New Year's Letter

I thought it would be nice to post our New Year's letter on our blog...so here it is!

Happy New Year, friends! We hope this letter finds you well and we hope you all had a special Christmas with friends and family. We celebrated our first New Year’s Eve last night in Charlotte, North Carolina…our new home. The Friday before Christmas, the girls woke up and came downstairs to find their presents under our beautifully lit, miniature palm tree. Yep, that’s right—no Christmas tree. After having a beautiful Frasier Fir in our house for a few days we realized that Avery was allergic to the tree (and I was a little too)! Then, on Saturday we drove to Richmond, VA to spend Christmas with our families. It was a special trip and a beautiful Christmas spent with the people we love.

Overall, 2007 has been quite a challenging year for our family. It was complete with saying goodbye to dear friends and neighbors in Los Angeles, buying a house in North Carolina, a cross-country move, adjusting to a new area, and Pete having difficulty transferring his teaching license from CA to NC. Most of the challenges, however, have been due to Avery’s health problems. In case you didn’t know, Avery has food allergies to eggs, cow dairy, and nuts. She has suffered from severe eczema from the time she was about 12 months old (which is right when we moved to Charlotte, NC) until just recently. She would cry most of the day and scratch her skin miserably. On top of that, she was not gaining weight and was having some digestive issues. We have taken her to several pediatricians, a naturopath physician, and an allergist. She has been showing major improvement for about a month now and is so much happier, which makes us all happy, of course (especially Kyla who hates seeing her little sister so upset)!! She still
has food allergies, but her eczema is mild and doesn’t bother her as much. She is becoming an incredibly sweet little girl with a tremendous love of learning. Many of you have been praying for her and we thankyou so much because the Lord has heard your prayers!

We love our new townhouse and neighborhood here in Charlotte! We are living close to our dear friends from college and God has blessed us with a very spirit-filled church family. We have definitely felt very encouraged and challenged in our walks with God since we started attending Carmel Baptist Church. Living just outside of Charlotte is also a breath of fresh air away from the hustle and bustle of city life. We are thankful for the quiet evenings and the beautiful sunsets we can see from our front porch. I think more than anything we are learning to be content wherever God has us for the present time.

On the flip side, however, we certainly do miss many things about life in Los Angeles. We’ve had to get used to not being able to walk anywhere (we used to walk to parks, coffee shops, grocery stores, post offices, the library, etc). We also feel the need for two vehicles here, but can only afford one, and we really miss our friends and church family in California. And we obviously miss the weather!

Since our move to Charlotte, Pete started teaching 6th graders at Porter Ridge Middle School. He was very nervous about the switch from high school, but really loves teaching 6th graders! He teaches English and Math to students with learning disabilities and children with attention and emotional challenges. He is also continuing to build his photography business (www.peterdavisphotography.com). He photographed a wedding in Charlotte in October, he has taken some children’s portraits, and we were also blessed to be flown back to Los Angeles without the kids to photograph a friend’s wedding over Thanksgiving weekend. Pete is also enjoying our detached garage where he can get some time alone and pursue his woodworking
hobby! He built a bookshelf recently and also a beautiful jewelry box for my Christmas present. I will always treasure it because it was handmade by him.

I stay home with Kyla and Avery and love living about 200 yards away from my close friend and college roommate, Megan, who stays home with her two boys. I also had the opportunity to go to Atlanta, GA in October for training to become a childbirth educator. Lord willing, I will begin teaching natural childbirth classes this month on my provisional license. In addition to teaching natural childbirth classes, the Lord has been laying it on my heart for a long time now to pursue becoming a midwife. At first, I kind of ignored the “call,” because I didn’t understand how I would study and apprentice under a midwife while staying home with two little girls. However, the Lord just recently opened up an opportunity for our family to possibly move to Davao City, Philippines for 2 years as missionaries where I would train to become a licensed midwife at New Life International School of Midwifery (www.midwifeschool.org )!

We realize that this might come as a shock to many of you, especially since we just moved 3000 miles and bought a house, but we are extremely excited about the possibility! We are currently in the final phases of the application process which includes several phone interviews. We have never felt, as a family, a call to something as strong as our call to New Life. The four years we
spent in Los Angeles have prepared us for this possible move and I do not believe we would even be considering New Life if it were not for living among so many different cultures and people in Los Angeles. We have received many confirmations through God’s Word, friends, family members, and pastors that this fits our family’s mission and the way we are shaped. We are confident that if the Lord wants us to go to the Philippines, He will open up the doors for my acceptance into the program and also provide financially for our living expenses. If those two things do not happen, then maybe he has another route for me to take to become a midwife. So, for now, we are resting in His peace, knowing He has the perfect plan for all of this. We would appreciate your prayers for us during this time of decision-making. Thank you! If you’d like to read more about this, or if you just want to keep more up to date on what’s happening with
us, check out our blog (www.davisfamily2.blogspot.com )! We try our best to keep that updated with stories and pictures.

To finish wrapping up the year, Kyla loves her new friend, Ella who is just a few months younger than her. They play together several times a week because she lives right behind us. Megan and Patrick’s little boy, Joshua and Kyla have hit it off as well and love to play together. Kyla’s favorite things to do are sculpt things from Playdough and clay, color, and play house with her baby dolls. Kyla will be turning 4 in February!

Avery is quite our little conversationalist. Just this morning I gave her a snack, and she said very clearly, “Thank you, Mommy!” She has an impressive vocabulary now and will pretty much say whatever you ask her to say. Kyla’s favorite game to play is to say, “Avery, can you say elephant?” and Avery says “Ephant.” Then Kyla says, “Avery can you say apple?” and Avery says it. This can go on for quite sometime and it’s really cute. Avery will be 18 months old in just a few more days!

We hope 2008 is a year full of adventure and joy for you and your family! Happy New Year!