January 26th, 2013

I was reminded the other day at work that I haven't updated my blog recently.  It has been a busy time, but not necessarily with anything significant in my family life, or at least out of the ordinary, for whatever passes for that in my life.

Gus playing with bubbles in Disneyland

Gus continues to grow and amaze us all.  He knows his numbers and letters and goes around counting through out the day.  He loves to play with cars and is a delight to play with.  I still don't know how he keeps up so much energy.

Cute picture of Sarah with her hair coming back in

Sarah's hair is growing back in and it looks like it will get curl back to it, despite her insistence that she wants straight hair.  She looks cute with the short hair, though and makes us smile when she isn't ornery.  :)

Lilly is continuing to do well in school.  She loves to learn and read and do math.  She knows her addition and subtraction and a little bit of multiplication, which is far beyond a normal 1st grader.

Lilly's 1st grade school picture

Jess has been a major trooper these past few weeks.  I took a week long trip to Germany, and she managed the house well while I was gone.  She keeps the family together and is the glue for the family.  She is amazing and I am grateful to be married to her.

At work, we recently hired an office in Dresden, Germany.  It was 14 people that we hired and they are joining my department (EC2/KaOS).  I had the opportunity to go over and help with some of the integration and training of them as well as working on goals and what the roadmap looks like now that they are on board.  It has been a busy time and has required a lot of thought as it has disrupted what the plan was previously for the next year by accelerating many parts of it.  It is times like this where I realize what it means to be in management.

There were a couple of impressions that I had as I was flying into Dresden last week.  The first came as I looked out the window and saw rows of apartment complexes that were identical to each other in these small townships.  There was usually a factory nearby and surrounding the apartment buildings were new homes.  It made me realize that when Dresden was part of DDR (East Germany) many of these people live sole to work in the factory and the government provided the housing.  What a hard time it would have been to live in those circumstances.

The second impression came as a surprise to me.  It came also as the plane was descending into Dresden.  I felt how much the Lord loves those people.  It reminded me of the feelings I get for the people in Australia when I think of them and the time I spent with them on my mission.  My parents both served in Germany, but neither were in Dresden.  The nearest they got was Berlin.  But I knew what they felt for the people.  I have pondered on that and it has helped to realize that the Lord loves all of his children deeply.  No matter where they are in the world, he is aware of them and watches over them.  What a humbling thought for me to realize the enormity of the Lord's compassion and love.  This brought me closer to Savior as I was able to get a glimpse of what he feels.

Thank you all for the support that you have given my family.  I am constantly surprised at those who still follow along with the blog and I am grateful for you all.