Seasons Greeting Dear Family and Friends,The Fogde's decided that as we approach our 3rd Christmas as a family, we should start sending a Christmas letter. It only took us (and by us, we mean Leanna) 3 years to make it happen. A lot of changes have taken place in our family that we wanted to be able to share with those of you who may not know.
Our most significant change came in February 2010. Our precious blessing Makaela Rose was born on the 11th of February at 11:48 pm. She weighed in at 7 pounds 15.8 ounces--so the doctors just bumped her up to 8 pounds even. I thanked them for giving the appearance of having to work harder for an 8 pound baby versus a 7 pound baby. She has been a tremendous joy and blessing in our lives, and she has spoiled us rotten! Usually it's the other way around. She is preparing to celebrate her first Christmas and we are so excited to see how she will react to gifts etc. As with most babies, she will probably be more interested in the wrapping paper than the gift inside :) Our time with her is flying by, and it's hard to believe that in just 2 short months, we will be celebrating her first birthday!!
The next significant change came in Nathan being approached about a position as a Music Pastor at Christ the Rock Community Church in Port Orchard, Washington. We had served at Wayside Chapel Community Church in Rosamond, California for a little over 2 years. The Lord in His perfect sovereignty called us to minister in a different church, and as we prayed about the opportunity, the Lord continued to reveal His will to us. Just 2 very short months later, we found ourselves all packed up heading north. Every intricate detail was perfectly orchestrated by our Lord--who else could perfectly provide renters within 2 weeks, provide a home for us to rent (sight unseen), and get our house all packed up--all within 4 weeks, I might add!! Praise be to our Savior for His overflow of grace, love and provision!! It has been so wonderful to be part of this church and to see the bride of Christ functioning the way God designed.
Nathan is very thankful to serve in a church and to be employed in a role where he is doing what he loves to do. It has been his heart's desire to serve in a music pastor capacity, and the Lord has certainly blessed him in that role and job. He is grateful for the relationships he has developed with the other pastors as well as other guys in the congregation. He is also grateful for the opportunity he has to shepherd people at the church, as well as being discipled himself. What a blessing it is for him to go to work knowing that he is serving his Savior and doing what he loves!!
I (Leanna) am blessed to be a stay at home mom. The Lord has been faithful to provide for our needs in such a way that allows me to stay home. What a wonderful blessing!! We certainly know that is not the situation for many people today, so we are especially grateful for the Lord's provision in that way! I serve in music ministry with Nathan, and the Lord has decided to stretch me in the role of accompanying the choir. So far, it has been a good learning experience (it always is when the Lord wants to grow you) and I'm even enjoying that role :) I recently became an Independent Consultant for a company called Homemade Gourmet. I'm enjoying using that as an opportunity to get together periodically with ladies from church--and of course we are enjoying eating their food!!
This Christmas, we are eagerly looking forward to the time we will be able to spend with our families. We are going to be visiting them for just shy of 2 weeks!! What a wonderful and relaxing time it will be after the busyness of Christmas in a church music ministry. We love it, but we also love the break after it all is done. We have been so reminded of the joy we have in Christ, and are so thankful for God's sovereignty in sending His Son to earth to live as a man--to live a sinless life as an example to us, and to ultimately bear the wrath of His father for our sins. What a blessing it is to know Christ. We look forward to spending this season reflecting on and celebrating all that He has done and given us.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth." Ephesians 1:3-10
All our Love,
Nathan, Leanna and Makaela
Her onesie says "this is my little black dress" :):)
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