Family Newsletter

I was going to wait a month before I posted my next post, but here is what the Family Newsletter, that I send out every Christmas to family and friends, will look like.

Dear Family,
It's time for another edition of the East Coast Young's Family Newsletter/ Christmas Letter! If I said, "Cue drum roll, please," I would be a cliche writer. So, I won't do that.
This year caused some unusual turns in our lives here in Virginia. Not only did Virginia elect Obama (it hasn't been a blue state in a Presidential election for decades), but the personal upheavals in our lives, the travels we took, and the beginnings we started are monumental in physical and spiritual aspects. I'm going to parrot what I did last year, since I am the family scribe, and do individual paragraphs for each person in the family.
Dale:
Dad is still working with ICEE, and loves it! When Mark and I were little, Dad would take us to the local 7-11 to buy us Slurpees. Now, he fixes the Slurpee machines we used to drink from every summer and warm day in winter. Dad has had trouble having a good night's sleep for years, and finally, on Mother's Day, in a crowded Carrabbas ' Italian Grill, Mom and I diagnosed him with sleep apnea. He made an appointment, and the second opinion (the doctor's) mirrored our diagnosis. He bought a Select Comfort bed that the whole family can feel vibrating late in the evening, and wears a CPAP to help him sleep. On Thanksgiving Day, he expressed his overwhelming gratitude that now he is getting the best sleep he has ever had. We notice a change in him, too. He's more energetic, laid back, and happy. He is the anchor of our family. We come to him with questions about spiritual things, natural circumstances, and advice on everyday things.
Dee:
Mom has the gift of business, and has started several businesses this year that are just aching to grow. It nevers ceases to amaze me how easily she makes people feel at ease, makes contacts with business people around the nation, and can put her mind to something and watch it unfold. She's building an e-business, and people are calling in for information daily. She's building a mortgage business that she's mentoring me in, and she takes care of this family with patience, love, and animation. Mark and I enjoy going out with her because she is so vivacious and entertaining, and has an infectious giggle. Mom has helped out with church fundraisers, and sings and plays flute at Sunday morning and evening services. She's wonderful to sing harmony with because she has such a good ear.
Mark:
Mark is in his second year of study at Old Dominion University. He finally pinned down his major to Business Administration, and some of the classes he's taking are things I never would have dreamed of taking because they are out of my league. He's doing well in his grades, his professors find him a dream to teach, and the college girls think he's so cute (high school squeal). Mark and I travelled to Indiana for Youth Convention in July. He received a touch that started a change in a long line of changes in his life. In August, Mark and I took a road trip from Virginia to Antigo, WI with a bunch of friends for a youth camp. There, Mark made a committment to love the Lord in a deeper and greater way. Mark is charismatic and chill, and people are drawn to him. Everywhere he goes, all he has to do is turn on the mischievous smile and charm, and he has new friends. He still plays bass guitar at church, and has become the backbone of the church band. When the founder of Christ Gospel Church came to visit in early November, she told him that he had a special annointing on his life. Mark has expressed to us that he is so grateful that she told him that, because it is a wake-up call to keep him going on in his spiritual journey. Mark remains my favorite person in the world, and we hang out regularly -- movies, lunch at Chick-fil-a or the sushi buffet, or just driving around for errands.
Lauren:
For me, this year has been one of the most blessed but hardest years of my life. I 've struggled with many feelings and emotions that have cropped up in each situation I was put into. Now, after months of being unemployed and being stripped down spiritually to bare bones, I am a manager of a small mortgage company, and I love my job. I started the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Spalding University in Louisville in May 2008. I get to have a vacation from home and work 10 days each semester. I survived my first semester, and learned some great critical writing lessons and revisions for poetry. Dad and Mom have become dearer to me as I began to see that the Lord was forcing me to focus and evaluate my relationship with Him. I love Mark more because of the love he showed me when I reached a breaking point. I know I'm supposed to tell you all of the things that happened this year, but I am so grateful that Jesus saved me and set me on the right path when I had wandered off drunk on the cares of this world and my eyes turned toward things that could not satisfy me.

I hope this letter/ update finds all of you well and happy in every way. We all continue to keep you in our prayers, and look forward to the day when we can see you and get to know you more. We love and cherish you. We all wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May the LORD bless you like He has blessed us! May His face shine up on you and bring you peace.

With all our love,
Dale, Dee, Lauren, Mark, and Smudge