By
Connie Marks
This Christmas letter will definitely be better that
last years as many of you never received one. I got very sick in the
whole month of December and I just couldn’t finish my 14 page letter. This one
will be shorter. 2004 and 2005 have been very big years as we moved into our
dream River Ranch home on about 50 acres. Many of you got tired of hearing
about the place and had even given up on us getting it, but all of your prayers
were worth it as God did amazing things to get us this country place in Mc Gregor, Tx.
My cousin Jim Lane
helped us get it. After praying at the river about it, we felt certain that
this was where God wanted us to be. Bob was given the scriptures in
Jeremiah about the River and we made our absolutely final offer. I asked
God for an answer on Father’s Day as I was driving Marilee and her friend
Tashley across the country and one half hour later. the realtor called with the
good news. We finally sold our beautiful Lynnwood home and had to say good – bye to so
many wonderful friends. I still can hardly forgive myself for moving, but
we know that God brought us here to Waco
and we have to trust that he knows what is best even if I can hardly stand to
not see my best friends every week. Marilee, Tashley and I drove over
8,000 miles as we went from Texas to Seattle to Washington D.C. to meet Bob for
a Campus Crusade for Christ Faculty Retreat, to our farm in West Virginia for a
week over the 4th of July (where we had a wonderful time with
cousins and Aunt Betty) to my brother Rick’s boat with sailing on Kentucky Lake
and then to Waco to close on our ranch and then to start moving in. Bob
and I moved in for 4 days and then we flew to Budapest for a wonderful 30th Wedding
Anniversary. We had a lot of fun with Don and Hong Wunsch and their son
little Donnie seeing the sights and having bus adventures.
From Budapest we flew to
Seattle for the
fabulous life changing event of Jeremiah and Leslie’s Wedding. They were
joyfully married July 9, 2004 at our church, Alderwood Community
Church. The dinner
reception was especially incredible and made possible by the hard work of many
of my friends such as Trudi Wheeler and Mary Sutton. The prayer by Peter before
going down the isle was a very special highlight for Ann and me. Both of the
moms’s started happily crying at the very beginning. I could write pages, but a
lot of you were there, so I will say that the Wedding Shower that Signe Shuck
and Ginene Ferrell organized was amazing and such a gift to me as well as to
Leslie and I am sure none of us will forget it. Another highlight never to be
forgotten was Joshua’s humorous toast.
After we flew back to Waco and Jeremiah and
Leslie were off on their Honeymoon to Canada, we started to unpack for a couple
of days and then Bob had to fly back to Germany and then on to Paris for
another trip. I was supposed to go, but the tickets got mixed up, so I
stayed home. Marilee was starting her Senior year! Our friend
,Lou Marks also moved in with us and stayed in our party barn. He was a
good sport at hunting down all the 49 hornet nests and biting red ant
piles.
As many of you already know, On August 23, 2004 Joshua
and Matt Wescott were in an almost tragic car accident. They were driving
across the country from Seattle to Texas to start the fall
semester, when an animal, like a fox ran across the road. Josh over
corrected and the S U V went flying and flipping. Joshua broke his neck
at the C-2 vertebrae. A nurse and a police officer saw the wreck and
stopped and saved his life and set his neck exactly right. He was air
lifted to a large hospital in Sioux Fall, S.D. God answered the cry of my
heart and saved Josh. When I way praying one and one half hours before
the wreck God spoke to me through the Holy Spirit and told me Josh would die in
a tragic car wreck! I cried out to God to save him, to send angels to help him
and God did!!! I will never forget all the Lord has done for me this
year. I had to drive 1,000 miles to see Josh in S.D. The Lord took care
of me in every way and instead of 6 weeks in the hospital we were out in 5
days. God provided a wonderful Christian family to take us in and help us
heal and rest until Josh was well enough to ride all the way home to Texas. Bruce and
Bonnie Steventon and their son helped us so very much and were an answer to
prayer and a great example of God’s provision in a time of need.
Many of you have prayed all year for Josh’s recovery. He was
in a terrible head gear and a head brace for 10 months. His recovery was
difficult, painful, and lonely, made bearable by the prayers and wonderful
phone calls from many of you. Alice
was so wonderful to fly immediately to help Matt and Josh. Matt had injured his
knee but otherwise was amazingly unscathed. Just when I thought Josh
could not go on, one of you would visit our ranch to cheer him up and help him
pass through the recovery time. The wonderful visitors included great
friends like Kevin, Sean, Christina, Joel, Signa, Jesse, David, and Uncle Ray
and of course many visits from Grandpa Charlie. Joshua is still building
up his muscles and working with physical therapy and the Chiropractor. Josh has
come so far and we are very encouraged. Josh started M.C. C. this fall
and is happy to be having a full life again.
Marilee graduated from High School this year and we
are so excited that she started Baylor
University this
summer! She really loves Baylor. Her major is still a question
mark, but she has a great attitude. I said what if you have to take
calculus? She said, I won’t worry, I will just walk over to Dad’s office
and he will explain it to me. When he explains it to me I understand it
and I get it. She got her first job working at Hall Mark in the Mall. We
are very proud that she worked hard enough to get into Baylor and Bob loves
having her there. Her grades just came in for the fall semester and she
is doing absolutely fantastic!
Jeremiah and Leslie moved into our guest cottage on
our River Ranch this August. Leslie graduated from Pacific Lutheran
University as a music
major. In April, I flew to Seattle
to hear her sing at her big Senior Performance and she was fabulous. She is
now working on choosing a graduate school for next year. Jeremiah and
Joel started a new business called Kurbmarks last spring. They worked
during the summer painting the stripes on parking lots and they did very well
in their new business adventure. They would like to start a new business
together sometime. Joel has recently moved in to the barn at River Ranch.
After 1 and ½ years of sharing with us, Lou has moved out and gotten his own
home in Waco.
Jeremiah has another year left at Baylor in the Business School.
He has earned two amazing business awards at Baylor. As the leader of the
X Tax Price water house Coopers Competition, recently we were especially
pleased when they announced the Baylor Winners and even more so when his team
was evaluated and chosen to compete for a National Award. The team was
awarded $11,000, fine steak dinners, and a trip to Washington D.C.
In January, Jeremiah and Leslie and his team will be flown to Washington, D. C.
to present their ideas and research on a new tax question. If he wins this
national competition we will really be tooting our horns for the New Year. A
highlight for Jeremiah and Leslie this year was a trip along with her two
sisters and their husbands to visit family in Venezuela.
This last 2 years has really been a roller coaster
life. As long as I keep my eyes on Christ, I seem to do well.
Taking care of Josh consumed by life, but I was very grateful that I was able
to do it and I was happy that Josh could recuperate by the river. One
highlight was Josh and David catching an Alligator Garr fish in out river! It
only took 3 days and new lines and a stronger net to get him.
Josh and Grandpa talked me into two adorable
dachshund puppies to help entertain him during his recuperation. We are
amazed at Ringo and Sweetie. Ringo will even fetch sticks in the middle
of the River while persevering through long belly flop jumps. I also started
raising Dalmatians. I have a girl named Genesis and I am still looking
for a mate for her. She is so sweet and wonderful I can hardly believe
it. Our farm is growing, as we now have chickens. I love to collect
the fresh eggs and Bob loves to eat them as he is still enjoying his low carb
diet. Our orchard is coming along, although we lost two fruit trees from
the armadillos. Now the dogs go hunting at night and corner the armadillo
and Bob comes to the rescue and shoots them. They are cute, but I hate
all the holes and rooted up plants that they destroy. I am even becoming
a hunter with my trap. I have gotten several critters. Next on my
list is to get horses and cows. This spring I painted my horse pasture
fence red and it took a long time as it is about 10 acres. We got some of our
fences mended and now I need to finish the cow pasture. I really love it
here in the country and can hardly wait to get the horses. I am working
on some horse trails, so when you come to visit us, be ready for a great
adventure. We love the weather, most of the time, except for the hot in
the summer. It is 10 degrees cooler by the River with the water and all
of our beautiful live oak trees. Spring and Fall are fabulous. Last week
it was 87 degrees and the next night it froze. Fall and Winter come
around the middle of December. I am so mixed up on the seasons that I am sure
that is why I am not ready for Christmas. Well, that’s my story and I am
sticking to it.
My dad, Charlie, has had another challenging year this
year. He almost died of congestive heart failure at the end of May.
I spent June and July helping him to move out of his Corpus Christi home and in with us. In
August he had a slight stroke and he is recovering quite well. He really loves
to play Rook and Scrabble with all of us almost every night and of course he
enjoys Bob’s movie theatre. He is trying to teach the guys more about
fishing and they are teaching him more about the computer.
Bob is working and working and he loves it. He is
especially pleased with the work is he is doing on Intelligent Design with
William Dembski, a new friend. He says he is tired of traveling and has
cut back his trips quite a bit. He’s finishing a book on engineering.
Josh turned the big 21 this year and he loved the
election debates and getting to vote for the first time. When people come to
visit, we like to visit nearby Crawford, the home of President Bush .
Marilee is the big 18. Marilee enjoyed playing in the senior powder
puff football game. It was great that Signa came for a visit and got to watch
her game. Signa and I had a wonderful time taking walks on the ranch and
of course scrapbooking. Her visit was a great encouragement to me.
We even took a very quick trip to Corpus Christi
with some time on the foggy beach and a tour of San Antonio’s
River along with the Alamo. These are
some of our favorite places to visit when friends from out of town. While
visiting in Seattle,
I also got to spend time with good friends like Signa and Ginene. I also got to
spend time with Alice and we had a wonderful
time scrapbooking at her cottage at Ocean
Shores. Spending time
with Dani and Christina was very special too. Of course I wanted to stay much
longer, but Josh needed me at home, so I am looking forward to more Northwest
visits.
Last year, I assisted Ann Bradley in teaching a
Biblical Womanhood class to Baylor students and a few faculty wives. This
year I am helping to teach a Bible Study/Scrapbooking class at Highland Church. In August I started back
to college and I will be completing Massage
Therapy School
in April and after passing the state exam, I will be a Licensed Registered
Massage Therapist. I am currently working on family and friends to get
extra practice in and of course there are always people who are happy to help
me with my homework! The course work is quite rigorous, but my nursing
back ground is coming in handy as I am currently at the top of the class.
Now we have a great place to visit, and I even give massages so I hope that
will be plenty of motivation for you’ all to come down and visit us! Give
us a call at 254-848-9622 and get your reservation in at the Marks Bed and
Breakfast River Ranch. This Christmas season, we are blessed to have Uncle Ray,
Tashley, and the entire New -house Family visit us for a celebration.
We wish you all a very Happy New Year and hope it is
one filled with hearts and souls that are joyful in the Lord and following in
Christ’s plan, because we have discovered that is the best way to have a Happy
New Year!