Christmas Letter 2005

Just before Christmas I had posted the first Christmas letter that I ever wrote. It became a tradition, so I'm doing a little series of posts at the end of 2013 with these letters to provide a "Year in Review" for this Seely family. It's very interesting for me to read these and remember those times and have the knowledge of what was to come.

The year 2005 was a very busy year for us, and that year did involve two moves...

Christmas Letter 2005

Merry Christmas Friends and Family!
We hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and wish you a Happy New Year! We say that because most of you will probably receive this after Christmas. Sorry for the delay, but that’s what happens when you move the week before Christmas. Yes, we just finished making our second move of the year, and that’s just the beginning of what has happened in our lives in 2005. 

Home

It was early this year when Adrian’s parents offered us some land outside of Greenwood to build a home. After months of taking steps toward making this new home a reality, we just signed the loan this past week and we are ready to break ground and begin construction. Naturally, we are very excited about this!

As for our moves, in June we had the opportunity to move from our apartment in Bear (we moved there from Greenwood in Aug. 2004) to rent a home near downtown Dover. For various reasons this turned out to be a great move for us, and we enjoyed our short time in the state’s capital. However, last weekend we moved back to Greenwood due to some unforeseen events. In October Adrian’s Grandma, Lena Seely, passed away, leaving her house in Greenwood empty. We were given the opportunity to stay there and received approval from our landlord to break lease early in order to do so. This move is a huge blessing in many ways, specifically because the house is adjacent to where we will be building our home.

Work

The recent move is also better for our work situations. Early this year, Adrian began working with my father, Byron Outten, at his plumbing business in Greenwood. This has worked out very well for both Adrian and Dad.

Adrian and I at Nason Construction's Holiday Party

As for my job, I have been the marketing coordinator for Nason Construction in Wilmington since March 2004. Though I am now 1½ hours from the Wilmington office, the decision was made last week to create a new position for me in our Salisbury, MD office (45 min. away) that would allow me to lead the marketing and business development effort for the Delmarva Region. I am looking forward to this new role.

Church

Another reason we are glad to be back in Greenwood is to be closer to our church and the youth that we are now working with. It came unexpectedly, but in April several people at church approached us about becoming the youth leaders. After much prayer, we decided to take on the role and have thoroughly enjoyed this new experience. An average of 20 teenagers attend the weekly meetings, and a few weeks ago more than 50 came to the special worship time and pizza party we hosted – it was great!

Play

In spite of the busy year, we have still managed to squeeze in some personal fun with a couple of weekend camping and hiking trips as well as a few rounds of golf (Adrian is teaching me) and a little swing-dancing.   And in the evenings, we find ourselves amused and entertained by Max, our Jack Russell, who is quite adequately fulfilling the role of a son…for now.
 
All that being said, we hope that you have had a blessed year as well and pray God’s blessing on you this Christmas season.                

                                                                                                                With His Joy,

Adrian and Julleanna Seely