Hello everyone! We are sending extra love, thoughts, and prayers for health and peace with this letter during this difficult time. What a trial this year has been for so many! Yet we know that because Christ came into this world and suffered for us, God holds us in the palm of His hand and especially holds those dear loved ones that He has taken to Heaven in the last year. We are thankful to celebrate Christ’s birth and have a reminder of our salvation!
I read through my Christmas letter from 2019 and remembered I had written it while we were still living in the RV. Now instead of sitting on an RV couch writing this letter, I’m sitting in the kitchen of our finished home, and I am so very thankful to be at this point!
Our 2020 began with finishes on the house that would allow us to pass final inspection and to finally move in! Darren was working longer days than ever trying to get this done. We were working on things like tiling the shower, having cabinets put in, backsplash, carpet, and other finishing touches. It turns out that the heat and plumbing in the RV were less than reliable during the winter, so Camden and I made a trip to Iowa in January and stayed there through the end of the month. We enjoyed a visit to Watertown to see where Shane goes to school. Camden loved looking at all the airplanes!
We returned home and began getting ready for moving into the new house. It was so cold and windy the night we came home from the airport, so we moved our mattress into a bedroom upstairs (the carpet had been installed while we were away). About a week after that we passed our final inspection and moved in on Friday February 14 with help from Darren’s family. We had such a great night of sleep in our own bed that first night! We were so very thankful and relieved to finally have moved in. Camden also adjusted well to the new house and sleeping in his own room, and it soon became his normal routine.
We had plenty of things to still do around the new house during the late winter/early spring months. I organized and unpacked boxes every day and Darren continued to work on the house. We had been allowed to move in with the fireplace unfinished and the house still needed to be sided. I refinished some dressers for the kids’ rooms and worked on setting up my nursery. Thankfully my pregnancy continued to be uneventful other than a bout of food poisoning I’d had in February on my birthday...I honestly think I’d rather go through Aria’s labor and delivery again than have food poisoning again!!
Friday March 13 was the last time things were”normal” for us, as we had gone out to eat with two couples from church, and on the way home listened to the radio stations all talking about Covid-19. We tried to stop at a grocery store after supper but the place had been completely wiped of produce and many other staples. I ended up just leaving halfway through because there were no groceries to be found! I remember it being so shocking and eerie that night.
When Washington state implemented the stay-home orders, I did stay home completely for several weeks. Church was being held by livestream and Darren did grocery shopping for me on Saturdays. I had to remain Covid-free if I wanted to continue with my prenatal appointments and labor and delivery with my midwife at the birthing center I’d been going to. If I’d have gotten Covid they would have sent me on to the hospital, which would have meant a bigger bill that our particular insurance wouldn’t completely cover. Thankfully I remained healthy. As for Darren, he took a few days off early on before his line of work was deemed essential, and other than missing church and not seeing as many friends and family on the weekend, things didn’t feel so different for him. It was actually quite a calm ending to my pregnancy, as I got to spend so much quiet time at home with Camden, and I felt so well-rested. In April Darren used a paint sprayer to paint the outside of the house, and Lisa, Amanda, and I followed behind him painting trim. All the outside paint was finished before my due date.
Darren’s birthday on April 12 was the first time we had his family over since the stay-home orders hit. We had dessert on the back patio, which was unfinished yet. On April 24 we went over to Mom and Dad’s for Grant’s birthday, a week before my due date. We joked about whether the baby would come early for Darren’s mom’s birthday, which was Tuesday April 28. Little did we know that would actually come true!
The morning of April 28 I sent Darren’s mom a ‘happy birthday’ message. She replied that she was a little bummed she hadn’t gotten ‘the call’ from us the night before, and we weren’t on our way to have the baby on her birthday! I joked that the day wasn’t over yet, and we still had some time. About an hour later I called her back and said, “So I was joking earlier, but could you actually come pick up Camden?” :) About 7 hours later Aria Lynn was born. She didn’t quite tip the scale at 7lbs but they rounded her up to 7lbs for the birth certificate. She was 19.5 inches long and very feisty right off the bat! It was a very quick, very smooth labor. It had started around 7am, Darren came home from work and showered at 11:30am, we got settled at the birth center at 12:30pm, and she was born at 2:01pm April 28. The usual procedure for the birth center is to send you home about 4 hours after the baby is born, if mom and baby check out with no complications. So we were settled at home with Aria around 6:30pm that evening. The midwife then came for in-home check-ups the next morning. Aria is a namesake for my dad whose middle name is Arlin - we put a twist on that to get Aria Lynn. That way she is also a namesake for Darren’s mom, whose middle name is Lyn.
My mom and Jamie came three days after Aria was born, and had a nice long stay with us to help me adjust to taking care of two babies. Dad joined them not long after, and stayed with us for the last week of Mom and Jamie’s trip. They enjoyed many hours of playing tractors with Camden, and many trips with him to the local ice cream shop. Camden adjusted very well to a new baby in the house with their help. From the start, he has been a great big brother! He is very loving and doting, and has always been excited to see Aria when she wakes up. He sometimes even shares his tractors with her! Darren continued with work around the house such as forming up for concrete and pouring cement in front of the garage, the front walkways, and the steps on the back porch. He also formed up a roundabout out front.
On Sunday June 21st, which was also Father’s Day, we went back to church for the first time with half of the congregation, and it was also Aria’s baptism day! Such a special day! That following week with Aria being 8 weeks old, we took a Heystek family vacation to eastern Washington with Darren’s immediate family. Darren, Lisa, the kids and I all made the trek in our RV and we parked it outside the cabin so Tom and Grant would have somewhere to sleep. We had a fun week of boating and swimming! When we returned home we listed the RV for sale, and I was very happy to see it drive away after the Fourth of July weekend :)
In late July my mom flew out to us for a few days, then helped me fly the kids to Iowa for a two-week summer trip. Aria was 3 months old at the time and finally got to meet the rest of her uncles and aunts! Darren joined us for the second week and we took our family lake vacation to Minnesota with the Schwitters, always a highlight of the year for us.
We celebrated Camden’s 2nd birthday in August; it was fun to be able to set up his party in the new house, compared to his 1st birthday party which was out on the lawn in front of the RV! We were able to get the full lawn planted around this time with help from Darren’s family. Darren was so glad to have grass in!
The fall months have been filled with watching the kids grow, time with the Heysteks on weekends, and just enjoying living in the new house. Camden is talking more than ever, and can have full conversations with complete sentences. Aria is now crawling and starting to get into everything. We are anticipating my whole family coming for Christmas on December 28 and finishing out the year with them staying with us for a week! We have found a way to pack 11 adults and 3 kids into our house and look forward to ringing in the new year with them. Many of them haven’t been to Washington since our wedding reception four years ago, and some of them have never been here! I haven’t spent the holidays with them since Christmas 2016, and am so looking forward to it this year.
Although 2020 has been a very strange year filled with many uncertainties, we are thankful to God for the many blessings He has sent us throughout the year, and for the health of our little family. He continues to walk beside us and will continue in His faithfulness as we see what 2021 will bring! We pray for His nearness unto each of you and wish you happy holidays!
Love,
The Heysteks - Darren, Kelsey, Camden, & Aria
“The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace.”
-Psalm 29:11
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