Our Christmas letter this year went out decidedly AFTER Christmas, but at least it was BEFORE Valentine's Day! Disclaimer: This letter is about MY family, so I find it fascinating....I don't really assume anyone else will. But I like to write a letter each year to record the ways God is working in each one of us.
Let the name
of God be praised forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to him.
He changes times and seasons, …He gives wisdom to the wise; he
imparts knowledge to those with understanding;...O God of my
fathers, I acknowledge and glorify you.
Daniel 2:20-23
On innumerable sappy plaques and
countless cheesey coffee mugs is the old saying: Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the
difference.
Change.
There has been much change
in our lives over the past year. There has been even more change over
the past decade, as our Christmas picture clearly demonstrates! The first
picture was taken in Dover, DE in 2002 and the second picture was taken in our
front yard in 2012. Yes, there has been a great deal of change. Babies became children, children became
teenagers, and teenagers became adults. And all in the blink of an eye, or so
it seems.
Change can be unsettling but it is also inevitable,
as well as necessary, as we are molded more and more into the people God
desires us to be. When we were young, we thought the molding process would have
been done by now. We assumed 5 decades were long enough for God to work on us!
But we can attest that God never stops working on His children, and that may be
the main reason we take the time every year to sit down and recall some of the
things God has done in our lives…because we want to give Him His due. Now, our
letter is late again, because some things never change, but here is our
best effort at sharing some of the things God has done!
Nathan’s
greatest change came in the complete gender shift of the home. It is currently
he and six (6!) females occupying our home. Some nights you can find him tucked
away in the corner having received more than his share of female hormones for
that day. To be honest, he thoroughly enjoys the company of all six lovely
young ladies. Though his business has seen modest growth, he continues to look
for additional sources of purpose and income. He enjoys teaching with Cru
Military one Sunday a month at Lackland AFB, and has joined together with local
men to equip and encourage other Christian Men of Business here in our
hometown. He enjoys teaching and public speaking whenever the opportunity presents
itself. Helping navigate the family in today’s changing seas is always full of
challenges and joy!
Change seems to be one of the main ingredients
to Susan’s life this year. She has
gone from stay-at-home mom to Principal of a small Christian school, Summit
Christian Academy, and finds herself still on the upward climb of the learning
curve of the new job. It has been a relief, however, to experience the many
ways God has prepared her for this journey over the years. Much of the work and
effort of homeschooling has direct applications to this job, so maybe God knew
what He was doing?!?! The school is a combination of homeschooling and private
schooling so she still teaches Hannah and Abigail at home two days a week. She continues
writing on her blog when she can, although finding time for that the past few
months has proven difficult. She still enjoys cooking, though the frequency has
fallen. And it appears she has given up gardening all together! One item,
though, was crossed off her bucket list- she took the girls to DeSmet, SD and
saw Laura Ingalls Willder’s home! It was as wonderful as she had hoped!
One of the
most important changes for Caleb has
been a renewed sense of the call of God on his life. After the heartache and
death of a vision that Caleb experienced in the past few years, it is a joy to
once again see him feeling joy and living purposefully. He continues as a
firefighter, enjoying that job. It allows him the freedom to travel, which he
took advantage of this year by traveling down under to Australia. He also pursues other interests like coaching
soccer, photography, and playing with his dogs, Toby and Tess, who had puppies
this year -a time consuming but rewarding event. After spending his entire childhood sharing a
room with his two brothers, Caleb now shares his house with them, because being
brothers….well, that is one thing that never changes!
The changes
in Luke’s life have been in amounts
rather than activities. He still talks on the phone incessantly, works with
clients strategically, drives all over the state continually, and loves his
family and friends passionately. But he just does MORE of all that than he did
the year before! Since this past year was a campaign year he was very busy,
even by his standards. Macias Strategies had a successful campaign season
across the state, with several new, principled men in office. We are grateful
to say that even with his success, his smile, his love for family, friends and
the Lord, and his passion for living hasn’t changed a bit!
There are
two major changes for Aaron this
year. First, there is the change of location as he came back to Texas after
finishing his second year at Ravencrest (all his family says, “Yeah!”) Second, there is the change in his heart as
he fell deeply in love with a lovely young woman named Gigi Robinson whom he
met at Ravencrest. In between finishing
school and starting his new job Aaron spent 6 weeks in Iowa at a Christian
camp. Now Aaron is working full-time at a new job (another change!) and living
with Caleb and Luke at Caleb’s home. Gigi has recently moved to San Antonio
from Alaska and is living with us in Bulverde and has begun studying to become
a massage therapist. In order to be selfless and to help her as much as we can,
the family has offered to let her practice on them whenever she needs to!
As
Grace ended her school year last
spring she again qualified for Nationals in Speech (NCFCA) for the last time, a
bitter-sweet experience. Now moving into the next stage of life, Grace has
experienced a great deal of change. She is an entrepreneur with her photography
business, a part-time student as she finishes a few classes, and a part-time
baby sitter to help put gas in the car. She is also an indispensible help to
the family in filling in with cooking, cleaning, and other aspects of
homemaking. She has a new website for her business, gracemacias.com, if
you would like to see some of her work. In her spare time she goes to BSF,
visits with friends, and drinks sweet tea!
Leah has entered a new season and
experienced change in several areas as well. She is working part-time for
Summit as an Administrative Assistant. She loves working with the kids, and not
surprisingly they adore “Miss Leah.” She is finishing up some high school math
but has also moved on in her other studies to pursuing college credit through
CLEP, passing several tests already. After qualifying for Nationals in Speech
and in Debate, and after competing for 4 years, she is taking a break from
competition this year. But the biggest change she would like to occur is for
her to become a licensed driver, an accomplishment to which she is painfully
close. Along with Aaron and Grace, Leah
was taken on one last cruise! This time they got to go to Alaska where they
were awe-struck by the incredible natural beauty.
Change
has been a major player in Hannah’s
year this year. Last spring, in her first year of Speech competition, she and
Grace did a Duo (an interpretive speech done together) with which they won
Regionals and received 16th in Nationals. This school year she has entered the world of
private school two days a week with backpacks, lunch boxes, uniforms, and
teachers other than her mother! We still homeschool three days a week, but it
has been a big adjustment! Another change is the opportunity Hannah has been
blessed with to learn flute. She is trading babysitting for lessons and seems
to have a natural ability with the instrument. She hopes to add guitar to the
list this year!
Abigail has rolled with the changes in
her life with amazing resilience this year. She has adapted well to Summit and
enjoys her classes and her new friends. She is enrolled in a new ballet school
where the study is taken much more seriously, but she has thrived with the
discipline and loves it! Another change for Abby is a bit of a growth spurt,
though it would appear to be completely in her legs! (Not entirely a bad thing
for a ballerina.) Thankfully, at least so far, some things about Abigail have
not changed. She is still gentle, and cuddly, and silly, and sweet. And she
will always hold the place of “baby” of the family!
And there you have it- another
year of revisions, adjustments, corrections, refinement, modifications, and
well, in a word, CHANGE! Yes, we have
changed. But the good news is that God, in Whose hands our lives and our futures
rest, has said, “For I am the LORD, I do
not change” (Malachi 3:6) How grateful we are that His is a God that “is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
(Hebrews 13:8). What an amazing gift that this infinite, eternal God desires
and seeks relationship with us!
The Macias Family prays that you
are blessed this year with the presence, the reality, and the assurance of the
love that the never-changing God of the universe has for each of you.
Nathan,
Susan, Caleb, Luke, Aaron, Grace, Leah, Hannah, and Abigail
One scene where I always get a chuckle is when the child-terror Darla, the fish killer, is banging on the aquarium tank, and the starfish, Peach, is saying, "Find my happy place! Find my happy place!"
