The years seem to be going faster and faster. It is hard to believe that 2009 is drawing to a close. We once again have had a busy year and it seems that life is not going to slow down any time soon.
We started 2009 living in Edmond, OK. Adam completed his vicarage at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in August, and we packed our belongings once again into a moving truck and headed back to St. Louis for Adam's concluding year of classes. The transition back to classes for Adam went well, and he is continuing to learn how to balance homework, activities, and family life. Since our return to seminary, Adam has really enjoyed being involved with intramural sports and the seminary soccer team.
We are living on campus this year because of the tight schedule we are keeping. Rachel was a stay at home mom until she returned to St. Luke's division 6600 as a RN on September 1st. She is currently caring for Audrey in the morning and working full time in the evenings. The transition back to work as well as the transition back to seminary life has been a little harder on Rachel. She does not have much energy to spare, but God has continued to provide.
Audrey is now 21 months old and has quite the little personality. She can repeat her letters and numbers back to you. She does not quite have them memorized yet, but she is working on it. She repeats just about everything that you say now which can be quite entertaining, some days. Audrey is very social and loves people. She seems to have adjusted to her new home quite well. Being closer to her grandparents has allowed for more frequent visits with them. She has made a few friends on campus and loved going to Adam's soccer games this past fall.
We are looking forward to 2010 and all the joyous occasions that will take place. Adam will receive a call to a LCMS congregation somewhere in the United States. this past fall we began the call process by interviewing with the placement staff at Concordia Seminary to help them formulate our profile. Now that it is completed, churches that are interested in calling an associate pastor may view our profile and decide whether to interview us. Interviews will take place in January and February. During March and April, the calls will be finalized, and April 27th, 2010 we will receive our call. Adam will continue classes until graduation on May 21st.
April and May will be busy months. As if call day and graduation were not enough, we are expecting the birth of our second child the day after graduation, May 22nd. We hope that the baby arrives just a little early so we can actually go to graduation. We have been anticipating Adam's graduation for some time now, and it would be a shame to miss it due to being in the hospital.
Another joy we are looking forward to is being able to settle down somewhere and purchase a home of our own. We have been looking forward to a little more stability. Our hope is that Rachel will be able to stay home with the kiddos and Adam will be able to support the family as an associate pastor. We know that these plans may not line up with God's, but we are trusting that his plans will be the best for us. We will see what happens. You can tune into a live broadcast of the call service on the evening of April 27th, at www.csl.edu.
May God bless you this Christmas Season ad throughout the New Year.
Love from the Pecks
