Merry Christmas!!!!!
Hello to all our dear friends and Family;
This year brought us a lot of joy and heartache this time I write to you all. I know it has been a long time maybe a few years since you last heard from us. We start off with the head of the household. John is still working at Semitool here in Kalispell, Montana. He continues to work on our 100 year old house here and there seems to be a never ending tasks on that list for him. But he is doing a wonderful job. He has started the chore of stripping the outside of the house down to barewood which is a feat all it’s own with 100 years of paint on it. We will probably be writing you about this next year too as it is a huge job!!!! I am a working mom now and am enjoying my job at Target. It is flexible with our schedules with the girls and John can fill in with his shift in the afternoon.
The kids:
Rebecca age 24 married on July 24, 2005 to Claude Chew age 24. He is an adorable young man who loves our daughter very much. It is so cool to see it in his eyes when you talk with him about her. She also loves him very much and they live in Scarsdale NY. Claude graduated from Julliard Music School last spring and they both are working now at Starbucks coffee and they seem to like it. They do their music on the side and play in a local symphony there. They are enjoying their life in NYC and we will visit them this summer hopefully.
Johnny-(or Paco as he is known) He is doing well he has an apartment here in Kalispell and he is working at Target also at night. He likes his job and the people her works with there. He had to have surgery yesterday on his shoulder her tore the muscle that holds the ball in the socket off the bone playing softball. He still loves his sports at 23 he is quite the character. We get the biggest kick out of him and his sense of humor.
James is 21 and has still had a struggle with growing up and decisions in his life. He is serving time in the state prison here and will be locked up for anywhere between 6 months to 23 months. It all depends on the parole board there. He is having a difficult time with this but at times shows us he is trying to adjust to his life. I guess you take the little glimmers of hope when you get them. We pray for him daily and see him about 1X a month. It is a 3 hour drive for us one way so it is a long day when we go with the girls. He is also the proud father to our beautiful grand daughter.
Hope( or Elizabeth) is 11 years old now. My has that gone by fast. We celebrated 9 years since our family day in 1997. She has made so much progress and come a long way with her medical since that time. When I look at her pictures from 1997 and now when you see her she is a beauty and hard to believe it is the same child. She has had 10 surgeries and 2 oral surgeries( tooth removals 9 in all). She attend the Children’s Hospital in Seattle and this year she had 2 surgeries. The first was a lip revision in March and the Rhinoplasty( nose job) done in July. Her nose has changed her look so much. She is a tough girl and goes thru all this wonderfully. She has a good outlook on life and a great attitude. She works very diligent and hard . She is a A&B student and is very proud of her school work and the job she does. She loves to sing and has a beautiful voice.
AnnaGrayce is our little firecracker. She is a very intelligent and active child. She loves everyone and everyone loves her. When we walk into a place she is always seen by others and told how beautiful she is. She is a beautiful, loving and rambunctious little package. She loves you with all her heart and she is very inquisitive and wants to know so many things all at once. But boy does she have her daddy pegged he loves her dearly and she knows that. She is in Kindergarten this year and loves to let the teacher know how to run things. Her teacher is fabulous with her and loves her very much. She is a very good student and loves her school.
Now onto our wonderful little princess of a grand daughter!! She was born on August 2, 2006. She missed Hope’s birthday by only 41 minutes. Hope was not thrilled she wanted her little niece born on her birthday!!! Her name. Aroura Roze is as beautiful as she is. She looks exactly like our James did when he was little. We get to have her for several days at least once a month. And grandpa and I really enjoy that time with her. It is so much fun. We spoil her pretty good. The girls cannot keep their hands off her and enjoy feeding her. We hope to take her at Christmas to visit her daddy for the first time. It will be a special meeting. Her mom is a young mom but doing great with it. We have kinda’ taken her in and helped guide her. She is a very lucky young gal who has been blessed with a Christian couple who don’t have kids to take in her and Aroura. From them they have taken her to their church and she has been saved!!! God is Good to us all.!!!! Through Aroura we have seen the goodness of God and we do know that He will save our James also and James will return to Him.
We have so many blessings this holiday season and want you all to feel them also. We are hoping you will take the time to see your kids and family for who they are and thank God for their Health. Through our daughter Hope we have come to realize that not all kids have health and even with problems we are truly blessed to be part of this story.
Enjoy your holiday!!!
The Valentino’s
John, Tami, Hope and Anna Grayce
