Looking Back Over 2009

As hard as it is to realize, it is nearly Christmas, 2009. When I think back over the year, we’ve crawled (sometimes kicking and screaming) over many challenging hurdles, but we’ve enjoyed a lot of positive change, too. We live in a house again. Last year we swept up the living room and put the couch in there and brought a kerosene heater to warm us so we could all sit in one room for Christmas. It was a blast, despite the chill in the air and the ugly, torn apart house. Now we’re comfortable in this house. We have a new stove (the old one was pretty scary—especially when we cooked the Thanksgiving turkey). The furnace works well for overnight and the woodstove makes us toasty whenever we need it! Dana just finished installing electric lights in the shop. And we just got the office finished so we can move our desks and things in there. We have an abundance of new friends. We have an abundance of tried and true old friends, too. Life isn’t always what we envisioned it would be, but we thank God for our lives. He is faithful, through thick and thin.

Our biggest challenges this year involved our kids. We have learned that raising kids isn’t easy and we have had a big serving of humble pie as we try to be the parents they need us to be!

Cody now lives with cousins George and Theresa 300 miles from home. We thank them for taking in our son when he wanted to be on his own. He simply hates being a minor and wants the privileges of adulthood. Hopefully, a month from now he’ll be in the Army at boot camp. That’s a hard fact for me to swallow, but it seems like the best choice for him right now.

It became increasingly obvious this year that we needed to find help for Shane. He was more troubled and more rebellious as the days passed. We were not making any progress in helping him straighten things out. He enrolled at New Horizons Christian Academy in Flagstaff, Arizona, in June. It is a Teen Challenge facility. Like Eli, the only reason he agreed to go was because he wanted to get away from us. He’s still struggling and it is likely that will continue for a while yet. He is being asked to make big changes. It isn’t easy. We thank faithful friends for helping us afford putting another boy in treatment. Shane will be home for a week over Christmas.

Eli continues to excel at Teen Challenge in New Mexico. To complete his program there, he must finish four phases, followed by a re-entry phase. He has taken longer than any other student on each of his four phases, but he got serious and worked hard this past year. He finished his fourth phase on Thanksgiving Day at 2:00 p.m. It was one happy young man that we talked to that evening on our regular weekly phone visit. Eli hasn’t spent a Christmas at home in two years. We’re happy that this year he will be here for two full weeks! Despite the fact that he enrolled at Teen Challenge to leave us, he now is very homesick and wants nothing more than to be home—what a blessing!

Amy lives, eats and breathes horses. She would live in the barn with them if we had a barn. If you manage a conversation with her without talking about horses, it would be a rare kind of conversation indeed. But then if she gets on that topic, it takes nearly an act of Congress to change the subject with her! She enrolled in the local public high school this year, too. That’s been a big change and one that I struggle with. But she’s happy there and she’s starting to love playing her clarinet. Band has been good for her.

Abby is the only one left at home during the day. She’s homeschooling her way through third grade and doing a fine job of it. Recently we realized she wasn’t seeing well and today she had her eye appointment. She is a very discriminating shopper, let me tell you! The clerk that was helping us said things like, “Here’s a pretty pair of red frames. I think they’d look awesome on you.” Abby would reply, “Well, yeah, but think of this. If I want to wear a purple shirt, they won’t look so awesome at ALL! They don’t match. We need to think black or brown—those colors go with anything.” She looks cute in the black frames she chose. And, unlike a week ago, the idea of having to wear glasses isn’t producing tears any more—that’s good progress.

Abby has a big heart. We’re very proud of her for her fundraising efforts this year. A young man from church went to Uganda and told about his trip when he came home. Abby’s heart went out to the orphans in Uganda and she’s been crocheting coasters and making necklaces to sell to make money to send to the orphans. She wants to help with every good cause that comes along.

We were very happy to have Mom visit us twice this year—ten days in June and for two weeks in October. We had such fun both times! In March Mom and I are taking a trip to Ohio together to visit relatives. We are both looking forward to that as well. She’ll take off from Phoenix and I’ll leave from Denver. We meet up in Atlanta and get to travel together from there.

Dana left us at the end of September to spend six months working in Phoenix. We were ecstatic and blessed when he got to come home after just a month. Unfortunately, the reason he got to come home was because business wasn’t good, but we were glad to get him back with us. And he was equally glad to come home. He got to enjoy some hot Phoenix weather and then come home in time for snow!

I continue to try to get Hope House up and running. We’ve been raising money and seeking monthly pledges for a few months now. We’re a long way from the goal, but we’re still trying. If it is meant to be, God will see us through. If not, it won’t be for lack of trying. And I certainly won’t be bored—I am also working with Women’s Resource Center and could give more time there if I had any to give.

The year has been hard on pets, too. Abby has lost chickens to a storm, to accidents, and to coyotes. We’re back down to just six again. We like them running free, but need to get a fenced yard for them for times when the predators are hungry. The coyotes have been showing up each afternoon for the last week. And Maddie died on Labor Day, too. We miss her—she was a very sweet, very cuddly lap dog, despite the fact she was much too big for my lap! We don’t know what killed her. She was sick on Sunday afternoon and dead 24 hours later. I’m thinking we’ll wait until April or May for another dog since no one really relishes the idea of housebreaking a puppy in the middle of winter.

That’s life from this Custer’s perspective just before Christmas. I am so blessed—beyond anything I deserve. I love my Lord more than I ever have and I am truly looking forward to eternity in Heaven, even though I love my life here and now, too. As the years pass, though, we have more and more people waiting for us there. Doesn’t a reunion with loved ones in Heaven sound wonderful? And it is all possible because Christ came to earth . . . don’t forget to thank HIM for His gift this Christmas season. We send our love and best wishes to you for a very Merry Christmas and a great new year to come, too!