(Note: this post will stay at the top of the blog for a while. I can't promise there will be any new ones anytime soon, but just in case...scroll down to check.)
Annual Top 10 Time!!!
This year let's tackle the biggest challenges faced by the Gemmer family, in no particular order.
1. saying goodbye

In 2012, a week after we received our license as foster parents, we were blessed with a tiny little girl to love and care for. She is a spirited, opinionated, and challenging girl, but we loved her deeply for the entire year we had her. In early March, the day after her first birthday, we handed her off to her new forever family with tears and prayers. This was incredibly challenging for our family, but we were confident in our call to continue to foster, and watched God work in specific and amazing ways in providing for us, for our sweet girl, and for her amazing new family. They have become wonderful friends and we are happy to continue to play aunt and uncle to our “Little Miss” and see her and her family from time to time. We can’t wait to celebrate her official adoption sometime early next year.
(For more about this journey Darin wrote a great blog post, Deanna had one about loving a baby that isn't yours, and one about God’s faithfulness, and a few things about this foster thing in Daisy’s birthday letter.)
2. waiting, waiting, waiting...
We'd probably have to sit down to a cup of coffee for Darin and tea for Deanna to hear the whole story, and even then you'd probably still get two versions of how it all happened. But let's just say that around March Darin started working with the staff and volunteers at Youth for Christ, to transition out of his role and be gone by December 31st. We were taking a leap of faith as a family, asking God to take us back where our hearts still were: at camp. Several positions came and went, none a perfect fit and most out-of-state (California, Montana, South Carolina, Michigan, and a few others) and we told people it felt like we were running towards a brick wall and just praying God would open a door before we crashed through. As the months kept coming, our prayers became more desperate. Should we start making a backup plan? Or was God going to come through?
3. 3 days, 2 children, 1 Dad

Deanna left town in the spring for a weekend away, and Darin needed some project to keep him and the girls from going too crazy. Undaunted by the challenge of two small children by himself, he decided to up his game and complete their much anticipated fire pit. It was a beautiful weekend and a fun project (and Deanna's friends were in awe of super-dad/super-husband). We’ve enjoyed many fires and the chance to have neighbors drop over for a s'more or two. This was a particularly wonderful space to spend time with Deanna’s parents when they visited this summer.

4. Are you sure you want us to share about serving in the Early Childhood department?
We are so thankful for our church family and the many opportunities we have to serve there. One weekend our dear Early Childhood director needed a fill-in teacher for the 5pm service in the 3-5 year-old class. No problem. We can fill in.
The girls loved it so much that we were their teachers, that at one point Deanna looked at Darin and used her womanly ways to convince him they could do this once a month. Though this teaching gig hasn't been the easiest on us, Dani still loves having us there (Daisy has moved on to the 6-year-old and up class) so we will shake the little biters off our ankles, put a smile on, and keep at it.
Several weeks ago we were asked to share in the main service about the opportunity to serve the parents and kiddos in the Early Childhood department. Deanna laughed a bit and asked Darin if they were sure we were the best people to ask. Deanna's not sure they could have asked a worse couple to "sell" this ministry. But you know, all opportunities to serve are filled with blessings. For us, every time our teaching turn is over we shut off the lights, close the doors, and walk away grateful we don't have to do it again for another 30 days!
(You all know we're kidding right? Kind of?)
5. a boy?!

After a short break and some opportunities to make some special memories as a family of four, we returned to foster parenting in July and welcomed a little boy home from the hospital on Dani’s birthday. (She is pretty darn proud of the fact that she got a little brother for her birthday.) Adjusting to a newborn again is always a challenge, especially for that particularly proud big sister who doesn't do so well with change. But Deanna's friends came through big for us this go-around and we were blessed with homemade meals and gifts for quite a while. Thoughtful friends even packed paper plates so we wouldn't have dishes to do! Our little TR is no longer a tiny newborn, but now is a chunky fellow with deep brown eyes and dimples in his enormous cheeks, not to mention dark curly hair that Darin calls a fro-hawk. He is a sweet kid and we all love having him in our family.

6. whew, that was quite the summer
We had a busy summer full of trips, camp, visitors, vacations, work, play, dance, a new foster placement, church commitments and a myriad of other activities. We had fun, but there’s nothing like a busy summer to make you appreciate the structure of a school year. Of course, with all the fun we had doing this summer, there was no time for blogging about it. Deanna has missed it and family members have missed it, but with the new year upcoming there's always renewed hope for keeping on top of this documenting thing we call blogging.
Here, at least, is a little summer recap we did manage to blog.
7. both girls in school

This September Daisy started school full-time as a first grader at Cottonwood Elementary, and Dani began her school career in an afternoon PreK program at Creative Connection Preschool. Daisy was eager for school to start to meet her new teacher and see her Kindergarten friends, but her poor mama was a wreck. Getting used to Daisy being gone all day and having so many experiences without her has been a challenge for Deanna. And the homework challenge of an easily-distracted first-grader has been tough on all of us!

Dani started school a few days after Daisy and was just as eager to begin. Dani knew her class was in the afternoon - "after lunch" Deanna kept telling her. So on Dani's first day of school, after dropping Daisy off in the morning, a full 3.5 hours until Dani's class starts, she called from the backseat: "can we have lunch when we get home?"
We are very thankful to have two girls who love school, their teachers, and their friends, and are prayerfully anticipating the challenges ahead as we look to soon leave the preschool years and head full-on into our next phase of life as a family.
8. new leadership and ministry opportunities
Deanna continues to find ways to bless others with her gifts of leadership and wisdom. This year has been particularly challenging as she has deeply engaged with the Mothers of PreSchoolers (MOPS) ministry at a local church. This summer she stepped down as coordinator of Classic MOPS after two great years, and into a smaller role curating her group's new blog.
As her time coordinating the Classic group was winding down, she began to feel a burden for reaching a couple of teen moms who were semi-regular attenders. As a result of much prayer, dreaming, planning, and meeting she and a few other committed volunteers (along with the YFC Teen Parents Director) launched a Teen MOPS program at the same church this October. Every other Monday night they welcome a growing group of teen mothers and their children, feed them dinner, make crafts, talk about parenting issues, and generally love on the moms. After 2+ years of Darin working with high-risk teens in Kitsap, it has been amazing to see God give Deanna a heart for this vital ministry. She is very much enjoying having such a wonderful outlet for her passion to lead and to reach out to these gals who really just desire to be the best moms they can be.
9. do we have to go home?

The most challenging set of stairs we climbed this year were the 20 or so steps into a Boeing 737 to depart Belize City in mid-November. After a year of prayers and a bit of skepticism, God truly blessed us with a wonderful 10th anniversary vacation. Thanks to Gran Camp 2 for the girls, lengthy respite for TR, and the gift of a beautiful home to stay in, we were able to spend an entire week on a private island off the coast of Belize, basking in constant 85 degree heat. We snorkeled with manta rays, nurse sharks and giant 400 pound sea turtles, as well as an amazing variety of coral and tropical fish. We inner-tubed down a river through a jaguar preserve then hiked through that jungle to swim through a waterfall into a cave. We ate amazing food at shacks next to the road, and generally enjoyed every minute of our time. The trip was better still for the company of our good friends Jen and Joe, who were married the same year as us and honeymooned in Belize. It was an incredible experience unlike anything we’ve ever done before and we are so thankful for the blessing.
(We haven't blogged much about this trip yet, but here are a couple: 1 & 2. Jen has done a great job of blogging our stories, so you can read more about our trip on her site.)




10. waiting, waiting, waiting, part 2
As He often does in our lives, God brought an unexpected opportunity through an unexpected person at the perfect time. After an off-hand remark from a YFC volunteer, Darin learned of and pursued a position of Director at Camp Indianola - only 30 minutes from where we currently live. Initially it seemed too good to be true, but by the time Darin was presenting to the hiring committee, we knew this was the place God had been calling us to for almost a year. Where all of the other positions Darin had pursued would have required some sort of compromise of his calling (not to mention a cross-country move), directing Indianola appeared a perfect fit for Darin’s gifts, strengths, and calling. The Director’s residence is a beautiful home overlooking Puget Sound with tons of natural light (Deanna is thrilled). The camp is beautiful and has enormous potential to be even better with some new direction, something Darin is very ready to undertake. We told the girls about the job opportunity a week before Darin's final interview to ask them to pray with us, and all our friends and family were joining in the chorus of prayers: please God. Is this the job for us? Is this the door in the brick wall?
We thought 11 months of waiting was hard. Try waiting four days after a "I think I hit the ball out of the park" interview and then another 24 hours after a soft-ball follow-up question. We were so sure and so hopeful. And yet completely scared. It had been a long time since we had wanted something as badly as we wanted this job.
But then the phone call came and the rejoicing commenced. God had come through once again. The girls danced around singing, "we get to live in a house with stairs" and Darin and Deanna just grinned. We weren't going to be hitting that brick wall. The story of God's faithfulness continues once again to be told. Our 11th hour God came through once again, making sure all the glory is His and all the gratitude too. And Darin starts his job as Director of Camp Indianola the day after his YFC contract ends.
We can't wait for the challenge of packing up and moving just days after Christmas, ready for this next adventure for the Gemmer Family.

2013 had it's share of challenges (or fake ones, for the sake of this letter, Belize was definitely not a challenge), but ultimately each challenge was met by the grace and faithfulness of God, the love of family and friends, the comfort of prayer, and the resilience that a bit of laughter can bring. Our little life is full of many blessings, and we pray yours are easy to spot as well.
Merry Christmas friends,
Darin, Deanna, Daisy, & Dani

(More? Here is 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2009.)
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