Our New Years Card

This had been an extremely BUSY year for us…and by busy I don’t mean simply a plethora of after school activities and vacations… I mean that we went from a family of four to SEVEN!

Going against the grain of Donica’s preference for a scheduled and planned life, THREE amazing blessings joined our family, all within the span of 5 months.

In January, after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Paul was able to bring our little Stevenson (SJ) home emergently via military cargo plane. SJ continues to amaze us with his athleticism and appetite. I think he’s making up for years of lack of pizza; as he has almost polished off an entire pie by himself.

In March, Donica flew (29 week pregnant!) to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to meet our beautiful one year old daughter Wylie. While Wylie arrived completely immobile and silent, she is now a jolly 2-year old on the go. She’s our little cuddle bug who has also recently learned the meaning of time-out.

On June 4th, baby Piper Poet was born. As she is our last baby (our ‘bonus’ baby), Donica finally snuck in the name ‘Poet’, much to her families dismay. Little Pips is a giggler who is continually fascinated by all her siblings despite the occasional wack on the head from a HotWheels.

As for the rest of the clan….

Gunner has taken over the 3x5 foot “family desk” in the study and he continues to create, invent, and build for hours on end. We do occasionally pull him out for meals and bike rides.

Jetta Juice is still our sweet/sour little darling. Her ability to love amazes us, as does her insta-sourness if things don’t go her way.

After a six-month leave, Donica is still managing to continue working towards her PhD in clinical psychology, thanks to our Aussie Au-pair Esther, who helps keeps the brood in check.

Paul is still working as an ER doc at Kaiser and working hard to teach all his kids to ski. He’s quickly come to the realization that if he ever wants another Cat skiing experience, he needs to take a kid(s) with him.

We hope you all had an amazing 2010 as well!! In 2011 we look forward to continuing to follow God’s plan for our life and….

also for continued family and friend time, relaxation, and SLEEEEPPPPP!!

For those of you that we don’t see often….Please keep in touch! (email is best as the kids shrieks will likely overpower any type of conversation that we will try to have!)

Love to you all,
The Dohrenwends