I promised before that I would post our Christmas letter as it contains very pertinent information to our future. We weren't able to share our Christmas cards with everyone, but we wanted to share our future plans with as many as we can. Some of you may know exactly which country we are referring to, but for now, we'd ask that you not publicly disclose that information on this blog. Our letter has been edited accordingly.
The last week or so, we have been working very hard at getting rid of as much stuff as we don't need, and only keeping the essentials, as our home will go up for sale in a few weeks. This has been an interesting time for us. It is so nice to purge ourselves of all the things we thought we needed, and really didn't, as well as the junk that we've just been wanting rid of for quite some time. I've found that, although we've tried to live simply, we have at least 5x as much stuff as we really need. In a way I feel so free! But, I'm also a bit sad that it took the reality of selling our home to get us to realize and act on this. I'm also sad, that now the house is just about the way I've wanted, and needed it to be, it will only last for a short time until, God willing, it is sold. We intend to keep very few possessions, and I think we really will find out the freedom and blessing that comes from having our food, raiment, and shelter - and with that, let us be content and thankful.
For those of you who did receive our letter, don't skip too much, we have some links in the letter for you to check out if you'd like. We will be trying to get some links up permanently on the side of the blog. But, I am new to this whole blog thing and trying to figure it all out.
As for the letter, I'll let you figure out who wrote it. ;o)
Dear Friends and Family,
It has been a very exciting and busy year in Rochester,
Minnesota for the Dempsey family.
Between four kids six and under and general surgery residency, there is
never a dull moment. If it seems dull,
better check on Sarena because she is probably into something.
Kieran turned six this November and is in first grade (taught
by mom). He enjoys reading (he reads a
ridiculous amount of books), going to Ice Hawks (junior hockey) games, Patch
club at church, playing with Liam, wrestling with Dad, and playing Wii (Mario
Kart) occasionally. He is also a big
helper with his sisters.
Liam (or Lime as we call him) is four and half and is also learning
with mom. He enjoys being read to
(Curious George), wrestling with anyone, and being a comedian. When Liam is out of the house, the other kids
are bored out of their minds because he is the family energy. He also enjoys going to hockey games as well
as reenacting these games (fights included) with Kieran (for playing) and
Eliana (for checking of course) in the kitchen.
Eliana (aka Els)
turns three at the end of December.
Eliana enjoys hanging out with the big brothers and bossing around
Sarena. She loves princesses, gaudy
necklaces, and anything pink or purple.
She is also the family hugger.
Sarena (aka Nena) is
seventeen months. She is a combination
of a ninja and a princess. One minute
she is the lady of the family, the next minute she is throwing punches. She enjoys snuggling with mom and dad, trying
to catch the older siblings, and eating M and M’s (she climbed on the counter
tonight and cleaned out the entire bag while I was in the other room). She may be small for her age, but she is the
toughest one in the family. She and her
sister both have Dad wrapped around their fingers.
Meghan spends her time homeschooling the boys, teaching ESL
to several foreign physician wives, managing the general craziness of the
house, and keeping Brett out of trouble.
In the little free time that she has, she enjoys reading and being alone
when she can (it doesn’t happen very often).
She also enjoys learning how to cook new international foods which we
all enjoy.
Brett is in his last year of general surgery residency at
the Mayo Clinic and will be done in June.
In the almost five years that he has been here, he has managed to put on
some weight, lose some hair, double his family size, and gain a little bit of
surgical knowledge in the process. In
his free time he moonlights at the Federal Medical Center (fancy name for a
federal prison infirmary and yes it does break his heart when his four year
cries that he wants to go to prison too).
He also serves on the church deacon board, and tries to make it to the
gym (most of the time unsuccessfully).
He enjoys time with the family especially the Ice Hawks games as a
family.
The Dempsey family, however, is headed for some drastic
changes. Brett’s residency at Mayo ends in June and he will be unemployed.
This leaves us with two options: one join the Occupy Wall Street
movement, or two do something else.
Being that the Dempsey family doesn’t enjoy camping in the middle of the
city, we chose the latter, something more drastic. We believe that God has called us to full
time medical missions. We started
residency with that intent and we are still on the same path. We have been accepted by World Medical Mission (a division of Samaritans Purse) for two years and are currently
working with ABWE to stay as long term missionaries. We are planning to head to a Christian hospital in Southeast Asia. We currently
intend to spend the first year in language school in one of the major cities and
then head to the hospital three hours to the south. This area has
a huge medical need and the hospital we are looking at desperately needs
another surgeon. Some of you are saying
right now to yourselves that we are crazy, but if you read the first few
paragraphs of this letter you already knew that. We hope to leave sometime between the end of
2012 and the fall of 2013. We would ask
that you pray for us as we prepare for this journey. If you want to partner financially with us in
this task, we already have an account with World Medical Mission (a 501c3) and
feel free to contact us.
We’ve also started a blog recently. If you’d like to keep up with our journey
please visit brettandmeghan.blogspot.com. We hope our blog will be an easy way
for you all to know what’s going on with us and for us to hear from you.
In summary, God has blessed the Dempsey family tremendously
this year and for that we are truly grateful.
We hope that as you celebrate this Christmas you remember the true
reason for Christmas. There is no
Christmas without Christ.
In the frozen tundra,
Brett, Meghan, Kieran, Liam, Eliana, and Sarena
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