Dear Friends and Family,
Another year has flown by!
The parental Albertsons have been too busy to even blog this year. To those who we disappointed, we are
sorry! We depend on Emily’s blog to be
enough for the monthly updates.
January started out with two trips to Missouri—one to
celebrate a late Christmas with the Scoles family and buy our former quilter’s
quilting machine and table. Within two
weeks we were back there for a much sadder occasion—the loss of our newest
brother-in-law. Many of our friends have
lost someone to Covid this year. It has
been rough! But when our loved ones
served Jesus, death is a temporary loss; we will meet again in heaven someday.
In February, we gained a new grandson. Josiah Nathaniel Peter Albertson was born Feb.
2 to Randy and Joy, making their family complete with five boys and two
girls! Josiah was born with bladder
extrophy (his bladder was outside his body).
The ultrasounds had prepared them for this and they were at Mayo in
Minnesota for the birth. A few days
later, Joy had a SCAD heart attack (Spontaneous carotid artery dissection). We were glad they were where doctors knew
what it was and what to do. God has been
so good to their family, saving Joy’s life and helping her to recover. We are thankful for all the prayers and the
people who were nearby who have helped in so many ways. In July, the three Kentucky Albertsons flew
to South Dakota for 12 days and stayed with the other six kids while Josiah had
a major surgery fixing his bladder and reshaping his hip bones. Following that was another long recovery time
when God helped the whole family as Josiah needed a lot of care and had to be
pretty flat with lots of rods and screws holding his bones together while they
healed.
In April, our oldest granddaughter, Charissa, Tim’s oldest, had
a close call with ketoacidosis and could have died. We are thankful for the care she received
from pediatric diabetes doctors in Springfield, MO to save her life! We are also thankful for the many prayers
people prayed for her. Being a 9 year
old Type 1 Diabetic is no picnic! She
and her parents have been brave as they learned to calculate carbs, give shots,
constantly monitor blood glucose and respond to the roller coaster that comes
with T1D.
In March, Emily was privileged to go on a Missions trip to
Honduras for 10 days with a group from GBS.
It was a wonderful and growing experience for her. In May, Emily finished her Junior year of
college, worked fulltime at Chick-fil-A all summer, and on Saturdays only after
school started again—until November 6, which was her last day of work. She had worked there for five years—as long
as it had been opened. She is greatly
missed, but she needs more time to study and less stressful weekends with her
advanced ASL classes and a heavy school load.
She is also in both band and choir and some weekends she travels for
band or choir services.
Elizabeth has lived in Bedford, Indiana for over a year now,
and we were able to help complete her efficiency apartment and get her moved in
and settled. She is busy and fulfilled
working for Evangelistic Faith Missions and Shepherds Global Classroom. In March, she began a year of leading the Joy
Ambassadors, the junior church ministry at Faith Mission Church. She doesn’t get to come home for weekends
much because of this responsibility, but we sometimes go see her and she comes
for occasions when she can get back for Sunday.
Jeffrey and Lesa didn’t get to come for Janet’s early 60th
birthday party in August when almost everybody else came, but they spent a wonderful week
with us in September. It’s a long ways
from Houston! We are hoping everybody
can be here for after Christmas time. Jason
and Karen are both busy teaching at God’s Bible School. We are glad we get to see them pretty often
and they are happy serving Jesus.
Rowen has continued to install for Budget Blinds and
Tailored Living and been exhausted most days at the end of the day. He has given notice that he is going
part-time January 3. We’re praying they
will have the help they need so he doesn’t have to feel guilty about working
less. With the >20 years of having
diabetes, the strength and endurance are not enough for the rigorous days. We were saddened with the loss of Rowen’s
boss from Covid in October. His wife and daughter are keeping the company
going.
Janet has enjoyed making quilts and table runners this
year. It is very satisfying to have the
quilting machine and be able to quilt our own projects! Rowen and Janet both had Covid early May,
which gave needed time off to make a queen size quilt for our “adopted” GBS
daughter’s wedding gift. The three of us
took a weekend trip to Michigan for that wedding in June.
Perhaps many of you know already about the new health
challenge Janet is facing. After not
having a doctor since moving to KY, that was a priority this year, and to have
a close look to see how she really was, since ten years had passed since her
breast cancer in 2011. MRIs, CT scans
showed multiple lesions indicative of bone metastasis and a bone biopsy
confirmed this in September. God has
provided a Drug Study for her to be in which makes most of the treatment and
testing free, after getting in the study.
She is on anti-hormone medicines orally, which have only had a couple side
effects. Mouth sores is one side effect. The other is lowered white blood cell
count. One of the medicines has been
stopped until the wbcs come back up, and the dosage lowered twice. Now it should be the right dosage to not
deplete the wbcs. In the study, she will
have scans every 12 weeks to see the progress.
The goal is to stop the progression of the bone cancer, and to shrink
the cancer. She also gets a shot to
strengthen the weak places in the bones to prevent fractures. Outside of a miracle, a cure is not expected,
but remission is hoped for. We are very
thankful that this was caught early enough to not be in dreadful pain, and
besides being careful not to lift too heavy of objects or get germs from people,
she is able to do everything normally at home and continue working at God’s
Bible School at a job she loves.
We’ve been thankful for all the prayers and care of so many
people. It seems like we or those we
love had been on many prayer lists this year.
What would we do without God’s family?
Our church has been so good to carry the load too.
More and more we realize that “this world is not our home,
we are just passing through. Our
treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue…” We are more determined than ever to live for
Jesus, to make a difference, to make it to heaven, and take others with
us. God has been so good to us! We have no complaints. God is good all the time! We pray you each have a Christ-filled
Christmas!
In Christ’s love,
Rowen, Janet, and Emily Albertson
Rowen, Janet, Emily, and Elizabeth on Thanksgiving Day on the porch
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