Happy New Year from the Perkins Family at Big Oak Ranch!
We survived the month of December and our first Christmas at the ranch. As you can imagine, family holidays are highly emotional times for the boys (and for the houseparents...). Our boys had a great Christmas morning with us, then some were able to spend a few days on "home visits" with extended family. They are all back now and seem happy to be back with us. We will start back into our school routine on Thursday, January 4th.
This was a different kind of Christmas for us. While there was plenty of good Christmas cheer, we really missed being at our home of 20 years with our children, their friends home from college, and our long-time friends. That sense of longing was somewhat offset by the excited faces of the kids when they opened their presents on Christmas morning.
We did get to continue our tradition of spending Christmas evening and the next day with Kim's family in Midland City, Alabama. Nick, our new 12 year old, joined us and had a great time with his "new cousins." We were also able to squeeze in a last minute visit to Pensacola. Prior to this visit, we have been too busy to be homesick but we have to say that it was great to be home again. We would have enjoyed staying longer and getting to visit with everyone but we had to get back to the ranch to take care of our boys and our 5 new baby puppies who were born the night before we returned. Sandy, an abandoned lab-mix, moved in with us about 6 weeks ago. She has fit in quite well with our "mixed" family. Little did we know that she would expand our family so quickly.
We are learning some of the "ropes" of being houseparents and hope that we can continue to improve in this new year. While some of our parenting experience has been helpful, there is much to learn about parenting the children who are now in our care. Their life experiences have been far different than most.
Please keep us and our children in your prayers as we grow in this ministry and adjust to life away from our longtime friends and home. Also, keep our new children in your prayers as they learn to live within our extended family at Big Oak Ranch.
Wishing you a Blessed 2007-- Mike, Kim, Andrew, Haley, Alex, Tim, Steven, Patrick and Nick
