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For the first time in our 22 years of married life, I am writing some of the Christmas letter. So the first thing I did when I started this was ask Fran what to write.
She is always good coming up with a theme for these letters. She asked us to write about how we saw healing in 2010. Most of the first decade of the twenty first century has been rough for our family. Some might say a period of growth. In the last two years, the six of us have been working hard to heal the hurts within our family and without.
My biggest area of healing this year has been in relationships. Those that know me well understand this is one of my biggest struggles. I will often say. "I just don’t like people". It's hard to live a meaningful live among people whom I don’t like. As I have passed the mid-point of the 40’s this year, I am starting to value the importance of meaningful relationships. I guess I am starting to grow up.
My employment with ACS (Xerox’s purchase of our company closed this year) has helped me understand a segment of the population with whom I would not normally associate.
Unfortunately, business is good for our group that facilitates public assistance in Indiana. With almost a third of state on Food Stamps and more applications coming in all the time, I have plenty of training to design. Getting to know our clients and many of my fellow workers has healed some of my ignorance of this cohort.
In writing “Daddy, Come & Get Me: a father’s memoir of an international adoption”, I continue to face and heal the past. To move the book from the writing phase to the publication phase, I attended a writing conference in September. The result of the conference has been a major re-write of the book.
I am wrapping up the re-write now and will deliver the manuscript to an editor after the first of the new year. My target for publication is 18 May 2011—the ninth anniversary of Gemma’s GotCha day.
Initial publication will be via the Kindle, and other eBook formats. See DaddyComeAndGetMe.com for more information and to read a preview of the book.
As the eldest son of the eminent Doctor of Motors for the greater East-Central Indiana area, you would think I’d at least be an apprentice of autos—such is not the case.
There was a day in my parent’s driveway when Dad was trying to show me something on a car. In my teenage wisdom, I yelled that I never wanted to learn anymore about cars. I assured him that I would pay someone to work on my cars.
To heal the err of my ways after almost 30 years, I have been learning how to do maintenance on our cars and teaching the girls. Whenever I start a new car project, I call Dad to ask for advice. He takes great joy of reminding me of that day in his driveway.
Two celebrations this year provided opportunities for me to heal relationships with my Chicago family. Celia and Gemma accompanied me to my Uncle Bill’s retirement party.
A few weeks later, my parents, Anna, and I attended my cousin Steven’s wedding. It was great to see everyone and for my girls to meet their cousins.
That's all I got for this letter.
Another year complete, another year of lessons learned, another year to learn how to live a life worthy of my calling. God bless!