (VJ seems to enjoy the light saber lessons.) Noah can also hum the Star Wars music with out missing a beat! Noah tested out of Speech Therapy this year and has decided to take Karate to aide in his Jedi training. He has worked hard and now has an orange belt with a black stripe. When he is not doing his first grade school work or listening to me read a Magic Tree House book, he loves to play outside. We often hear him asking Katy, “Do you want to play pirates or pilgrims?” or “Do you want to play cowboys or Ingalls?” Since their interests are so different, he has to bargain with Katy, “I’ll square dance with you if you wrestle with me!” Noah usually has either a gun and holster or a light saber hanging from his waist. After purchasing him two new pairs of sweat pants, he informed me he can only wear pants with belt loops! He needs something to hang his weapons from! In August Noah had a Pirate birthday party, and in October he dressed as Mace Windu for our fall festival. Noah is full of action!

Katy, at 9, is still our little lady. She loves the dresses, music, books, and movies of the pilgrims, colonial times, and pioneers. She had an “Annie Oakley” birthday party in November. She dressed up in a buckskin dress with cowboy hat, and, of course, a gun. She was thrilled to receive a colonial style dress and mop cap for herself and her doll. Katy is an avid reader and her current favorites are the “All of a Kind Family” series and even a few of the Junie B. Jones series. Katy is in her 3rd year of ballet and has just started taking guitar this year. She is quickly progressing and loves to play western songs, hymns, and Christmas music. Katy also enjoys watching VJ. She has already read “The Babysitter’s Handbook” and often tries to give mom pointers! Katy is doing well with her school work this year but has needed Dad to help with all the new math concepts (fractions, decimals, and negative numbers). Her favorite subject has been the nature study and bird unit in her “Wonders of God’s World” science book.

Chris continues to stay busy at home. Home schooling both Katy and Noah with a toddler running around has been challenging! She thinks about returning to nursing, but for now she is too busy at home! Chris’ brother, Tyrone, and his wife of one year, Stephanie, are joining the African Mercy, a hospital ship in January, for at least one year. Tyrone will be Chief Chef and Stephanie will be working in the ICU. We look forward to spending time with them at Christmas before they head for West Africa. Chris also occasionally posts on our new family blog. Check it out at http://ahmedfamilyblog.blogspot.com. We try to post pictures of the kids frequently.

Raf has had a busy year at work as a designer for the liquid hydrogen fuel tank on NASA’s new manned launch vehicle, the Ares I. It has taken him quite some effort to coordinate the activities of folks in all sorts of disciplines, including materials, stress analysis, thermal analysis, manufacturing, testing, safety, avionics, propulsion, and designers of other components of the vehicle (such as the instrument unit near the top of the vehicle and the bulkhead that keeps the hydrogen and oxygen from mixing before they’re supposed to)! Raf has also been busy at home on his days off helping the kids with schoolwork and doing yard work. He really enjoyed the vacation we took at the beach in Gulf Shores, AL in September!

We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy New Year! This verse from the Scriptures has meant a lot to us:

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39

May the Lord richly bless all of you in this coming year!

Love,

Raf, Chris, Katy, Noah, and VJ Ahmed