Year-End Letter

What a year 2009 was, huh? The inauguration of our nation’s first black president. The financial crisis. Michael Jackson dying. Balloon Boy. Amazing!

For the Wood family it was quite a year, too!

The biggest event of 2009 was the addition of our daughter, Samantha Caroline. Born in June, she kept the second half of our year full of joy. All who meet her know that she lights up the room like no other baby we’ve met. Many have commented that she makes you feel like you are her absolute favorite person in the world and she gives you a greeting like no other. We have had strangers take pictures of her or walk across the room just to meet this little girl with the full-face smile and engaging energy. A very physical baby even before she was born, she has been climbing and creeping and moving since day one. We are convinced that the only thing holding her back from taking off and running is her own little body. She also seems to be saying words. I know, it sounds like doting parents, but friends and family can attest to this. She has been saying “Hi” to people since about five months and clearly says “MaMa” and “Dad dad”. We also think she is saying “I Love” in response when we say, “I love you”. Samantha definitely seems to be doing some things ahead of her time and we’re so curious to see how this will all manifest itself in the years to come. Isabella and Nathanael adore their new sister and have been so helpful in taking care of her. And Samantha loves her big brother and sister!

Isabella started first grade this year and is enjoying school and all the friends she’s making. In December she received the Super Citizen award at her school, a very special honor. She is a very bright girl who is a great reader and is excelling in all her subjects. She has been taking piano lessons and has begun to play songs with chords and fancy rhythms. She has joined Nate in taking swim lessons and continues to play soccer in the spring and fall as one of her team’s star players. But most importantly, it has been so fun to see Isabella grow into a sweet girl who cares for others. On her own she started a donation box at our church to help raise money for the poor and she cried tears of joy for her friend who got an award at her school. She is a beautiful seven-year-old girl both inside and out!

Nathanael started a full-day ECE program at the same school Isabella attends. Bradley is an International Baccalaureate school which has been great for both kids. Nate is able to go to all the specials the upper grades go to (except for Spanish). Being able to go to art, music, P.E. and library has been a great experience for him. His teacher told us she has never had a student as far ahead of her other students as Nate and his best buddy Miles are. Nate is already reading books and has a special gift for numbers and logic. He is also quite the artist drawing amazing and imaginative pictures. A year ago, Nate asked to take swimming lessons and he has really taken off with this. At five, he can swim across the pool with great form and knows how to survive in the deep end even with his clothes on. Often feeling like he’s in Isabella’s shadow, it’s great that he has something that he is ahead of his sister in. While very much boy (after all, he did almost cut his toes off this summer, becoming our first child to rush to the emergency room), Nate also has a sweet nature and always sets the example for how to willingly share and help others.

This year we were saddened to see many of our friends and some family members lose their jobs and know how blessed we were that Asa kept his job despite being in the financial industry. As Asa’s company watched its competitors crumble or resort to taking government money, Jackson National amazingly was secure as a company and actually reported record sales this year. Asa has been extremely successful in his position as V.P. of Brand Marketing and his company continues to look for ways to reward him and acknowledge his accomplishments. More importantly, he loves his job and the people he works with. For fun, Asa continues to play on an indoor soccer team and enjoys coaching Nate’s soccer team.

Tara continues to run Xylem Family Resource and feels blessed to have two amazing new board members who are as excited about the future of Xylem as she is. She is really looking forward to what 2010 has in store for this organization that is in its sixth year. She started a blog chronicling her own parenting journey with the kids in effort to encourage other parents. You can follow these adventures at www.parentingwhatipreach.blogspot.com or at wordpress.com. She hopes to be able to do even more writing this coming year. When not doing Xylem stuff, Tara is staying home with Samantha and shuttling kids around. She also enjoys leading worship occasionally at her church.

Reflecting on this past decade, we’ve struggled finically. We’ve had many job losses and changes. But we’ve also had many successes. We’ve started a nonprofit organization that has served hundreds of families. We purchased our first house. Isabella, Nathanael and Samantha came into our lives. We’ve developed some awesome friendships. We’ve traveled to some wonderful places. And as the decade comes to a close, we find ourselves in an amazing place in life. Great jobs. Beautiful children. A wonderful church family. Dear friends. And wonder at what lies ahead of us.

Thank you for going on this life journey with us. We are so blessed to have you in our lives and look forward to continuing on with you in 2010 and the decade ahead!

Blessings!

The Wood Family
Asa, Tara, Isabella, Nathanael, and Samantha