Merry Christmas!
This has been a very eventful year for the Chavous family. In January, we headed South on I-85 and signed into Ft Benning, GA. We moved into a nice house on post, joined a local church and Sally started interviewing for jobs. We have come to love Ft Benning and the Columbus area. Jon is continuing his assignment as an instructor at the Captain’s Career Course. It is the same course that he was teaching at Fort Knox, only now it is officially combined with the Infantry course. In July, Jon went to Airborne School and earned his jump wings. Sally quickly found a job at the local hospital’s Transitional Care Unit as a Physical Therapist Assistant. Maggie has really enjoyed our new home too! Specifically, her little piece of beach along the creek near our house.
Two significant things have happened this year. We both made the commitment to become more heathy and fit and we decided to start the process to adopt a baby. So in January, we started the formal application process for domestic adoption. We also have both lost a significant amount of weight.
In the meantime, we found many fun, recreational things to do. We completed a 50 mile bike ride and spent the weekend in Atlanta for our 12th anniversary. Sally began commuting by bike to work 1-2 days a week. We also joined a local bike shop’s group ride one night a week and also began training for Sprint Triathlons. This year we competed in two Sprint Triathlons. We placed in our first race and Sally won her division in the other. We competed in several 5 and 10Ks races as well. We were also able to catch two Carolina football games this year and tailgate with some great friends.
As for the adoption process, we spent the first half of the year reading, studying completing forms and attending home study classes. We were finally approved and started the waiting process in June. We were quite surprised in late September when we were notified that we would have the opportunity to adopt an infant girl within the next two weeks. We were both very excited and shocked. We had anticipated that we would wait much longer before we had a child placed with us. After much prayer and careful consideration, we decided to accept the placement. We worked very quickly to prepare our home for our new addition. Sally’s parents came to help us set up the nursery and many great friends loaned us much needed baby items. God was faithful and we are happy to announce, that we welcomed Carolina Grace home October 14th. We hope to finalize the adoption early next year.
Maggie is getting used to sharing her parents and adjusting well to Carolina’s arrival. We have enjoyed the past 8 weeks bonding with Carolina and watching her grow and change so quickly! We are also enjoying her quickly learning to sleep through the night! You can read more about God’s faithfulness through our adoption journey and other family happenings on our infrequently updated blog www.cheersandgears.blogspot.com
We hope you have a very blessed Christmas and New Year!
Grace and Peace,
Jon, Sally, Carolina and Maggie
Special Thanks to Sally’s Dad, Sam, for taking our first Family photo!
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