I wish I could have sent a Christmas card to each of you this year. As that was impossible, I wanted to share our Christmas photo and letter with you all. It has been a true blessing to get to know so many of you over this last year…thank you for your support and encouragement!
Dear Family & Friends,
Greetings to you all as we enter the wonderful Christmas season! It has been a very challenging and yet blessed year for our family. We are rejoicing in God’s goodness once again!
We welcomed little Titus Christopher on March 4th and what a little bundle of joy he is to our family. He is so mellow, peaceful, and so happy the majority of the time. At 9 months old, he loves rolling all around the floor, exploring, eating, and just smiling at us with his cute little teeth. He looks like he may be welcoming his two front teeth by Christmas! 
Karis, at 2 1/2 years old, is our queen bee. She loves to sing, take walks, read books (Frog & Toad, and Thomas the Tank Engine are her favorites), playing in her kitchen set, and just making us laugh. She was successfully potty trained in just one month over the summer. Quite a big girl.
Aaron is a wonderful daddy and diligent provider, as he continues to work as a self-employed web developer. The Lord closed the doors for us to begin immediately in moving towards becoming techno-missionaries (where we would use technology to serve missionaries), but it is still a future goal. In the mean time, Aaron is seeking to grow in his business management skills, knowledge, and expanding his business in training an apprentice. Our vision is to get to a place where Aaron could work part-time to support us and dedicate the other time to serving missionaries/churches/agencies. Beyond work, Aaron is serving faithfully in leading worship and training up sound technicians at our church. We are involved in a new church plant called The Gathering in Portland, OR that started in July. In his spare time, Aaron loves learning to barb-a-que and expand his guitar playing skills.
For myself (Lindsay), I feel I have grown significantly this year in simply trusting the Lord. He has taken me through a difficult season dealing with insomnia, and yet faithfully has sustained me through it. I am growing in treasuring my children and enjoying the precious moments I have with them. I love being a stay at home mom, and taking care of the needs of my husband and children. Seeking to live simply and naturally have been my passions. On the side, the Lord continues to grow my little ministry through my blog, Passionatehomemaking.com. It has grown significantly this last year and the Lord has been using it to inspire homemakers around the world. To God be the glory! I am also pursing becoming a child-birth instructor and doula over this next year as I love serving women in preparing and giving birth naturally. I am excited to see what the future holds!
Together as a family, we are enjoying reaching out to international students through our local WSU. It has been a true blessing to build relationships with these precious students, meeting people from around the world, from China to Iran to Turkey.
We love you all and pray you have a blessed holiday season reflecting upon the glorious gift of our Savior who came as a humble baby to redeem the world!
Sincerely,
Aaron, Lindsay, Karis & Titus Edmonds
Note to my readership: Thank you again for making this such a blessed year! It has been a huge privilege to serve many of you and minister as the Lord has led me. I want to thank you for your financial support of this blog as well, making it possible for us to send more resources to support our orphan home in Cambodia. I must now confess as witnessed in our letter, that insomnia has been causing a lot of strain and stress to my life over the last few months. Some days I can barely function mentally and physically. I know God has ordained this for a purpose, and it has really helped me re-focus and refine my priorities. After further prayer, I feel the Lord is leading me to take a blogging break for a few weeks. You may see a post here and there, but overall, I am just stepping back for a bit. I need to pull back, rest, and focus on my family. I am planning on taking a blogging break till the new year. You can follow me on twitter for regular family updates. I want to spend the holidays resting with the Lord and family. You all are in my prayers! May you have a blessed holiday season till we meet again!
Hi Lindsay, good for you. I am new to your site but I love it. Trust in the Lord!!! You need a big ol’ Amen Sister!!!!
You are wise to do so. While I don’t have an insomnia problem exactly, I do tend to foolishly stay up far too late (mostly because I enjoy the alone time), so I know how easily sleep deprivation can cause terrible things to happen to our bodies. I’m there. Right now. (I’ll be following you on Twitter!!)
Hang in there!
Thanks For sharing, you have a beautiful family!
I am so happy and thankful I have found your blog. It is very uplifting and knowledgeable. I was not raised in a Christian home. I have been married for 3 years to my wonderful husband and it was when I found him and his family that I also found Christ. It has been a struggle to learn and read on my own. Now that we are expecting our fist child, Evelynn, I really love to see a family woman who I can come back to and read posts that really get me motivated. Not only in scripture but in the home as a homemaker as well. Thank you for your blog.
Hi!
I just want to thank you for your blog. It is amazing how you bring out the beauty of Christ even through homemaking. Truly, your blog makes me think – if Lindsay can do it, so can I!
I am certain that God is smiling upon you & your sweet family. God Bless!
Cheers,
Steph
What a beautiful family photo!
Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to your family!!! Thank-you for taking the time to post about all the things you do or are learning about
I have been on your blog since Karis was tiny.
God Bless you all in the year ahead.
Erin H~
Have a wonderful Christmas! I recently discovered your blog and it is great. Good luck with the CBE/doula path. I’ve been working on getting started as a childbirth educator (I am provisionally certified, and just need to start getting clients). What training program are you following?
Hi! What a sweet little blog! I stumbled over your recipe for homemade vanilla, and then read a little more. I’m sorry to hear you struggle with insomnia. I completely understand, It has bothered me as well… Can i suggest a remedy?
I started going alphabetically through names of people, A- Andrea, my sister, B- Brandy, a childhood friend, etc., and praying for each of them, individually, and with purpose, but while I was comfortably in my bed with the lights off. The first few nights I went though the alphabet and started again. For a long time I would get to the letter S or T. And then one night, I realized I would pray for Andrea and Brandy every night, and then I would be asleep!
It’s nicer to fall asleep that way, then trying to play a game on my cell phone, (which I’ve tried) or staying awake with the light on, reading.
God bless you,
Briana
I just recently found your blog. I love your photo of your family – very beautiful!
Merry Christmas,
Sarah