Bronwyn (age 3) was the cause for a family celebration in February as 21 years of diapering in the Unverzagt household drew to a close! Bronwyn is an energetic little girl with a big vocabulary who likes to sing, climb, and do everything herself (which causes lots of messes). To quote Grandma U: “If this is your last one, you’re sure going out with a bang!”
Finn (age 4) is a sweet little boy who is a sidekick to his brother Anders. Finn likes being read to, playing with toy army men and Lincoln Logs, and listening to “Life at the Pond” story CD’s. This summer he got to travel to Canada with four older siblings so he could play with cousins. It was better than a trip to Disneyland!
Anders (age 7) loves to sleep in his tent, even if it’s just set up in the living room. He enjoys riding bike, swimming, listening to “Patch the Pirate” CD’s, and playing soccer or basketball with his older brothers. He was very excited to get to play on a little kids’ basketball team this fall. Anders is in first grade and is having fun taking piano lessons.
Berit (age 8) was the first child in the family to get a repeat case of Lymes Disease, bringing the family total up to five cases now. (We live around lots of deer ticks!) Berit enjoyed entering items in the county fair for the first time this summer. Also, she and two sisters had the honor of being part of a drama that did so well at two levels that it was eligible for performance at the Wisconsin State Fair! Berit is in third grade and loves to swim, skate, read, play with friends, and talk on the phone.
Zofeyah (age 10) is a vivacious child who always has a project in the works. She has a special place in her heart for all our chickens and ducks, so she spends lots of time in the coop. She really enjoys the geography and science classes she takes at the homeschool co-op that she and several siblings are a part of. Some of her favorite activities are playing outside, cheering for the Vikings, swimming, and working in her science lab. She is in fourth grade and can’t wait until she can go hunting with her dad.
Emma (12) was finally old enough this summer to join youth group. She was thrilled! She also got to attend her first FLY (Free Lutheran Youth) Convention in Estes Park, CO. Emma enjoys playing her tin whistle, jumping on her pogo stick (500 consecutive bounces on record so far!), reading, helping with a class of 4 and 5-year-olds during women’s Bible study each week, swimming, sleeping in, drinking coffee, listening to music and “Adventures in Odyssey” online, and playing on the Monroe County Warriors girls’ basketball team. She is in seventh grade and is an expert on sea creatures, her favorite reading topic.
Sigre (14) got contacts and got her ears pierced this year, which made it a very momentous year! She teaches a class of 2 and 3-year-olds every Wednesday morning during women’s Bible study. She enjoys choir, playing basketball, reading, swimming, hanging out with friends, performing with Faith on Fire drama ministry, decorating cakes, taking pictures, and attending youth group. Sigre had a fun time when she went to Canada to help babysit cousins this summer and when she got to travel with family friends as a nanny. She is in ninth grade and attempting to learn Hungarian, because she would love to go back to Hungary on another missions trip sometime.
Leif (17) is a senior this year. He works quite a few hours a week at Quiznos but still finds time to play soccer and basketball. Last spring he and some of the other players on the Monroe County Warriors basketball team got the opportunity to play in the National Christian Homeschool Championships in Springfield, MO, where they were Div. III 2A champs. Leif enjoys reading, hunting, reading WHILE hunting, performing with Faith on Fire drama ministry, and playing any sort of sport. He recently started changing oil on our vehicles for us, which we all really appreciate, and he started playing the cajon (box drum) with the youth group praise team.
Britton (19) became the third alumnus of the Millpond Academy Homeschool when he graduated this past May. He enjoys his job of being a personal care worker in a group home helping disabled adults and loves his job of coaching the Monroe County JV basketball team. Last June, Grandma Unverzagt surprised him with a train trip to Springfield, MA, to visit the Basketball Hall of Fame. They arrived shortly after a tornado tore through the town! Thankfully their trip wasn’t hindered, and they had a wonderful experience. Britton continues to serve our church by running the sound booth on Sunday mornings and for the women’s weekly Bible study. His final Faith on Fire performance will be in mid-December. They will be losing a fine actor.
Gretchen (20) is in the thick of nursing school at Western Technical College (WTC) in La Crosse, WI. She has discovered that the warning she was given before starting—you will have no life; all you will do is nursing—was accurate! She and Analaya made a huge change in their lives (and ours) this summer by moving out of our house and into an apartment near school. (Once we got over the emptiness here, we started enjoying the extra bedroom space!) So she comes home occasionally to visit and to practice abdominal assessments and blood pressures on us! After Gretchen finished her time of Bible school in Albania last winter, she and Analaya had a great adventure backpacking their way around Europe. Gretchen loves her job working with mentally and physically disabled children and getting to nanny one day a week.
Analaya (22) finds great satisfaction in assisting with the youth group at church and the opportunities that provides for her to mentor teen girls. She remains quite active in many ministries of our church including music, VBS (she, Gretchen, and a friend wrote and directed “The Chronicles of Israel” this summer), and coordinating the annual Christmas cookie fundraiser for the youth, to name a few. She also had the opportunity to teach an elective session at the FLY convention in July as well as work on staff. Analaya is taking a few general classes at WTC this year. She is a CNA and loves her job working with handicapped children, and her love of photography has landed her a few jobs on the side.
Hope still enjoys homeschooling, sixteen years into the project! She scores essays online for Pearson Education during the spring scoring season and generally gets an opportunity to write a series of articles each winter for a website. She enjoys reading Christian fiction, watching the children’s sporting events, organizing, going to garage sales, spending time with family, doing a Bible study via email with special friends and family, and drinking Caribou Mint Condition coffee (when the opportunity arises)! Hope finds most of her time spent in planning, scheduling, encouraging, teaching, training, and cleaning up afterwards…but she wouldn’t have it any other way!
Jonathan built three disc golf “holes” in our yard this summer, so the men of the family don’t have to go far to play one of their favorite games. He had the opportunity to attend the Answers in Genesis Mega Conference in Petersburg, KY, in July and to speak at a church in El Campo, TX, this fall where he got to go salt water fishing for the first time and hold a baby alligator, also for the first time. In his free time Jonathan coaches varsity basketball. He continues to serve Christ Is Lord Lutheran Church as a senior pastor and is continually grateful for such a wonderful congregation!
And the big news...
on November 23rd, Ryan proposed to Gretchen, and she said YES! We are thrilled! Ryan and Gretchen met two years ago after being introduced by Auntie Ingrid Dyrud Watts, who attends the same church as Ryan and his family in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Ryan graduated from Colombia Bible College in Abbottsford, BC, in the spring of 2011, with a degree in Worship Arts. He is currently employed by Rosser Holsteins in Winnipeg. After the complexities of maintaining an international courtship, Ryan and Gretchen look forward to settling down in La Crosse, WI, while Gretchen finishes her last year of nursing school after their July 21, 2012, wedding. We thank the Lord for bringing such a wonderful, Christian young man into our family
