Christmas Update

BRYANT FAMILY NEWSLETTER

This year has been eventful in our home and has brought a lot of new experiences and blessings.

In June we began to foster a child named William, who is 12 years old. Kimberly knew William’s family for many years while she grew up attending church at the Herkimer branch. He was moved from family to family, lived with his great grandmother until she passed away, and went through many more trials before coming to live with us. Ever since we heard of William it has always felt right to adopt him and bring him to live with us, even before meeting him and doing a test period. He has now lived with us since June, and we are planning the adoption. William is very social, outgoing, and intelligent. He is going through a lot of adjustments, but has so much potential. He volunteers for serving others, loves church and school, and is very independent and strong. He played soccer this fall, and played in some cold and rainy weather. He walked right up to the chorister at church and asked, “Will you teach me how to conduct music?” So, he is taking lessons. He loves music, and is always humming or singing the words of a book when he reads to himself, even if it can get annoying eventually.

Kimberly has been an amazing stay at home mom, especially dealing with all of the rough edges and adjustments William has had to make. She worked hard as a nanny for 10 months until May of this year, watching an infant and a 7 year old. Kimberly truly proves to me everyday that although I know the gospel, I still have much to learn about living it. She loves others naturally and humbles me with how selfless she is. She is planning on taking her elementary education classes so she can eventually become a teacher to young children. Kimberly has been mastering her scrapbooking, cooking, sewing, and other cool skills while providing a listening and helping hand to friends and family, and occasionally giving me a well-deserved kick in the butt when I need it.

We spent the summer going to Albany several weekends a month to Grandpa and Grandma Haag’s campground, Kenyon’s Kanyon. We fished, lived without electricity for most of the weekend, collected firewood, and spent time reading, playing card-games, helping make repairs to campsites, and enjoying family. We replaced the old broken down tracker with a slightly less old, slightly less used Honda Accord, and doubled our gas mileage, which almost makes the car payment just by itself.

Jason has been staying busy, and grumbles about never having enough time, but is in his last semester of his graduate degree for Computer Science. He still works up at the Air Force base in Rome for ITT (not company that does the computer class commercials on tv), and works on exciting research software that makes data move faster around the internet or helps planes see satellite and radar imagery when doing flyovers. He plans on writing books, making a business website for himself, and starting some home businesses when the pressure is off after school. He has grown so much as a father and as a husband in the past year and amazes me how he can give so much of himself with no strings attached.

Parenthood has been really stressful with us jumping in head first with a 12 year old. All of the hormones, occasional tantrums, and whining and complaining about chores. And that is only with Jason, imagine a 12 year old thrown in. J Once a week we pick out a new recipe to try at home, and see if we can create some new classic family recipes to pass down like our parents have done. Family Home Evening is an adventure every week. We now understand why our parents constantly said “Because I said so!” and “Stop asking how long before we get there. We’ll get there when we get there!”. We are looking forward to a beautiful winter, our first Christmas together as a family, and continuing to grow and learn in the gospel and to make progress in all aspects of our lives.

If you got this letter, it is because we think about you and love, and pray about you often. We remember special experiences with you and carry them with us, and they have helped us become who we are today. Have a very Merry Christmas, and make the best of the New Year!

With love and appreciation, we wish you the best. As one of Jason’s favorite sayings goes, “Always believe the best is yet to come.”

THE BRYANT FAMILY
Jason, Kimberly, & William