2018 has been a quiet year on this little blog. To be honest, my priorities lie elsewhere during this season of life. Since returning from our Christmas travels, I’ve been putting the last stamps on our family Christmas letter (you do know it is still Christmas right?) and today I’m sharing it in its entirety with you, dear reader. I value each and every one of you that pops over here to read my thoughts.
Wishing you all a blessed Christmas season and a very happy 2019!
2018 Family Christmas Letter
Dearest reader,
As the holiday season comes around again, I’ve decided it is time once again for me to write a Christmas letter. As I reflect on the past two years, I am humbled by all the gifts God has entrusted to us, from our daily and rather ordinary life to the challenging and unexpected events that have unfolded.
Trying out my childhood cross country skis!
What a blessing to watch Lowell steadily transform into a compassionate and responsible 11 year old! He maintains his reputation as our “train man” and is commonly employed building HO layouts in the basement, perusing Trains magazine, or researching railroad history. Name a town and he is quite certain to know the railroad that went through or currently goes through it, as well extensive history on the line. Immensely devoted to his siblings, he enjoys captivating them with his railroad expertise or beguiling them with custom built Lego projects created solely for their entertainment (working vending machines and coin sorters to name a few).
Christian has been the involuntary center of attention since the fall of 2016. When I last penned a Christmas letter that same year, we were on the cusp of our journey with his epilepsy diagnosis. We were gifted with a seizure free Christmas season but his seizures returned with a vengeance in January of 2017. His seizures came every 10 minutes and he failed to regain consciousness between them. He was transferred from our local hospital to Blank Children’s Hospital (Des Moines). After 4 days, his seizure activity had still not diminished and he was then transferred via jet to Mayo (Rochester, MN).
Those days, and the months following, were beyond difficult, but the unexpected blessing hidden behind the severity of his condition was the transfer to Mayo Clinic, a world class provider. Once there, his condition was swiftly brought under control with a shower of anti-convulsants and a very strict ketogenic diet (extremely high fat, low carbohydrate diet). He has been seizure free since our stay at Mayo- praise the Lord!
What a gift to “unwrap” the priceless personality and blossoming abilities of our Christian all over again as he was slowly weaned off all medicine. He has been able to rely solely on the keto diet for seizure control since April 2018. We are eternally indebted to you who have prayed and encouraged us in this walk and we continue to ask for your prayers as we move forward this coming January with ever so slowly weaning him from the rigidity of the diet. Christian will certainly face further challenges, but we know the Lord will be our strength just as He has been the past two years.
Now seven, Christian continues to be the animal expert of the family. His greatest interest lies in who will beat whom. This penchant for animal combat is so ingrained that even while highly drugged he couldn’t help polling the Mayo flight team on whether they thought a lion or tiger would win in head-to-head combat. We love that he is back to performing. The latest addition to his performance repertoire is a Scottish brogue flavored recitation of Longfellow’s poem “The Village Blacksmith.”
Lilla, 5, may be the only girl in the house, but she makes up for that by being all girl. She cherishes spending “girl time” with mom, which usually just means grocery shopping topped off with a run into the “Dollar Treat” (a store that you may know by the name of “Dollar TREE”). After years of boys who think crayons and crafting are toxic, Husband and I are now ready to invest in a paper manufacturing company as a result of Lilla’s mass consumption of paper crafting materials. If you don’t find her coloring and crafting, you will find her playing dress up and performing ballet with Michael.
Michael, 3, formerly referred to as “Buck,” can quickly smooth over his mischievous ways by flashing his “million dollar smile.” He certainly keeps step with his older siblings! Michael is a mama’s boy, but also loves to go fishing with his dad. Lilla and Michael’s singing, dancing, and innocent play bring immeasurable sunshine to our days!
Husband recently celebrated his 12th year working as an engineer at the same company. In the history of human kind, no engineer’s wife has accurately described her husband’s work duties, so if you want more details, you’ll have to talk to him. I (Elizabeth) continue to spend my days homeschooling the aforementioned children. There was a time when I could never have imagined myself doing what I’m doing now, but I’m forever grateful for the gift of time with my children and the awesome experience of opening their minds to God’s world.
Our entire family wishes you a joyous Christmas season and pray that you may treasure the gifts of the new year ahead!
Love,
The Rozycki family
Loved this! Thanks for the update 🙂