christmas letter 2004

Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all. Exactly a year ago we learned that we were going to have a baby, and now Caleb is four months old! It has been an exciting and amazing year as we’ve been carried through this wild ride of parenthood. God has blessed us in many ways, and we’d like to take a moment to remember just how good He’s been to us.

Of course for the first half of the year we busied ourselves preparing for Caleb’s arrival. We are so thankful for all the prayers and encouragement from you, our family and friends, and we’re very grateful for all the material needs for the baby. As Caleb grew inside of Michelle, we wondered if she would ever stop feeling sick, and how her chronic health issues would work out through her pregnancy. Thankfully, the sickness subsided, and so did most of her usual aches and pains.

As the weather warmed we enjoyed our little garden as we counted down the days until August. We read all the books and took all the classes that we could, waiting for the day we would hold our little boy. We prepared his room with lots of sewing and painting and whatnot, dreaming of playing with him in his own room. July seemed to last forever, and on the very last day, good news came: Michelle’s sister had twin boys, and we hoped our little boy would come soon too.

After all our waiting and praying and a long labor, Caleb Robert Wiegers arrived on August 11. He was and is the most beautiful baby we’ve ever seen, and we’re simply overwhelmed at how much of a blessing he is. At first he wasn’t a very good eater, but now he’s doing great. We’re especially thankful for an entire year of nothing but good health reports for Caleb.

Now we’re loving life as parents. We’re so thankful for a happy baby and we enjoy him so much every day. He’s very tall and skinny, and he’s made friends with the dog already. Just today he ate his first solid food (rice cereal), and he’s quite excited about his first Christmas at Grandma Wiegers house. Michelle is home fulltime with Caleb, and loves her new role as Mama. Bob is still enjoying being a website programmer at a small company in downtown Chattanooga, and each day can’t wait to come home to be with the family.

We pray that we’ll be faithful to God’s calling for us. We especially pray that Caleb will know and love Jesus as he grows up, and ask that you will pray this with us. He is one of many covenant children recently born in our small church, and he was baptized on October 24. We’re so thankful for such a supportive church family, and for God’s faithfulness to us all.

We’re so glad that we’re in a small group with some friends who are also parents with young children, trying to learn what it means to shepherd our kids. Also, Michelle has been mentoring a college student, and she has been learning so much of God’s grace because of it, and it’s so good to see her being used to bless others.

We’re looking forward to Michelle’s brother’s wedding this spring, as we’re so excited for Brad and Renee, and Caleb is also excited about getting to meet most of the extended family, so we’ll see some of yall soon!

We haven’t been without trials and struggles this year, but we thank God for His care for us in this time of such overwhelming changes. As we think on what it means that God would come live with us and in us, and come as such a little baby, we are once again amazed at His love. We pray that you will know more and more of Jesus love this year.

We update our website with pictures, videos and stories quite often, so please visit www.wiegersfamily.com when you’re able. And we would love to have you come meet Caleb here in Chattanooga! Please pray for us and let us know how we might pray for you. Thanks and Merry Christmas!

Love,
Bob, Michelle and Caleb