Merry Christmas from the Mendicki house! We sincerely pray this letter finds you and your family secure in the love of our Lord Jesus, in whom alone we boast. The sureness of His love, protection, goodness and faithfulness has rarely felt more real than as we walked through the sunshine and shadows of this past year.
We started 2010 with a trip to Florida to celebrate with Steph’s family. First, we celebrated our nephew, Michael, who would be graduating from high school in Alaska later, in May. At the same time, we celebrated a dear family friend, Col. Terry Virts, who got to pilot his first space shuttle mission and be the first astronaut to open the newly installed cupola, also known as “The Window to the World”. For the very first time, astronauts on the space station were able to gaze on the earth’s immense size and beauty in whole, without having to peer through a porthole on the space station or on a screen from the robotic arm’s camera. What a thrill to witness God’s special gift to Terry, and to later hear Terry’s account of that experience! Of course, we also attacked Disneyworld, and for those of you who head there with a large group (we had eleven), we can definitely recommend a place where you can have a big house to yourself, with a private pool in a gated community for less than what you would pay for six at a resort!
Our reveling in the warmth of God’s goodness continued as the school year wound down in May. Our hope was to enjoy a quiet summer without the hustle and bustle school brings. That all changed when PJ proposed the idea of another road trip, this time to California and Oregon. He had business in Santa Maria, so we spent a week around our old romping grounds with some great friends and then tagged on another week and a half to explore northern CA and Oregon to meet up with other dear friends. We returned to five straight weeks of hosting company ourselves. Our lazy summer didn’t play out quite like we planned, but so much better!
In August we found ourselves stepping out of the glorious sunshine into some threatening shadows when Steph’s dad was severely burned in a fire at work. While he was testing a jet engine, a fuel line broke, and created a massive fireball. The heat in the test cell gave him severe 2nd degree burns on 70% of his face, and 3rd degree burns over about 90% of both arms, from his elbows to fingers. The last 4 months have been spent in and out of the Burn ICU with multiple skin graft surgeries, fighting infection, and at home trying to accommodate and adjust to a new, although hopefully temporary, way of life, physical therapy, and healing. The road is long and painful, as nerve regrowth and complete healing will take close to two years. We cannot help but fall at the feet of our Lord in humility, gratefulness, and utmost praise! He has been so faithful, not only in Dad’s protection through the fire, surgeries, infections, and his recovery so far (he is back at work full time, looks fantastic, and is healing well!), but in reminding us that no heartache touches our life without being filtered through His sovereign hands. These shadows are gifts directly from Him that expose any delusion of control we might have. In them, we realize we are not our own, and are given the chance to see His provision and mercy in a more brilliant light. We learn to boast, not in ourselves, a comfortable life or achievements, but in His sustaining grace alone, and we remember that life is beautiful…even in its ugliness… and God is ALWAYS bigger. I (Steph) think I can speak for our whole family when I say we would never have chosen this suffering, but we are so thankful for the work God has done in each of us through it. Thank you for your constant prayers and encouragement to our family these past months! You will never know the depth at which we have felt them!
With the accident, the start of school looked a little different for the girls and me. I have never been more thankful for the flexibility of homeschool! The time we got to spend driving to and from Denver, visiting Dad in the ICU, and cleaning the house before he came home from surgeries are times we cherish, and life lessons in service that, I hope, will stay with the girls forever.
The sun has broken through the clouds since then, and now that we’re getting back to normal (whatever that means), we each have a little more time to pour into our own projects. For me that has been photography. I’ve had a lot of fun getting to know families as we’ve played around and captured life on film. There is still more I want to learn and experiment with, and as God continues to open doors I will gladly jump through!
As for PJ, he continues on in his tenth year at The Aerospace Corporation, trying to live out God’s calling within the space community. He has also discovered the wonderful world of home ministry through home brewing! It is a perfect hobby for his analytical and precise mind, as well as a great way to spend a lengthy time with friends and neighbors discussing life. And his beer is pretty darn good too! My one complaint is that my refrigerator space seems to be steadily decreasing.
Carrie (13) is finishing up her last year of junior high, and continues to grow in beauty inside and out. She tears up a dance floor in her advanced jazz and lyrical class, and was asked to be an assistant teacher this year for the beginning Hip Hop class. I get to sit in the hall and chuckle to myself (only cuz I’ve been there!) as she learns those invaluable lessons of how to manage a squirrely, energetic bunch of four to six year olds, which includes her own sister. She’s doing a great job, though! She makes us love having a teenager in the house, and we are looking forward in glad expectation to her high school years just around the corner.
Mia (10), also is growing up beautifully (and WAY too fast!), and runs on the joy of serving others. She is quick to help out wherever she is, but especially in all matters of cooking and helping Meg with school lessons. She is contemplating switching to violin lessons next year, having fulfilled our requirement of two years on piano. We’ll get our ears readyJ .
Meg constantly fills the house with youthful silliness and energy. She’s quite confident in ALL her abilities, and eager to conquer tasks on her own, no matter how inadequately preparedJ In other words, those eyes on the back of her mother’s head have spectacular vision! She routinely has us rolling in laughter with her wonderful six-year-old insights into life. Halfway through first grade, her reading and writing have grown in leaps and bounds, as has her recorder playing. We no longer have to put her on the other side of the house for practice! She helps us loosen up and not take life so seriously. We are deeply grateful for the daughters God has entrusted to us, and are constantly humbled by the task of raising them!
As we stand at the summit and watch the sun set on 2010, our family gladly boasts in the LORD. He has drawn us even closer to Himself and to each other through repeatedly proving His deep love and faithfulness through HIS sunshine and HIS rain. We earnestly pray you will seek and experience Him in your own life, knowing you are not alone in both the sunshine and shadows. We are looking forward to a busy and beautiful 2011. We hope yours is great as well!
All our love,
PJ, Steph, Carrie, Mia and Meg Mendicki
