Hi! You never know what will come up when you google your own name!!

Let me first start with an apology… I have always felt terrible about the last time I saw you… I was so insistent about getting home that afternoon and was unwilling to change my plans so I could stick around and meet Denise. I don’t know what got into me… thoughtlessness, certainly. Please pass this apology on to Denise. I don’t know if that lousy decision contributed to our losing touch… please accept my apology. While I’m at it, I always felt like I owed your mother and sister an apology for oversleeping and not meeting them the Christmas I came to visit in PA. I’m sorry.

But…
How are you and Denise? Where have the last 15 years taken you? Do you have children? Do you still pursue any adventuresome hobbies? (I checked Jumonville’s website, just curious if this was still adventure camp week, and discovered they now run 16 or so ad camps)

Life is good! John and I will celebrate 13 years of marriage next week. We have four children now. Mark Immanuel came Nov. 2006. They are definitely the center of our universe. I’ve been homeschooling JP 8 and David 6. We moved to the prairie about three years ago to be closer to John’s family. He grew up about 15 miles from our little hobby farm (aka Money Pit). We have 2 cats and 11 chickens and there is talk of venturing into a few goats or sheep, mainly to keep the weeds down. You saw that John and I teach natural family planning classes… we’ve been doing that for about six years. It’s a mostly thankless ministry, but something we feel strongly about. Mostly our social life revolves around church and our homeschool group. We’re part of a small-group that meets for adoration, fellowship, and reading church writings, especially those with a bent toward evangelization. John’s a cradle Catholic. We started attending each other’s churches while we were dating. It took me about 8 years to get past all the misconceptions and misunderstandings I had about Catholicism and convert. Theologically I’m so glad I did. Socially, I wish Catholic churches were doing more to educate and train up their youth. There are so many Catholics who haven’t a clue what their church teaches or what the meaning of different practices or devotions is. Our small group is praying and studying to (with God’s grace) be a part of the re-evangelization of the church within itself. As far as adventuresome hobbies, we love to hike and canoe and camp. With four little ones, it’s a lot more work than it used to be. We’re looking forward to them being able to shoulder a little more of the load:)

We’ve got to get to a church picnic, so I’ll quit for now…
Please e-mail at johnrabaey@starpoint.net.

Jen