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Christmas 2003 Merry Christmas from the Begemans! |
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Christmas 2003 Merry Christmas from the Begemans! |
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Dear Friends
and Family,
Christmas Greetings from our house to yours! We hope you have had a wonderful year! Another eventful year has passed for us. After living in Virginia for only 14 months, we are now living back in Ohio, in a little city called Oakwood. We’re only minutes from our old house in Dayton and used to take many walks and bike rides through this neighborhood, so we really felt that we were coming home when we moved here. Click on OUR HOUSE in the column to the left to see some photos of our house and neighborhood. Shannon is enrolled in a one-year masters program in Systems Engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright Patterson Air Force Base and is studying hard! He has already been offered a position starting next September back in the D.C. area (yes, that means we will have moved three times in three years!) He’ll be a Program Element Monitor, which means he'll be responsible for tracking a program's budget line as it goes from Congress to the Department of Defense for a space program. He’s excited about the job, and we’re both happy about going back to a familiar place where we had just begun to develop friendships and feel at home before we moved this summer. We’re not exactly looking forward to the move itself, but we’re hoping not to have to move again for 5-6 years once we get there. Maria’s been working at Wright State University again, teaching English as a Second Language. She’s also been part of a group of volunteers working on revitalizing the International Friendship Program at WSU, which matches international students with American families. In addition, she has spent quite a bit of time painting and fixing up our new house. We have continued our contact with Kevin, our "little brother" who will be fifteen this month. It has been a good opportunity to be back in town and spend time with him as he has been asking questions about dating, finding a "good wife," etc. We are thankful for the time we can spend with him while we are still here and are encouraging him to save up, so he can visit us when we move next year. Our biggest news, which most of you know by now, is that we completed a dossier for an international adoption this year and hope to be traveling to China next year to pick up our daughter. She will be between 6-12 months, and it looks like we may travel as early as April or May to pick her up! We are very excited! Here are some highlights from 2003: January - Started the new year with fresh memories of our Christmas vacation in Germany! We had a wonderful time! Click Germany to see photos of our trip. February - The weekend of our 6th anniversary, we experienced record snow in Virginia! March - Shannon got a chance to travel to England with his boss. April - Maria’s parents came for a visit the weekend of her birthday, and we got to see the D.C. cherry blossoms in full bloom! May - Shannon traveled with his boss to Australia. At the end of the business trip, Maria flew over to join him. We enjoyed 10 days together as we saw Sydney, Surfer’s Paradise on the Gold Coast and Cairns, where we took a tour of the Great Barrier Reef. Even though it was Fall in Australia, it was warm enough to wear shorts and swim in the ocean. Click Australia to see some photos we took on our trip. Just as we came home from this trip we learned that we would be moving back to Dayton in August! June - Shannon’s brother Brook came to visit us and together we saw a significant number of the sights in D.C.! July - We flew out to El Paso to visit Maria’s parents. We drove through White Sands, New Mexico and went to Carlsbad Caverns. It was Shannon’s first time to see them, and he was very impressed! August - We packed up and moved to Dayton. September - Both started working after Labor Day. October - Shannon’s parents came for a visit and brought their 16-year-old Italian exchange student, Georgio. We had a great time and enjoyed Georgio’s cooking! He’s a great chef! November - We missed being in South Carolina with Maria’s relatives for Thanksgiving this year, but we had a wonderful time hosting a dinner for 13 international friends/ students. December - Maria will travel to see her sister Tricia in Davis, CA, December 12-16. We leave December 20 to spend Christmas with the Begeman family in South Dakota. We wish you and your families a wonderful holiday season and all the best for the new year!
Love,
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