Year-end letter

Consider this our year-end letter to you - with greetings from our house to yours for a prosperous and healthy new year.

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What a year this has been!

January 2017 found us safe and snug in a little apartment where we had parked to enjoy a whole year in one place - that place being just north of Flint, Michigan.

After traveling for four years, I had been missing Michigan winters.  Yah, crazy; I know. So we came off the road - at least for awhile.  We had chosen the location because it was somewhere between our moms and a couple of our daughters and sure enough, it was convenient for those reasons.  Plus with the proximity to the universities in Flint, an old dream to welcome and serve International students had been awakened within us and we had begun to connect with some of them.

A few days into 2017, Bob started saying that he might be ready for some projects again and started talking about buying a fixer-upper house.  So we began house-shopping and quickly narrowed our search area to be near the universities. 

It wasn’t long before we found a place that is just right - located between Kettering University and UM-Flint and with enough space to host events and even overnight guests - AND with enough “projects” to keep Bob the Builder busy for the foreseeable future.  We made an offer in February, closed in March, moved into the house in April and by fall we were able to host several different events - for neighbors as well as for International students.

We really love our new neighborhood and our new city.  The move has brought so many happy surprises for which we are grateful.  The area is rich with culture and diversity and so many wonderful people. During our life on the road, there had been very little opportunity for community and I can admit that it got a little lonely, so I totally love the abundant opportunity for community and connections that we have now.

So here we are.  Bob has his projects. He moves steadily along, starting and completing one after another. I am working my way through my own set of projects and am loving the range of options and opportunities.

We often hear ourselves commenting about how much we love our life and this place.  We are grateful indeed for this new adventure of the past year and can’t help but wonder what the coming year will bring.  By this age we are well aware that there are any number of things that could mess things up so we plan to appreciate and enjoy every moment we have in this chapter.