Baby Avery: Life in Fort Collins After One Year

Mid-July marked one whole year in Fort Collins. We moved in to our new house in late September, spend all the holidays in town, got to know a new staff team and students with Cru at Colorado State, joined our new church (The Town) in October, and Lucy and Adam went through 2nd grade and Kindergarten respectively.

Now we are about to begin Year Number Two. Lucy will be in 3rd grade. Adam will be in 1st. Herman will start preschool. Paul is potty training. Right now our kids are 8, 6, 4, and 2 years old. In a week and a half we will gather our Cru staff together to begin planning and praying for this year.

We love our city. Its beautiful, there are tons of fun restaurants, many exciting playgrounds, lovely bike trails, and hiking places to explore along the river and in the mountains. We miss our friends from Illinois, and our families who live far away, but are so hopeful for the future of the friendships that have begun here in Colorado.

Our summer consisted of 6 weeks of sabbatical from our work with Cru followed by 3 weeks of [mostly] vacation where we got to see old friends, family, and enjoy a trip to Jamaica without kids to celebrate 10 years of marriage!

The last couple of weeks since being back home have been a bit rough. Our unfortunate activities have included a trip to urgent care to patch up a split-open forehead, 100% of us getting really sick with stomach flu, and a pretty bad black eye for me caused by an exuberant 2-year-old. We're excited for the year to get going, but praying that we don't have more incidents like these. (Last year we were dealing with a house that was two months late finishing, a five-year-old who hated kindergarten and had frequent headaches, and lice!)