Christmas 2024

Merry Christmas! Fröhliche Weihnachten!  Alles Gute in neuen Jahr 2025!

December 2024

Address update 104 Orvieto Ln., Liberty Hill TX 78642 (we hope to move again in 2025).

2024 has been an adventure. Sean’s deployment brought one good thing – the ability of Mayland to break the lease on the house in Harker Heights. Anyone who heard the story of finding 2-year-old breastmilk in the freezer knows it was not the house that Mayland wanted to live for a day longer than necessary. In March, Mayland moved to the North of Austin to a house with clean baseboards and no breastmilk.

This deployment was interrupted by the passing of Sean’s brother, Kevin on April 25th. It has been challenging to lose him so young. This was after his mother, Cindy, had a stroke in March that left her near blind and in a wheelchair. Cindy was able to come home after 6 months of rehab with a home health aide. The blows kept coming, with Newton passing our cat for 17 years.

He had kidney and pancreas issues and had lived with lots of medication for 4 years with Clark in Germany. It was hard to not be there, as Clark took him one last time to visit the vet. He and MJ were able to spread Newton’s ashes in the woods behind the house in Landstuhl where he had caught mice for 9 years. This week, we received news that Tatzie, 10 years old, has a mass on her lung along with arthritis. We will take her to an oncologist to understand the ramifications of this finding. Fortunately, she is more mobile with anti-inflammatory and pain meds.

The good news is that MJ has found an amazing group of friends at Lesley Univ. and is nearing the half-way point of being finished with a BFA in Illustration. We also enjoyed visits this summer from two Lesley friends, Donnie, freshman roommate and Aviv, MJ’s partner. Clark is wrapping up his bachelor’s with a research project and started coursework in the master’s degree program, some analytical branch of theoretical math – leaving it there. This Christmas, he will make the journey to Texas. Russell and Baleigh are still together and buying a house in Charleston, SC area. How are they all so grown up?

Mayland did a visit in with Clark and Newton, it was interrupted by the passing of Kevin. It was still good to spend time with him and see his friends. Living an ocean apart is not easy.

We have stayed very busy. On the professional front, Mayland continues to serve on boards for non-profits one in providing free health care in Augusta GA and the other restoring the Quaker Meetinghouse of her youth. In addition, she is more than halfway through the dissertation, and still on track to graduate with an EdD Spring 2025. Sean returned from deployment and has been busy helping to usher in the next generation of military critical care physicians and covering ICUs when needed (sometimes traveling). We are working to get back to the DC/MD area this summer, but the military is not always as cooperative as we would like. As with every year, we take what comes, find the good and love that we have such amazing family and friends. Thank you for sharing this journey together.

Love, Peace, and Happiness,