2023 Annual Burkholder Christmas letter

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It’s been a year since I shared, but the annual Christmas letter is here (a day late) 🙂 2023 was a year full of blessings, challenges, and a wonderful family vacation. God used all of them to grow us as we did our best to answer the call to love. Each day I remind myself that God not only guides my steps, but He also delights in the details of my life. So, for me, this past year was about living intentionally each day to be faithful and trust Jesus to guide my heart and my steps.

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Perhaps our biggest news is that we are blessed to welcome Drea into our family. After spending almost a year living with us through foster care, the judge awarded guardianship to Matt and I in late August so we now get to officially be her parents! We are amazed by how God is working in this story, and are doing our best to “do hard well”. We are so thankful for our church family and all those awesome people in “our tribe” who play roles supporting all of us in this journey. Drea has a huge heart full of grace, and is rocking school, band and a variety of sports.

Ashley Grace began her work as a PhD student at Loyola University Chicago this fall where she will earn a doctorate in Political Science (in approximately 5 years). She is specializing in American politics with an emphasis in education policy. She and her cats live in Chicago nearby Luke and a bunch of their college friends. She is loving trading “teacher life” for a return to student life, as writing papers is one of her favorite things to do 🙂

Megan is half way through her senior year at Davidson College where she is majoring in Physics. She continues to pole vault on the track team, and has a wonderful bunch of friends and teammates. She loves serving as a team captain, and is being a great advocate as a student athlete representative on a couple of Davidson boards. Meg (the only student at Davidson from Nebraska) and her boyfriend Shane (the only student at Davidson from Kansas) are enjoying one last year in North Carolina before figuring out what two kids with physics majors should do with their lives! It sounds like they might head abroad for a year before settling down.

Karyn began her journey at Texas A & M University this fall where she is serving in the Corps of Cadets and seeking a contract with the U.S. Army. She earned a place on the ROTC Ranger Challenge team, and trains daily to compete with a small team of elite cadets in physically and mentally challenging military based competitions. She loves the Ranger Challenge team, and is incredibly disciplined in her training. She is studying Forensic Science at A & M, and hopes to pursue a profession in law enforcement investigation.

Matt and I continue to tend to each other, our family, and the farm. I still coach swim team and cross country, and added on girls wrestling this fall as Drea really wants to pursue wrestling as her main sport. It’s a great sport and a good challenge for both of us 🙂 Matt serves our community on many boards while experimenting with fun “farmer stuff” to make our crops better. We hope that 2023 was full of blessings for each of you, and pray that 2024 will be a time of love, purpose, and deepening in your walk with Jesus.