Christmas 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

The time has come again to share warm Holiday Greetings with you all! This year has been full of even more travelling for our family than usual. In February, Mustu was taken for a native Hawaiian on our yearly respite to Maui. He is now at home in Bangladesh studying hard to obtain his high school certificate and hopes to study Architecture here in the U.S. We almost made it to Finland in July for Tia’s wedding, but unfortunately changes at Nancy’s work made this impossible. Tia and Kirik were married July 12th in Espoo. They are living in the Helsinki area. We are hopeful to see all our Finnish family in the near future as Nancy has been invited to come and teach there again.

In September, Rick and Dale joined Nancy on a teaching trip to Germany. There we were able to visit with Ulrike and her family and parents near Frankfurt. Ulrike, Fabrice, their sons Julien and Mathieu still live in Mulhouse, France. Amrei travelled up to visit for several days from Constance where she is studying to be a Math & English teacher. Kirsten, who is starting her third year of study in Social Work in The Netherlands, drove down to Dusseldorf with her parents to share an evening with us. A cancellation in one of Nancy’s courses, opened a week for us to travel to Moscow and visit with Tanya, Alex, Gene and her family including a wonderful week-end at the dacha with Baba (Grandma). Unfortunately, her father was in the hospital with back problems. Tanya is a private English teacher.

On our way back to Germany, we were able to over-night with Christie and Christian Skoorsmith in Rotterdam. He is the Mission Center President for Europe and they are expecting a child. We visited for a few days with Mette, Frans, Marcus and her family in Odense, Denmark, after Nancy taught for a day in Copenhagen. She is a Pharmacist and has just had a new baby girl, Victoria.

While we were gone, a new family member, Sachino Miskey (Jeff Miskey’s daughter), arrived at our home. She is attending South Seattle Community College and is a delightful addition to the family. Rick’s wheelchair was badly damaged on the flight home and has been in the “hospital” for more that a month; NW Airlines will pay that bill! We also arrived home to Seattle to a very wet house from a burst kitchen pipe. Thanks to household insurance, everything is now back to normal and we had a good excuse to do lots of sorting and throwing away of unused items.

We will be spending Christmas and New Years in Santiago, Chile with Vale and her family. Vale is just finishing up her studies so will be free to show us Chile. From there we will travel to Salvador, Brazil for Mila’s wedding and have opportunity to share time with her family before returning home January 15th. Mila and Sandro will be married on January 11th. We look forward to sharing their special moment. Karina and family are in Bolivia where they have their “farm” growing Soybeans and Sunflowers. We would love to be able to visit them during our trip to South America but time and airline connections just will not allow it. Dale has lost their email address and hopes to find it again.

Dale e-mailed everyone for up-dates so here goes. Malin is studying at University in Linköping (Sweden's 4th or 5thcity). She is taking the Industrial Engineering and Management Program which is Engineering and Marketing combined. Marlene, Alex and Enea have moved into her grandmother’s home in Olten, Switzerland. She is a Pharmacist working in Bern. Alex is thinking about doing post-graduate work in Friday Harbor, WA after graduation, so they may be close by for a while. Sarah, Richie, and their daughters, Ellie & Elke, are living in Cornwall, England. She is expecting her third child next March and is studying hard for a degree in nutritional medicine. They are planning on returning to Australia in the next few years.

Music is studying to be a dentist at a university near her home in Thailand. We have lost complete contact with Eve whom we think has returned to Thailand. Dad has been trying to find her.

Sanna and Pauli have a new daughter, Saana. Their son, Pyry, is thrilled to have a little sister. Rosemond is studying in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and working at a local Walgreens pharmacy. Annelies continues to work for TVH Corporation in Belgium. We do know she has a new “fellow”, Nicolas. We hope to meet him the next time we are in Belgium. Isabelle is studying at the University of Technology in Dresden, Germany.

This year we have not heard from Ayumi, Ivan and Humberto. Ayumi was working in Osaka and raising her daughter, Aine. Humberto should be in Barcelona, Spain working as a Media Planner. We expect Ivan to be running an accounting business in Bratislava for his father.

Rick is sad because the Sonics basketball team he worked for moved to Oklahoma City. Thankfully, he still works for the women’s team, the Storm, and he keeps busy with weekly Fitness Center and Swim Therapy work-outs. He is a greeter and helps collect the offering each Sunday.

Stef and Jim keep us informed of houses that are for sale in the Tucson area. Maybe we will wear Dale down yet and become winter snowbirds there. They are very settled in their jobs, enjoy trips with a local biking group and entertain Dale and Rick for Spring Training games every March.

Annie and Matt are also very busy with work and friends. She cannot quite believe that she is about to celebrate her 10th anniversary with Dynamic Computing. She raised her second crop of dahlias this past summer, but says they will remain in the ground over the winter. If they freeze, Dad will always give her more.

Dale is busier with retirement that when he was working. He is in his 23rd+ year as Secretary of the Puget Sound Dahlia Association and is both Recorder and Facilities Manager for our church. Genealogy has become his hobby at the computer. He continues to keep in touch with almost all of our exchange sons & daughters via the INTERNET & SKYPE and is frantically trying to keep the web pages updated (http://www.ayfudad.com). Our email is ayfudad2@comcast.net and if you are using MSN Messenger, his ID is ayfudad2@home.com

Nancy continues to work for Dynamic Family Services (Children’s Therapy Center of Kent was reorganized into different legal groups to satisfy new government regulations. DFS is the umbrella organization). She works primarily with orthotics (DOS) but also limited therapy appointments & consults (CTC of Kent). The Center continues to grow in all of its programs. Teaching trips in April & September continue in Europe bringing more wonderful professional connections & friendships in distant places. She keeps busy as assistant pastor for our Rainier Valley church congregation.

We hold each of you in our hearts and send BIG WARM HUGS, which we wish that we could give in person. RICH BLESSINGS of this season and the year 2008. God bless you all.

                    


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