Merry
Christmas 2017
Merry Christmas from Colorado, where it
looks like its actually going to be a white Christmas this year! This was our first full year out here and it
was a great year for our family. It was also a year full of growth, learning,
dedication, and some firsts. This year we established new traditions, and
continued some old ones. It is such a gift to think and look back on our year
and see all that the Lord has done in our lives. He continues to show his faithfulness through
out our lives in so many amazing ways.
This has been our first full year as a
home-schooling family and it has been such a blessing. Julie is an amazing teacher and I know being
able to teach our kiddos this year has been rough at some points, but has also
brought her much joy. She enjoys being able to get creative with her teaching,
and loves being able to teach to the kid’s different learning styles, and needs,
while still providing them the time to just be kids and enjoy the wonder and
discovery in God’s creation. The kids
have been able to have so many great experiences through field trips, and extra
curricular activities through homeschool.
We have also been blessed with the opportunity to have equestrian P.E.
this school year! This has been a highlight for all the kids! We surprised the
kids with their first school-focused vacation this year! We took them to South
Dakota! They got to learn about and experience Badlands National Park, Mt.
Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Custer State Park. It was an incredible trip of much
learning! This is one of the many advantages of homeschooling. So far this
homeschool journey has been a good fit for us. Most importantly, Julie loves
that she can speak truth into the kiddos life all day long, and point them to
Gods word. She definitely has her plate full when it comes to teaching. With
four kids in four different grades, teaching can be tricky, but Julie looks to
the Lord for her strength and lets Him lead.
Julie was also given the opportunity to
attend a women’s retreat this past year, and is now really feeling like She has
a community around her. When we moved
out here, Julie left some amazing friends, which has been hard for her. God knows what we need and He has provided
some great women in Julie’s life that walk along side her and lift her up.
Joshua Wayne is officially in middle
school (crazy!) this year and is turning into a mature, godly young man. Joshua’s
highlight each week is attending youth group! He also enjoys playing the guitar
and he continues to excel in sports. He
returned back to Little League this year and made it to the all-star team,
which was a huge blessing for him!
Another area he did great in this year was in 4-H. We look at 4-H as an extension of the kid’s homeschool;
it is a very educational program that also teaches great character development.
Joshua truly enjoys all that he is learning in 4H. This past year he raised and
showed his Boer goat “Grace” at the county fair. He made it to champion drive
in the market category and Grand Champion in showmanship, which then allowed
him to move onto the Round Robin category where he got to show other animals
including a horse, a steer, pig, and a few others. This was a great learning experience for him
and he got second place. He also won second place in archery with a compound
bow and made it to the El Paso County team and competed at the state fair.
Janna Rose had an exciting year as
well. She is in the fourth grade and has
really started to show a joy for learning across all subjects! Back in August,
Janna publically professed her faith and chose to be baptized at our church!
This was a huge step in Janna’s faith walk, one that she did not take lightly
as she had been giving much thought to this decision for a couple of years.
There is nothing that can make Julie and I more proud than know that our
children have decided, on their own, to follow Christ and live their life for
Him! This past year Janna also really
found a love for Softball. She had a great coach who first invested in building
the girls character, sportsmanship, and then skill into the girls and because
of this, Janna became a better all around player. She also learned a lot in
4-H. Janna won Champion for Cake Decorating,
her Quilting Project and in the Fashion review, and first place for her
Clothing Construction project. Janna
continues to love to sing and play the piano. She was blessed with the
opportunity to close her Christmas Piano recital by playing silent night with
the audience accompanying her by singing.
Jadyn Elizabeth has grown up so much this
year. She will always be my “tiny” one,
but she is changing so much! Now in the
second grade, Jadyn loves to read and do math (she doesn’t get that from me!). She
also loves to be creative, and says she wants to be an artist when she grows
up. Jadyn loves to be social and meet new people, she has enjoyed making new
friends both at church and through the homeschool program. Jadyn also played sports this year. With her being two grades below Janna, she
was supposed to play with younger girls but we decided to play her up and she
did great! Being the youngest and
smallest one on the team did not stop her from going out there, playing with
all her heart, and do amazing! She has learned so much from her older siblings
and wants to do everything just like them, including 4-H. Jadyn was too young to participate this year,
but is now old enough to. She is real
excited to get started on her projects, including goats, which I know she will
do great in! Jadyn also continues to play piano, and she is beginning to enjoy
it more as she advances! She currently loves to play worship songs on the
piano. The greatest news about Jadyn this year is that she made the decision to
follow Jesus all the days of her life, and committed to serving and loving Him!
Jeremiah Ray, mommy’s “lil lad” is not so
little anymore. He is now in kindergarten
and loves to read, and discover new things and ideas. He has
also been enjoying sports this year and cant wait to play flag football now
that he’s old enough. Jeremiah joined
his sisters in piano this year and he too enjoys it! They just had their winter
recital and Jeremiah went up with confidence and played like a big boy. It is such a joy to watch him grow into a
little man and navigate his way through different emotions as a six year
old. Like his older siblings, he loves
to play outside on the farm. He enjoys riding his bike, climbing trees,
treasure hunting and lending a hand building a fort the four of them have been
putting together. Jeremiah is too young for 4H, but him and Jadyn were given
the opportunity to show Joshua’s goat in the peewee division at the county
fair! Jeremiah very much looks up to his big brother, and he loves to learn
from him. This was the first year that Jeremiah
experienced being a “big brother” himself, he took this job seriously and he was
amazing!
In March of this past year our family
started a journey of fostering kiddos that had been on all of our hearts for
many years. We felt that God was calling our family to love on little ones that
needed a place to feel safe and loved. We knew this was a big step of faith, and
that we couldn’t have done it on our own. Through our church we have been
blessed with an amazing community and support system around us to walk through
this with us. We were honored to be given the opportunity to love on two
different sets of siblings as our own this year. As you can see we included
them all on our Christmas card, as they were a huge part of our family and our
life! We were first placed with a sibling group of three little ones 2.5, 1.5,
and 9 months old! They were apart of our family for two months. That time was
both challenging and rewarding, but honestly it was transforming for us as we
saw Gods strength shine through when we as parents didn’t have any more
strength. Also, we saw God work in our kiddos lives, as they loved these little
ones so well! It is such a gift to see our kiddos desire and enjoy serving the
Lord by showing His love. Next, we were
given the opportunity to care for two brothers 2, and 4 years old. They were
part of our family for 6 months! They fit right in, enjoyed life and were such
a blessing and a joy to have. Our kiddos had such a loving bond with all the
kiddos who joined our family. All of these sweet kiddos went back to their family,
which was sad for us, but we also know that God has a plan for them and we were
blessed to be a part of it and to be able to show His love to each and every one
of them. Our lives are forever changed by their lives. We don’t currently have
any additional kiddos in our family, but we are ready and willing when there is
a need. The Lord knows what’s to come.
A few years ago Julie and I had planned to
go to Kauai for our anniversary. The trip was put on hold due to my back
injury, but this year we were able to reschedule to trip, and not only that but
our close friends Melissa and Shaheen were able to join us as they also
celebrated their anniversary. We had the
most wonderful time! It was truly an amazing trip, filled with some rest, but
mostly great adventure and discovery full of new experiences, much laughter and
a lot of fun! Sometimes I look back on that time and can’t even believe it
happened; it was sort of like a dream! While we were enjoying the island the
kids were enjoying being at the Ranch camp with Julie’s Mom. It was truly an
incredible week for all of us, and we feel blessed to have had the opportunity.
We LOVE having houseguests and we were
incredibly blessed to have so many this year! Some of our most favorite
memories from our year were just living life with family and friends that we
love here on our farm. Some of the
highlights included; a couple quick visits from two of Julie’s uncles, hiking
through Castlewood Canyon state park with Julie’s Dad, Memorial Day weekend
with my Grandma, porch conversations with our friend Benny, introducing our
animals to Benny’s little girls, bike riding, game playing, and wagon riding
with the Jahangards, card playing, quad riding, and playing with the animals with
Julie’s Grandma, and painting, baking, hamocking and bike riding with Julie’s
Mom. At one point this year we had 3 families -6 adults and 15 kiddos sleeping
under our roof! These moments of “living
life together” were filled with much joy and laughter and they were truly a
gift that we cherished!
I
have continued to enjoy my job, home projects, our family time, and time out
doors. This year I was given the
opportunity to lead and re-launch the youth ministry at church. Julie serves
along side me, and we both very much enjoy ministering and investing in the
lives of the youth at our church! It is such a blessing! I have also had the honor of filling the
pulpit twice this year for our pastor.
It was a blessing and honor to be asked to share what God has been
putting on my heart. The first time I
preached on community and this past Sunday I preached on the importance of
margin. One of the reasons I focused on this
was making sure we have time to work on our relationship with Jesus. With this being the season of Advent, we need
to take some time and remember what we are celebrating. We can easily overwhelm ourselves with things
that we think we “need” to do, and lose focus on what we really need to
do. There are plenty of important things
in our life, but none as important as your relationship with Jesus. Take some time and have a conversation with
him!
We
pray that God would bless you and reveal himself to you in new ways this
Christmas Season and upcoming year!
Have
a Merry Christmas!
Love,
The Taflinger’ s
Joshua,
Julie, Joshua Wayne (11), Janna Rose (9), Jadyn Elizabeth (8), and Jeremiah Ray
(6)
