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This news flash is coming to you once again from Fredericksburg, Virginia! You guessed it, we moved again! Don’t ya’ just love it? (I could answer that, but I’ll refrain!).

2001/2002 has been an interesting mix of tough, bittersweet and wonderful. Bridget came home from Calvary Chapel Bible College York, England for Christmas 2000 (glory, was that only a year or so ago?). She shared with us vignettes of her life there. We laughed till we cried and our sides hurt, and then laughed some more. It truly is a gift of Bridget’s to see the funny side of any given moment and make us laugh at it and ourselves!

All too soon 2001 arrived, the holidays were over and we no sooner had we finished to packing away the Christmas decorations than Bridget was packing to return to England. It was so hard to watch her leave again, but the Lord had some special moments for her during that semester! Den was able to spend a few days with her in London in March, while he was on business, and Bridget took several side trips, including one to Scotland! (She can tell you more)

While she was in Scotland, Dennis had a business trip in Melbourne, Australia so Jenny and I tagged along for the week. It was absolutely marvelous, wonderful, delightful, delicious to the taste buds, historic and affordable. (The Aussie $ was worth 52 cents American while we were there), It was like a day after Christmas sale - everyday, everywhere! It was also the best McDonald’s hamburger I’ve ever tasted, and ice cream cones were 15 cents (American)!

Historically, Melbourne is a treasure trove of cultures including Aboriginal natives, an English prison colony, and the Australian Gold rush (many of the miners were Chinese). It's full of wonderful late Victorian architecture, when the gold and silver made her a “Grand city”. We were there in April, so it was autumn in Australia. Warm days, cool nights, basically October in San Diego with a taste of the seasons (lots of fall leaves changing color).

Our hotel was originally the corporate building for a railway built in 1888! Through the renovation of the building into a 4 star hotel and apartments, it retained so much of it’s original look, at times you wanted to walk into someone’s private office, (which are now rental flats, complete with a downstairs, kitchenette, dining room and living room with windows 15-20 feet high, as well as one or two bed rooms and an elegant bath in the loft. Holiday Inn, eat your heart out.

Jenny and I stuffed multiple suitcases with “down under” delights from the shopping arcades and markets. We bought fresh Australian sausages, cheese, and damper (a bread eaten by the outbackers) for breakfast. It was so yummy we’d usually skip lunch, in order to relish the culinary delights of Chinatown, Outback food, and of course an English High tea!

We made a daytrip to Ballarat, a well-done reenactment town of the original gold rush community … vastly interesting and certainly a highlight of our visit. The only other day Den could be with us was a day-trip to the Yarra Valley to an Animal Preserve, Australian style! There were dingoes, kangaroos, kookaburras, the top 5 most poisonous snakes in the world, a baby wombat - you name the marsupial, and we saw it, up close and personal! We didn’t know when we planned this excursion that we would be driving through the “Napa Valley” of Southern Australia. It was an absolutely delightful fall day. We toured some awesome vineyards, ending with a very elegant Champagne winery. On the way home, at the advice of someone who lived in the area, we stopped to sample the clotted cream desserts at “The Dairy”. She said it was the best. I have to say, as a novice mind you, that that was an understatement! 

A glorious day, a marvelous week, and even the 14 hours of flight to get there and 14 hours back, are but a dim memory of a brilliant trip! Just as an aside, while we were packing and repacking our “Down-Under booty”, we watched the Survivor (Outback) finale into the wee hours…it was a unique way to end our stay. In fact I’d say we more than “survived” the experience. Just ask us if we’d go back… in a flash! 

Den’s dad is doing well, for a 76 year old, with 3 strokes, quadruple by-pass, and a rough life! He is in a very good assisted care facility, great staff and is attending a small Calvary Chapel near-by! He has his good days and his bad, but then don’t we all!

Shortly after Bridget returned from school in May, we discovered our precious 13-year-old kitty Minuit had a blood disorder that was treatable, but not curable. We knew that if the illness didn’t kill her, another move would, so we tearfully made our decision to have her put down. Poor Jeeves was still looking for her under the bed, at least until the packers arrived and our lives turned upside down again!

I must confess, I don’t know which is worse…having an incompetent moving company pack your household or doing it all yourself! I have my own opinion, but suffice it to say Den and I really are getting too old for this moving stuff! The entire White House (four adults and a fluffy orange tabby kitty) left Colorado Springs, Colorado, both cars pack tight the very last week in July in a torrential downpour and hailstorm. (It felt a little like being the Colo Spgs Hillbillies) Somehow it seemed an appropriate way to end to our exciting adventures in the Wild, Wild West (the only thing missing was the wind and snow flurries)!

We arrived in Virginia the day before Den was to start his new job (civil servant, or as he says, “going over to the dark side”). This was a tough decision and a big step of faith… after long hours of discussion, and prayer we decided that this was the best time to make this career move, not simply a job change. On paper, “as usual”, we look really dumb, turning down a very tempting offer to remain a civilian contractor… but tempting as it was… the Lord opened the door, we walked through in faith, and here we are, back in Virginia.

The events following the September 11th terrorist attacks, the war on terrorism, and politics in Congress have already changed the playing field in the area of R&D (Research and Development), which Den has been working with closely these last few years. Maybe we weren't so dumb... It will be interesting to watch how the Lord orchestrates the next 12 months for us!

We are now once again in Fredericksburg, settling into our house, putting our accumulated possessions away (in a house that shrunk unbelievably during the last few years). Sometimes it is still confusing, trying to remember which state we are in. Hmm, been here, done that, bought the tee shirt, sweatshirt, and ball-cap (have season tickets)! They say three times a charm and I don’t answer that “Are you going to stay for a while?” question anymore. It all depends on your definition of “a while,” now, doesn’t it?

Slowly, we are renewing old friendships, developing new ones and becoming active once again a church fellowship. (Something that was pretty impossible to do with our family commitments in Co.) Calvary Chapel of Fredericksburg, which has more than doubled in size since we left, is the same, but changed. We three “White girls” are part of one of two worship teams for the mid-week service. Den is the technical advisor for the church, mostly that means he over sees the computers, and the new video overflow operation.

We have added a new feline family member to the White House, a fluffy little girl named Emma. After 3 tense weeks, she and Jeeves are friends and a great source of entertainment. 

Jenny-Rose is no longer working for her Dad, and though she did work a few weeks for BCI when we first arrived, she is now the church’s web-servant, with Den as advisor. It’s her job to put together and keep up to date the church web site, along our own personal family web site. She was recently interviewed by the local paper for an article about Religion in the Web. She did a good job! She also works very hard on her own personal web sites, which give you a window into her soul. She helps me stay sane around here, and is finishing ½ started sewing projects as well as taking an active part in a new young adult group at church. 

Bridget is working at BJ’s a wholesale/retail warehouse, (A Costco wanna- be) as a cashier. Not something she wants to make a career of, but it helps to get her closer to college tuition next fall. She has applied for and was recently accepted, into a 6-week nurses aide course at the local hospital that could to be a path to a higher paying job and possibly help with tuition to nurses school. In talking to nurses and other Doctors, it was recommended that she pursue an RN degree, a good way to qualify for Med School later on!

I am still committed to finishing as much of the first year of the research and writing of the Home Management Curriculum Year 1 this calendar year. The calendar is a little scary, but I discovered long ago to surrender this one to the Lord and let Him do the work though this vessel! I am also considering helping to begin a Home school support group and perhaps teach a beginning sewing class this fall! All these and a few long-term dream projects for the Women’s ministry should keep me on my knees for a while.

Perhaps the hardest goal is closer to the heart, as Den and I struggle to allow the girls now 22 and 20½ (and how scary is that?) to make their own way… allowing them to make mistakes, choices and their own decisions… maybe flounder in judgment, (at least from our point-of-view), and watch them celebrate the victories with friends (not Mom and Dad)… all the-while living side-by-side in the same house! This is especially tough for me as a mom. I still want to fix the hurts, and make everything better… only now, my role is to support them in prayer, be honest when they ask for help, and be quiet until they do! I know that only the Lord knows the absolute best for our very special young ladies. Too often my feelings or opinions get in the way and stumble us both. So… this next year will be interesting! Den too is struggling with his relationship with his daughters, but they rely on his anchor wisdom, as well as computer expertise, and they need his love and hugs to keep them going… We yearn to hold on, but gradually we let go!

In November, the girls and Den went for a week to NYC with a team of 10 other folks from CCFred; to minister to the police, firemen and rescue workers. I stayed at home. First, because in my heart, I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep up with heel spurs in both heels…it was a 7-block walk to the church, from the hotel alone. Personally I was willing to try, because I wanted to help just one hurting person. But, I also knew my alternative was to stay… to set up daily prayer teams and be available to the missions team 24/7. It’s not the most glamorous job and it’s just begging for spiritual warfare… still someone needed to be willing to pray, and give the church body as many opportunities to support the team as possible. So… that’s what I did, and God was faithful…so were those wonderful folks who met with me during the day and every night to pray. (Turns out our team were in NYC when the plane went down in Queens and I was available, to contact anxious families to tell them they were not involved. Defiantly a God thing!) For us all, it was an awesome, life changing experience, and we will never be the same. This family serves an Awesome God, who delights in changing hearts that desire to be more like Him…that is the gift of this season.

I hope that you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and that he is the Lord of your life. If you do not… take a moment to reflect on all that he has created, and the sacrifice He made as His only Son died on a cross for me and for you and then rose again. He gives each one of us the choice to either accept the free gift of salvation, or to reject it. Unlike the thousands started their day at work in the Twin Towers those few months ago, today you can choose to commit your life to Jesus the living God. It's up to you.

We wish you the very merriest of Christmases and the happiest of new years!

DJ for the Whites