Merry Christmas card

The Lord has come,

Let Earth receive her King!

Merry Christmas from the Johnsons! Adam is finishing his last year of Internal Medicine residency at the U of W after an eventful year spent in Boise, Idaho. Anna Grace joined us last November and is the cutest, funniest, smartest, most-loved baby we have ever had! Adam starts as Chief Resident at the Seattle Veteran's Hospital in June, and so we look forward to at least another year and a half in beautiful Seattle. It feels more like home each day.

We are grateful for you, our family and friends. Thank you for your love, support and prayers throughout this last year. It has meant so much to us. Please keep them coming!

Praying that peace, goodwill with all abide this Holy Christmas tide,

The Johnsons

Dala horses and other party details

I was brainstorming about Anna's party with my friend Katie when we realized there was a slight problem with my vision. I was imagining pretty pastels, streamers, pinwheels, lemonade, Anna running around barefoot in the grass blowing bubbles with her blonde curls blowing in the wind. In other words, I was planning a summer party for a three year old. Oops. I blame Pinterest.

Once I realized that I was in fact planning an indoor December party for my not-so-blonde one year old I needed to, um, revise some of my vision.

 She's only one and I'm not that ambitious so I wanted to keep it simple, yet festive and fun. We found this dala horse garland from Etsy and took it from there.

Dala horse garland

This is the best picture we have of the banner Katie made and the wall-to-wall balloons on the balcony

We made a collage in the shape of a 1 with her weekly pictures

A close-up of the collage

Chalkboard runner

Predictions/Wishes for Anna and Anna trivia

slippers

the table

 Maybe one day I'll have a summer party to throw. Until then there is always Pinterest. For now I'm just grateful for Dala horses. :)

One

We had a birthday party for Anna last week. One of those "who has a birthday party for their one year old with no other little kids/babies in attendance and makes all their adult friends watch their baby eat cake" parties. I think parties for one year olds are ridiculous. But I also think this one was necessary.

In our case we DID have family there. Adam's parents were in for the weekend to celebrate with us, which was very special (and helpful!). Otherwise the guest list was all friends - but they are more than that to us. They are the people who, alongside our blood relatives, have loved, cared and supported us this last year. These friends are our 'people'. The people who make this our home. These friends are our Seattle family.

So while I felt ridiculous, and a little embarrassed, having a  party for my one year old daughter, I did it because I wanted to celebrate her first year of life and I did it because I wanted to include those who are part of it. Anna was spoiled with a huge pile of presents, but the real gift was our apartment filled with people who love Anna and who love us. Even enough to come to a "birthday party for a one year old where you sit around with people you don't know and watch a baby eat cake and pretend you think it's cute" party. 

We are so blessed. Thank you, friends. We love you too.

All photos thanks to Neil Argyle.

Anna by the numbers

In one year Anna has
lived in:
2 states
3 cities
3 apartments
visited:
2 countries
8 states
slept in:
29 rooms
been on:
11 road trips
12 planes
3 boats
2 trains
been to:
5 ski hills
2 weddings
2 Thanksgiving dinners
1 county fair
1 concert
swam in:
5 pools
2 lakes
1 wading pool
1 hotspring
gotten:
5 food allergies
2 teeth
2 haircuts
2 new cousins (3 total)
had:
6 babysitters
given:
hundreds of kisses
thousands of laughs
innumerable toothy grins, crinkly nose smiles and sly half smirks
many soul-piercing "Anna" stares
shed:
countless tears
stolen:
2 hearts

Anna Grace

The name Anna shows up all over my family tree. It's timeless and beautiful, and a palindrome to boot (for Adam). I've loved the name for years and known that if I had a little girl that she would be named Anna.

When Anna was born we passed along to her the name of my mother and grandmother. In so doing we gave her more than a beautiful name - we gave her a legacy.

Our bold hope and prayer is that our Anna will inherit more from her grandmothers than her name.

Simply put, my grandmother is a saint. She is wise, filled with enduring patience, and a woman after God's own heart. I consider her presence in my life one of its greatest blessings. Her character is marked by integrity, selflessness and faith. In her nineties she is a shadow of her former self both physically and mentally, but her steely determination, steadfastness and servanthood can never be compromised and shall never, ever be forgotten.

My mother inherited her mother's name and her beautiful spirit. I can say with confidence that I know no one who matches her in both depth and readiness of compassion and tenderness of heart. She loves freely and openly and gives of herself fully to all in need. She has a generous, joyful, loving and infectious spirit. Like her mother, she is a prayer warrior and a pillar of faith. Her hospitality and generosity is the stuff of legends. She is a wonderful, beautiful woman.

Her middle name, Grace, eluded us for some time. But once it came to us we knew it was right. There is nothing more that we could wish for our daughter than for her to embody grace. To receive it, to give it and to live in it. Grace.

And so she was named Anna Grace.

Vacuum

Context is everything. Knowledge is power. A little information is a dangerous thing.

I could not agree more.

Receiving news without context, without explanation or interpretation can be unsettling. It can be terrifying. It can be dangerous.

I have learned that when your mother has cancer some context or simple elaboration can save you from spiraling into despair with every bit of otherwise benign news. When your child is diagnosed with food allergies some background and instructions can move you from feeling helpless and scared to empowered and prepared. When your baby is sick and cranky a little information can magically transform a life-threatening illness into something as innocent as teething.

 Lately, I feel as though I live in a vacuum. I want out.

Foreigner (Sept 11 version)

I think everyone would agree that the United States is not the same country now as it was the day before September 11th, 2001. However, it is the only one I know. You see I was two weeks into my new life in the US when 9-11 happened.  

Like everyone, I will never forget where I was when the attacks happened. I phoned my friend to see if she wanted to go get breakfast before chapel and I remember her saying, "we're being bombed, our country is being bombed!" I had no idea what she was talking about but rushed to join her and her roommate to watch the footage. I saw it unfold, the second plane hitting, the towers falling. These images, that day, I will never forget.

United in horror and grief with my American friends, mourning together, processing together, we were one and the same. It didn't matter that I was a Canadian and this was not my country. Tragedy and loss are universal languages. So is fear.

In the days following the attack the patriotism was palpable. Americans responded to this attack on their country - their way of life. They rallied around their love of country, raised flags and shouted USA!  People came together in unprecedented ways and set aside their differences in the light of their collective grief. It was a beautiful and heartening thing to watch.

It was an interesting time to be a newcomer, a foreigner, an immigrant. I was both bonded to and separated from my American friends. The tragedy of September 11th crystalized the human bonds that transcend nationality and the patriotism that excludes.

I had just finished International Student Orientation when 9-11 happened. At the time I thought it was absurd, but I get it now.

What I watched with horror that day was an attack on the United States, not on 'my' country. I may have been in the US, but I wasn't an American. And ten years later the same holds true.

Yesterday I remembered and I mourned. September 11th was an American tragedy, just as it was a universal one. It changed everything: the country, the world, me. Foreigner though I am.