A Belated Christmas Letter

Warmest belated Christmas greetings, and best wishes for a New Year full of purpose. As the end of 2011 draws near, we thought a letter with a few words about what has transpired in our lives over this, the most eventful and wonderful year yet, were in order.

Well, let us start at the beginning...the start of 2011 found us blessed with our first baby, Justus Finley Pendleton, born on December 1^st, 2010. It also found us as sojourners in Uvalde, TX as we had just moved out of our San Antonio home and were anticipating a move to England soon thereafter. Not to be daunted by all of these changes, we signed up to take a five day training course from Christian Listeners USA (CLUSA), a non-profit whose mission is to “be the listening heart of Jesus Christ in a broken world.” 

Days after the course finished, our little family boarded a plane headed for a study-abroad program in England. We arrived exhausted and without a home, but thanks to the valiant efforts of Caleb, the help of kind owners of a B&B in Keele, and the favor of God, we moved into a lovely two-story flat (aka apartment or townhouse) in Newcastle-under-Lyme. We spent the next six months there as Caleb studied at Keele University. 













We had the time of our lives: we bonded as a family, cherished every day with Justus, learned the ways of a different culture, read lots of books, traveled a good deal (Czech Republic, Italy, Scotland, and Wales), soaked up the beautiful green, wet , and cool England, entertained friends and family from the U.S., visited over 30 castles, saw ancient wonders, and made many new friends.

July found us back in Texas: visiting friends and family, taking the next level of training in Christian Listeners, and acclimating to the blistering Texas Summer; in August we were off to Manzanillo,Mexico to spend time with family, but come September, we settled down in Uvalde as Caleb's school schedule necessitated. During this time, we also started a new business in the trucking/oil industry. In October, we were surprised and overjoy to find we are expecting another little blessing; he/she is due June 19,2012. 

We have only six more months to prepare Justus for big-brotherhood! December 1^st brought about Justus' first birthday which we celebrated with a trip to the San Antonio Zoo; Justus loved seeing all the animals, but his favorite were the fish. As this month comes to a close, we will celebrate Caleb's birthday, Jesus' birthday, head to Mexico, and celebrate the New Year with Caleb's side of the family.

2012 will be full of big events for us: in January, we will help teach and oversee a Christian Listening Retreat in Uvalde (it's not too late to sign-up; there's our shameless plug ;)), we also hope to move back to San Antonio towards the end of the month (keep your eyes out for a small home/cottage for rent). In May, Caleb will complete his undergraduate degree in Business management Information Systems from the University of Texas at San Antonio completely debt free. He will also get to participate in a study-abroad trip to China. In June, God willing, we will have baby Pendleton number two naturally, in fact we are even toying with the idea of doing a home-birth. July onwards we anticipate enjoying our expanding family, focusing on building/managing our business, working with CLUSA, and dreaming...about traveling, attending graduate school at Denver Seminary, and the Retreat/Healing Center that we hope to one day open. In a nutshell, there is the past year and the upcoming one in the lives of Caleb, Charity, Justus, and Baby-boy-on-the-way Pendleton. If you are dying to know more about  the life and times of Mr. Justus Finley, then check out his blog at www.blogforjustus.blogspot.com.

Warmly,

The Pendletons