beth is 21

It's hard to believe that our first baby is already 21. When did that happen?

This last year has been a year of major decisions for Bethany. It was sometime around her birthday last year that she decided to stay at Providence for another year. This came as a huge surprise to us and was just as thrilling to the president of her college as it was to us. He had written to us earlier in the year about Bethany leaving and was trying to imagine the college next year without Bethany attending. He was not looking forward to it. The decision to stay at Prov for another year meant that Bethany would be living with us in Canada which was another big decision for her but one that we were quite pleased about! She came back to Germany in May last year and went to work for a local tea house which tested both her stamina and patience! It was a challenging job in many ways but she kept her shoulder to the plow and carried on until she had made enough money to buy her first car.

Beth also decided that Music Therapy was not for her after all and decided to stay in the Music Major program and finish her BA in Music. This summer she is going to take the intense and intensive TESOL program at Prov to get her English teaching accreditation. Last night she celebrated her birthday with some of her dear friends from college. What a lovely group of young women they are.
And this morning was the traditional gift opening in our bedroom. It's so nice that in the midst of all the changes we've experienced this last year, and in some ways continue to experience, there are still those things that are still the same. We love you, Bethany Jean, and we are so proud of you and of who you are. You are such a blessing to us and your gift of life and love of music has blessed more people than you can imagine!