Kentucky Albertsons’ 2025 Christmas Letter

 

Dear Friends and Family,

This year has been packed with blessings, people, and medical issues. But God has been with us every moment.

Emily has visited us in Kentucky in January, May, November, and will be arriving again on December 16 to stay the rest of the year. She has enjoyed being lead teacher in the Red Bird class at Happy Hands Education Center (a Christian deaf preschool in Broken Arrow, OK). This is her 3^rd year of teaching there. This school year she has eight babies, none of whom are deaf, but who have deaf parents or siblings, or parents who are staff. She and her helpers care for them and teach them beginning ASL along the way. Also this year, Emily has completed five classes at Tulsa Community College, giving her an added certificate she was required to obtain for her work.

Jason and Karen have continued to work at God’s Bible School and College, teaching, advising, and doing bunches of other work. Jason also works three shifts/week at Christ Hospital restocking surgery supplies in the evenings. We have enjoyed every time they are able to come and visit us.

Elizabeth has been a blessing to have living with us. She does so many things to help with Janet’s physical needs and the laundry. She continues to work for Shepherds Global Classroom online. This year, she helped with the church’s bus ministry quite a bit. She had a mission trip to West Africa August 23-September 6, and did VBS for the children at Hope4Liberia orphanage. She made herself some new skirts and a dress. She also went on our trips to Ohio, Missouri and Arkansas this summer.

Jeffrey and Lesa still live in Houston, Texas and love the heat there! They both work for Shepherds Global Classroom online. They visited us in June, September (bringing a couple of their Houston SGC co-workers for the SGC Vision Dinner), and December 8-12.  We also saw them in Missouri in August.

Tim and Brenda, Charissa, Felix, and Piper keep very busy in Joplin, Missouri. Tim is always busy with his ABE Paint Team and has been remodeling their kitchen, along with making other home improvements. We saw them in July when we went for an Albertson nephew wedding in Arkansas, in August when we went for a funeral of a friend in Joplin, and Labor Day weekend, when they came up to Columbia, Missouri where we were.  Then they came here for Thanksgiving week, allowing Emily to also be able to come. What blessed times we have had together this year!

Randy and Joy, James, Micah, Jonathan, Jewelyn, Mishael, Mandylyn, and Josiah have seen us several times this year. They came for a few days in April on their way to Tennessee for Interchurch Holiness Convention. We saw most of them in May at Joanna Johnston’s (Joy’s sister) graduation in Salem, Ohio. We met them in New Haven, Indiana in July as they were traveling for a family reunion in Pennsylvania, for breakfast and a short visiting time. Randy surprised us by flying in for Saturday evening through Monday morning in November! It is such a long trip from Mitchell, South Dakota where they live to come to Kentucky and see us, but they are planning to make that drive on December 15 and be with us next week. Randy keeps very busy with his responsibilities at Faith Ministries (church and school), and his ABE Paint Team. Joy homeschools and works in children’s ministries.

Janet was blessed to have her other cataract surgery and other knee replacement done, both in March. Then August 29, on vacation in Missouri, playing a little “stand in one place while I hit the ball right to you” pickleball, she fell and broke her left wrist pretty badly, requiring a plate and many screws on September 3. In April, her cancer scans showed the bone metastasis was advancing again. She has been on two regiments of treatment since then that ended up not helping. The last scans showed more cancer spots in back, ribs, sternum, shoulder, clavicle, and pelvis, plus several lymph nodes. With more cancer areas has come more pain. Since November, her left shoulder has had a great deal of pain and dysfunction, not allowing her to raise her arm or do a lot of self care. Maybe the MRI scheduled for December 17 will shed light on why this has happened. The week of December 15, she will have five radiation treatments for palliative pain control in several targeted areas. She has had to resort to taking a pain pill every six hours to be able to be in less pain. She is now on a new regiment of pills and shots, which caused a rash over most of her body the second week. So the pill schedule is on hold for an extra week of recovery to allow the rash to recede. At the end of the time of the last non-effective treatment, her calcium level was very high (because cancer in the bone dismantles the bone structure, sending calcium into the blood from the bones). We learned that this is a life-threatening situation, to which the oncologist immediately responded with IV fluids and medicine that sent the calcium back to the bones. Her calcium level is checked every visit to keep tabs on what is happening, and we are thankful the last two blood tests have been in normal levels. (We hope that means the new medicines are working to slow the cancer.)

This year, Janet has been blessed to get to make nine large (twin or queen) quilts and six baby blankets. She is hoping to make two more baby blankets as God strengthens her before the year ends. She also made two costumes for the GBS Christmas play. When she wasn’t able to quilt, she proofread for friends who are authors.

Rowen has become the main shopper, cleaner, and cook at our house. He keeps very busy taking care of Janet. In May, he was honored to be a groomsman in the wedding of a former co-worker. We got our driveway enlarged and new front sidewalk put in, and Rowen did a lot of work in our flower beds and yard because of that. He did all the gardening and helped put up corn (given us by our pastors) and tomato catsup this summer. He drove us on several trips to Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, Arkansas, and many doctor appointments! For our 42^nd wedding anniversary in October, we went on a riverboat lunch and two hour cruise. This was a very special time together, before Janet’s health began to decline.

We are thankful to be together, doing life together, loving each other, and knowing God is with us. We are also grateful for the ones who have visited us, showing us how much we are valued and loved by the miles and the time spent with us. So many have given money and meals, and we are blessed by a very caring and praying church. We are encouraged every day knowing there are so many who pray for us, and we feel those prayers holding us.

God is always good, and we feel it more in the harder times—what would we do without Him? We don’t want to even try. He is faithful. He is taking us all the way to Heaven. We are not meant for this earthly life—we are meant for the heavenly, eternal one that was begun when we surrendered to Christ, gave Him our lives, and He came to live in us by His Spirit.

Thank you for praying for us. We also pray for so many who have heavier loads than we do.
Have a blessed Christmas!

Love and Prayers,

Rowen, Janet, and Elizabeth Albertson