2009 at a Glance

The year 2009 has been another big year for the Vicena family. We began the year with 6 week old baby Isaac and have enjoyed the adventure of becoming a family of five. In January, Josh was offered a position in a urology program up in Detroit, MI. We accepted and began preparing for the move from Columbus, OH to Michigan. While we were very excited for the new career oportunity and felt that it was an option that God literally dropped into our laps, the prospect of moving was diffcult. We spent the Spring months of 2009 soaking up every last minute we could with our wonderful friends in Columbus. In June we made the move (with some major help from family and some of the BEST friends in the world) to Michigan. We spent July and August enjoying the summer and getting unpacked and settled into our new house. August brought a fun chance to meet up with our dear friends, the Ross girls, at my parents' house for a couple of days. That was a major highlight for the kids and me as we were all pretty homesick for Columbus. Another major highlight was our big trip to Rochester, NY to see my brother, Ben, and his wife and kiddos. We had such a great time on our first big cousin vacation! Then we were greeted by my friends from college, the Linds and Galmarinis, when we got back to Michigan for labor day weekend. The big adventure in September was Seth beginning school. He LOVES it! And I love to see my big boy's excited face every day as he tells me all about his day at school. We enjoyed the Fall with some fun family get togethers, trick or treating, and time with friends. God has blessed us with some good friends from our ORU days here in Michigan and the Neufeldts have been huge for helping us transition to Detroit. We are loving the time we get to spend with them now that we live close! Another great weekend for me was a women's retreat I attended with my mom. We had a great time growing in the Lord, staying in hotels, going shopping, and then I was lucky enough to get to see several of my Columbus, doctors wife, girlfriends for coffee and dessert. That did my heart good and I needed it. (Thanks girls!) Thankgiving brought tons of excitement with Josh's sister visitng and my brother, Dan, and his wife surprising us with a visit. We jumped right into the Christmas spirit in December and have enjoyed just spending time as a family and talking more about the incredible gift of Jesus 2000 years ago. While the past couple of months have brought a couple mildly stressful situations; like Seth's possible dignosis of cerebral palsey, Lilah's first major facial injury, and Isaac swallowing velcro (yes, we are still waiting for that to pass)... it has ultimately been a blessed time with family. I am hoping the year 2010 brings many more joyful times together and that we contiue to get settled into Michigan and find our place here. We're still kind of working on that. The year 2009 wasn't the easiest year, but we learned that God is faithful and that He provides and that He works out every little detail. So Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends and may 2010 be a great year for all of us! Love you!