Christmas Card 2013

Happy Holidays from the Parsons Farm!

 

We have experienced many blessings and hardships this last year. We appreciate the Lords hand over us through it all.

The BEST news of the year is that we adopted a beautiful baby girl, Luella "Ellie" Faith Parsons!! She was born in Spokane on May 21st and we were able to be present at the hospital for her birth, she was 19 inches long and weighed in at 7 pounds.   We brought her home on May 25th.  She is the light of our life and has brought us great joy.  We became an "official" family on September 6 after "appearing" for our court case over the phone.  We are in communication with her birth parents and are so appreciative of the gift they had given us.  At this time she is sitting, almost crawling, standing with slight assistance, and has TWO teeth.

Ashley is back to working at CCS this year, Wahoo!!!  This is her first time returning to the same teaching position and she couldn't be any happier! Thomas is still the Head of the Social Studies Department at WAHS and coaching tennis.

Ashley suffered from two ectopic pregnancies this year, one in January and the second in September.  Luckily these two did not require surgery as we knew the warning signs and symptoms to be proactive.  These losses have been difficult, though we know the Lord has a plan for us and we are so in Love with our sweet Ellie Faith.   We would appreciate prayers for healing and continued peace.

Ashley enjoys blogging at "Life on the Parsons Farm" (Ellie is a huge part of the blog now) and shopping at "Junk Shows".  Thomas loves fishing any chance he gets and of course his Seattle Sounders.  We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary in August in Leavenworth and Lake Chelan (with Ellie of course!).  The chickens are on strike this winter. The horses are doing well though not as much time has been spent with them since we brought Ellie home, soon that will change!   The goats are total characters and make us laugh often.    Cooper and Sakari are adjusting to life with a baby and they adore her!  Our garden did well this year with great crops of beans, peas, kale, cabbage, and broccoli, which Ashley preserved to use for baby food for Ellie.  So far our bounty has been enjoyed greatly by her!  We even grew our own pumpkins this year for Halloween!

We wish you the happiest of days during this holiday season and into the New Year! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We pray that 2014 brings you many blessings.

Love, Thomas, Ashley, and Ellie Parsons

Jazz, Paladin, Rags, Cooper, Sakari, Penelope, Annabelle, and the Chicks.

(would you believe that the picture posted above was only the second one we took on a self timer! I am quite impressed that we got both dogs and Ellie to look at a camera with no one behind it!!)

-Ashley