Happy New Year!

There's been a lot going on with the Foote family in the year 2007, and the number 107 has something to do with it. Can you guess why the number 107 is significant? Go ahead, try…

Hmmm…is it the number of days counting down until Amy graduates from Wheaton College? (Nope, She graduates on May 11, that’s more like a 132 days away.)

How about…the number of combined hours per week that Dr. Kara and Dr. Chris Ebersole work in their residencies? (No, but there are many weeks when 107 hours would look good! The American Medical Association allows new docs to work as many as 80 hours each week and there are times when Chris and Kara hit or go over the limit.)

Wait…maybe it’s the number of dollars (in thousands) that Josh and Jess are paying for their brand new condo? (If you think this is the price of a condo, you either live in a different state or haven’t bought real estate in decades!)

OK I think I’ve got it…is it the number of years you get when you combine the ages of Evan and Linda? (Pretty close, but 107 was their combined age last year.)

Wait a minute, since this is the Foote’s end-of-the-year Christmas letter, 107 is probably the number of blessings the family experienced this year, right? Well, I don’t know. Let’s start counting a few of them…
 

• Linda and Evan traveled to Chicago to see Amy singing a lead role in the opera, Too Many Sopranos in January. Of course they got to see Kara and Chris while they were there too!
 

• Linda was lucky enough to fly back to Chicago in April to see Amy's junior year voice recital.

• Amy spent the summer in a wonderful and challenging job working with homeless in San Francisco. (See her page for all the details!)

• Jessica graduated with her MBA degree from Pepperdine and also got a new job in San Diego!!!

• Josh and Jess moved down to San Diego (We're THRILLED!) and have finally found a great condo they’re moving into right before Christmas.  We loved having them stay with us during the months of searching and waiting for escrow to close.

• Josh is teaching Junior High students at a local private school.

• Josh and Jess recently told us the great news that they are expecting our first grandchild in July!! (See first photo on Josh and Jess' page)

• Chris graduated with his doctor’s degree in May (way to go, Chris) and is specializing in radiology.

• Kara is specializing in pediatrics—they are both still in the Chicago area. What a blessing that after a year of interviewing all over the country, they were able to get  residencies close together in Chicago.

·  In October we once again survived the wildfires of San Diego County. Linda got us all involved trying to help some of the horse owners from Ramona who were trying to house their horses in the Costco cart corrals during the week of fires. You can read the full story in her account on the Scholastic web site. Our hearts go out to all our friends and colleagues who lost homes. 



• Linda and Evan got to go to Chicago for Thanksgiving, and while they were there Kris Hiew, (a friend who grew up with their kids) flew in to visit with his family.  They were able to catch up with him over breakfast with Amy in Wheaton. Kris has been drilling wells in third world countries with  Water for All International.

·  At Thanksgiving we also had a lot of fun watching it snow and enjoying the girl's continued tradition of doing "crafts" together.  This year their energies went to decorating gingerbread cookies. Though it was snowing outside, somehow, Amy created a "CA surfer" cookie.  They'll always be CA girls at heart! (Of course one cookie had to have red hair!)

· Chris and Kara got to come to Poway for Christmas!  That meant we had all the kids home for Christmas for the first time in a while and we were happy parents!!  Here they are on Christmas with Evan's mom and their cousin Nicole.

• Linda’s job in education is both challenging and rewarding and has allowed us to travel to a number of places this year.  In New York City we saw The Bodies exhibit and a Broadway musical.  Linda always loves meeting with her friends from Scholastic.

• Evan’s job in ministry is also challenging and rewarding and has allowed us to journey through life together with some wonderful people in our church and community.

• Both Evan’s mother (Lonelle) and Linda’s mother (Mildred) have moved to very nice residence facilities this year where their physical and social needs can be addressed well.  (Both are experiencing dementia.) They are not far from each other, so it makes it easier for us to have fun visits with them. One day this year Linda's mom was made Queen for the Day and we enjoyed lunch with her and Linda's brother and his wife.

• Linda’s father (Clyde) is still at the VA Nursing Home in Long Beach, but he came through a very serious surgery this December very well.  We're all hopeful this will improve his health. We had fun visiting him and singing for him on Christmas.

• There are of course blessings all around us every day, but that wouldn't add up to exactly 107. 

Ok, getting back to the number 107…Have you guessed it yet? Do you give up? OK, here’s the answer … 107 is the number of days we spent living in a hotel (from March through June) while our house was being repaired from a broken water pipe. Let's just say it is not a good sign to see water pouring out the front door when you arrive home from work.  Thank goodness our wonderful neighbors, Dave and Tanya MacMartin noticed the problem when they got home an hour before us and turned off the water for us! There would have been MORE than 2 inches of water in every room if they hadn't!

It was a real mess, and very inconvenient, but the end result was that our house has been remodeled and the insurance paid for most of it.  We did choose to do some of the repairs and upgrades ourselves. One of Evan's boyhood friends, Dale Ward installed beautiful marble to cover the flood damage on the fireplace bricks.  Evan did all the wood work around it.  Hey, what's Jessie the dog doing on the new carpet?

While we're thankful for all our blessings, we know that every year has it's sorrows and challenges too.  Our hearts have ached with many of our friends and family members through long illnesses, deaths, and great challenges.

A few weeks ago we discovered Linda has another nodule in her lung that they will be watching closely. But, whether we are experiencing challenges or blessings, everything is good when we have faith and good friends to walk with us and pray for us on the journey.

So it truly has been a blessed year and we pray that God will pour out His richest blessings on you in the year to come.

Evan and Linda Foote
Along with Josh, Jessica, Kara, Chris and Amy