Tim Nelson

Announcing the birth of the newest Nelson!!

Rebekah Grace Nelson was born on Easter Sunday, March 31, 2002 at 8:51 in the morning. She weighed 7 lb. 4oz. and was 19 3/4 inches long.

It was a blessedly short (3 hours!) labor, and Praise the Lord, we made it to the hospital in time!! (She was born 40 minutes after we arrived.) The family is doing well. Elisabeth is a WONDERFUL big sister who loves to help with everything and is very gentle and generous with her sister (just wait till she's old enough to TAKE the toys herself...:-) ) Rebekah has been a good nighttime sleeper so far, so Mommy isn't as tired as she could be.

Christmas 2001

Wow, what a year! We actually have lots of news to share in this Christmas letter and we’ve been so busy that we haven’t had a moment to even call or write many of you personally to tell you about all that’s been going on—we’ve barely managed to keep our parents and siblings informed!! So please don’t take it personally if you’re finding out all of this in a “newsletter” instead of from our own mouths.

First, we’ve moved!! The “saga” of our move began this fall when Tim received a call from a former St. Joseph Light and Power employee who is now a VP with Utilicorp (the company that merged with SJLP last Christmas) at their Raytown (Kansas City) office. He told Tim he was creating several new positions in his department and wanted Tim to consider applying for one. After much thought and prayer we decided he should at least apply and see what came of it. As it turned out, he interviewed and was then offered a position. After more prayer and thought, we decided that the opportunity was too good to pass up even though Tim was happy in his old job and we were hoping to wait a few more years before a move like this. Tim is now working at the office in Raytown. Much of his job will involve production cost modeling of power generation. Lots of computer work which is right up Tim’s alley. So far (after less than a week’s worth on the job!) he’s enjoying it!

The only difficulty with his new job is that his office is 75 miles from St. Joseph. The commute is a little much, so we also needed to move to the Kansas City area. It was heartbreaking to think of leaving friends, church and the home (all my gardens!!) that we’ve grown to love over the past 7 years.

Our house search went pretty quickly. We located a 2-year old home in Greenwood, MO (Everyone’s favorite question now is “Where’s Greenwood?”). Greenwood is a small suburb located south of Lee’s Summit and for most purposes, we can even say we live in Lee’s Summit since we’re so close and all the shopping, etc. is in Lee’s Summit. The house has a beautiful open floor plan indoors and the best thing is that it has a relatively large, flat, fenced backyard!! We wouldn’t even look at a house if the yard wasn’t acceptable for gardening and children playing. We already are toying with plans for where the gardens, shed, swingset, etc. will go. Anyone who wants to swing a hammer next summer is invited to come help Tim build a new shed!

God also blessed us greatly with the sale of our house in St. Joseph. As I write this, we are scheduled to close on it in two more days. We only had the house on the market for 2 weeks and 5 days (including Thanksgiving week) before it sold. We even had THREE offers to consider one night, so we just chose the best of the three, which was for our full asking price! What an unexpected blessing! Moving also went wonderfully. Luckily, Tim’s company provided a moving company that did everything but unpack us once we got here. And I’ve been working very hard to accomplish that ever since we arrived. December 14 was our first full day and night in the new house.

Elisabeth is growing and learning new things all the time. She turned 2 in November and talks in full or near sentences (she just plain talks a LOT!!) and adores reading books. Her other favorite pastime is cooking in her pretend kitchen with all her plastic foods and dishes. We sample many yummy things these days! She’s done really well with the move and seems to enjoy the new house.

Early this year we had unfortunately experienced another miscarriage, but are now happy to announce that we are expecting again, this time due March 28, 2002. All is going very well. We pray now for a safe and healthy delivery this spring.

This summer we were able to travel to Washington, D.C. to visit Tim’s sister, Rachel for the first time since she’s lived there. It was great fun to have her take us around to all the tourist spots. We also spent a week in Iowa at my parents’ house. Tim’s parents were still in the States until April of this year, but have since returned to Taiwan until next summer when they plan to come back for a short visit.

Christmas this year finds us in Greenwood. We’ll probably spend Christmas day with Tim’s brother, Philip, and later in the week my brother and sister-in-law, parents and grandparents plan to come to our house. It’s a good way for them to see our new home and will let us rest a little after all the activity of the past few months. Believe it or not we even got our Christmas tree up on our second day in the house!

We pray as we send this to each of you that 2002 will bring you and your families many of God’s blessings and that in His Son you will find peace and hope!

With love,
Tim, Laura, and Elisabeth
 

NEW ADDRESS AND PHONE: Tim and Laura Nelson 1306 Meadows Lane Greenwood, MO 64034 (816) 537-8891 Email: tlenelson@bigzoo.net