Merry Christmas 2010

Here is one of our Christmas card pictures and virtual message to our friends and family:

Around 18 months ago, I began to pray that God would take our family on an adventure that we never dreamed or expected. Since that time God has lead us on an adventure that has involved living in San Diego for a short time, then moving to San Francisco and now relocating to Dallas, Texas. Needless to say, nothing that we had ever planned, dreamed or expected!

The reason for the seemingly constant mode of packing and unpacking of our lives, is the recent discovery of Sloan's unique learning differences. His unique gifts make it difficult to attend a traditional classroom. Fortunately, there are some wonderful schools for the learning different child that uncover their true potential and gifts that would remain hidden in the mainstream classroom. This discovery first lead us to living in San Francisco and is now taking us half way across the country to Dallas, Texas in a quest to not only find the very best school for Sloan, but to find the best lifestyle for our family, including our precious Kensington. We will begin the next phase of our adventure right after Christmas and will be in Dallas in time for the children to start their new schools after the New Year.

Since living in San Francisco, Kensie has attended a foreign language immersion preschool. She attends a Mandarin immersion program three days a week, and Spanish immersion two days a week. We just found out this week that she has been accepted into the Dallas International School where she will study French, English, Spanish and ultimately Mandarin. We are thrilled for our little budding linguist.

We have really enjoyed living in the heart of San Francisco most of this past year and our departure will be bittersweet. We have met many wonderful people and have been greatly blessed by the city's natural beauty and rich cultural diversity. Not to mention the restaurants! San Francisco has over 3000 of them and we've done our best to hit as many of them as we could cram! ;) On any given week we could be enjoying Vietnamese clay pot chicken, authentic Shanghai soup dumplings, Moroccan tajine chicken or Burmese tea leaf salad. We will be leaving our stomachs, not our hearts in San Francisco. :)

But now it is time for the "Big D" where new adventures await. We are excited and humbled to see the Lord answering our prayers. Many uncertainties still await and we would covet your prayers. The Lord never gives the full itinerary; but rather just enough information to take the next step. We know, however, that wherever this journey leads, it will surely be more than we could ever have dreamed or expected.

We pray that your family will be blessed by the Lord's goodness this new year. May He take YOU on a great adventure beyond your wildest dreams.

Love and Blessings,
Tisha, Chad, Sloan and Kensington

Please visit our Christmas site to see pictures of our family in 2010 at www.tinyprints.com/2010/sanfran10. This will be my last post until after our move.(Things are a wee bit hectic to say the least) Once settled, I will update on our Texas two-stepping adventures and recap a few highlights of our time in San Francisco. Until then, a VERY Merry Christmas!