Christmas Letter 2007

This Years Christmas Letter is Brought to you by Charles and Chase

Stout’s 2007 in Review

January-We spent 15 days traveling in Rajasthan, India, 30 Dec thru 14 Jan. The state of Rajasthan is in the desert region of India and is still like something out of “Tales of the Arabian Nights.”

We along with 1,000s of other India tourist were visiting the Taj Mahal on New Year day. The marble changes colors from bright white to a rich golden sheen, then slowly turns pink, red and finally blue with the changing light as the sun sets. It was cool because it was made out of marble and gems.

Our favorite part of the trip was our 3-day Camel Safari. We absolutely loved it! It was cool how you just sit on a camel and having it stand up- you have to hold on for dear life or you will first fall off frontward then fall off backwards. Sleeping under the stars on the sand dunes was excellent because you can’t see the stars in Dhaka. The Sunset was beautiful over the desert!

March-CJ’s Birthday 26^th (AKA Bangladesh Independence Day). CJ had 5 friends over and turn 4 years old.

April-We went to St. Martin’s Island, farthest point of Bangladesh. The boat ride took 2 hours.CJ threw up on the boat ride (disgusting) while the boat rocked from side to side. At the island, there was no electricity so the hotels used generators. The island was cool because of all the coral.

Chase’s and Chad’s Birthday party were together at our house for Friday and the kids stayed over for a sleepover if they could then on Saturday we went to ‘Fantasy Kingdom water park’ for our second part of the party. Chase and Chad had a great birthday- 11 and 8 years old respectively.

May- Charles played at church. He played My Redeemer Lives on the piano and sang- he was (really) good.

June-It was the last month of school and it finished on 14^th of June 12:00 o’clock.

Then we went to USA for summer break in Pennsylvania at our grandmother’s house for around 2 months and it was AWSOME because we got to see our relatives and eat good food. YUM YUM!!

July- A Bangladeshi, Kajal replaced our dad in his job for country director of Compassion Bangladesh. Now Dad is in the region of Asia and supports 7 countries. We also went to Cap Cod for a wedding but the kids weren’t aloud so we had a babysitter (first time ever). There we went to the beach. The sand was very gritty- OW! We also went to New York city with our cousin’s the Hasties and saw all the sites there. We liked going there because

· We went up to the top of the Empire State Building

· The subway was cool

· The Staten Island ferry ride. (We saw the Statue of Liberty)

The last trip we took was going to North Carolina to meet our friends the Morrison’s that used to live in Bangladesh; they are from America. We liked going there because they are our good friends.

August-We went back to Bangladesh and started school. Charles’ Homeroom teacher is Mr. Robinson. He is from Australia. Chase’s homeroom teacher is Mr. Ferdinando. He’s from England. Chad’s homeroom teacher is Mrs. Snowden who is from England and CJ’s is Mrs. Doorey from New Zealand.

September-Charles, and Chase had dengue. Chad had something like it but his blood test confirmed that he didn’t have dengue. We skipped a week of school. Dad had hepatitis A for about 3 months Sept-Nov.

October-Charles’ birthday party was at our house. He had 5 friends over. We went bowling and the party was a sleep over.

We went to America, just Charles and Chase with Dad for Elliot Moore’s wedding for a week. We also got to see Evan Moore’s college, Grove City and spent a Night a cousin Nick’s apartment in the Philly area.

November-Our aunt Prova’s friend, Dipty was getting married and we all went. Chad was the ring bearer. Charles played and sang a song at the start of the wedding (solo). The song was called ‘Testify to Love’. The food was good (as always).

December-Chad was in a choir and had a concert on the 8^th. For our Christmas Productions at school we did plays. Charles’s wrote the play for his class called “Santa meets Jesus.” Charles was Santa. In Chase’s play he was Zachariah and in Chad’s play he was a sheep named Shaun.

Back to Dad and Mom:

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

From Kevin, Nita, Charles, Chase, Chad and CJ

Thought for Christmas:

“Jesus provides an oasis of grace in the desert of grief.”

During the Christmas season, we often read Isaiah’s prophecies of the coming Messiah who would be born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14) and called “wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (9:6). But perhaps we should also include the words of Isaiah 53: “He is … a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief … Surely He has borne our grief and carried our sorrows … And by His stripes we are healed” (vv.3-5). The psalmist reminds us “The Lord heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” Ps. 147:3

Have a wonderful Christmas Holiday- Jesus is here for you!!!!

Visit the Stout’s Adventures (blog) at: http://stoutboys.blogspot.com/

kstout@bd.ci.org

12290 Voyager Parkway, Colorado Springs, CO 80921-3668