July 2nd - Dec. 2nd, 2019

Merry Christmas 2019!

Christmas is a beautiful time to reflect on the past year and what God has done in our lives. It’s also that time of year when we get to post better-than-normal pictures of the family with the kids smiling all at the same time. We know some of you will not read the post but just skim through to look at the pictures..so we’ll try to keep the details brief and in a spirit of humility, we’ve chosen to display only the very BEST photos of us this year (I know...photoshop can only help some of us but so much). ;)

I guess you could say this year started with a bit of a scare...and with the only time in our married life when we spent seven straight nights away from the kids. Kari’s health had been declining due to acute pancolitis, and on January 14th we went for a visit to her doctor at Duke. The doctor sent us to the emergency room where we spent the next 7 hours in the waiting room, and from there, we were admitted to the hospital for the next seven days. The less-than-romantic getaway on the 4th floor at Duke hospital was not exactly how we would have liked to start the year, but we know it’s what the Lord had in store for us (You can read more about that experience in our last blog post if you’d like). 

Here are a few quick lessons we’re still in the process of learning from this year:

1. In our weakness, God is strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says, “‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” God has been teaching us a lot about His grace this year. We know there is no grace in our imagination, so we’ve had to work very hard to focus on what is true, and not on what might happen or even dwell too long on what is happening that we’re fearful of.  
2. In addition to the physical weakness, we’ve also been reminded in very real ways that our battles in this world are not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12). The battle against fear and anxiety has been very real for us this year. Micah has been studying Philippians for most of the year and 4:6-7 has been a go-to prayer over Kari and our whole family many, many times. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
3. Next, we were reminded of just how amazing God’s church is when it’s operating as the body of Christ should. We were on the receiving end of SO MANY acts of love and compassion this year as our family struggled with ongoing health trials. Words don’t do it justice. Thank you, Antioch Community Church, as well as our friends and family. We love you all.
4. Lastly, we were reminded of the significance and sanctity of our wedding vows. We stood at the altar on May 3rd, 2008 and vowed to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health. In Ravi Zacharias’ book, “I, Isaac, Take Thee Rebekah,” he addressed this daily decision beautifully, “...recognize that dying to yourself is an act of the will. You must choose to lay down your life in the best sense of the term. You surrender your will to the will of God by an act of commitment and in the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God. That is the indispensable beginning. No one likes to begin life with a funeral. But in a sense, that is where marriage begins. You choose to die to yourself and to bring to life a new affection.” 

We’re genuinely grateful for the way that the Lord makes all things new and redeems even the toughest of years to bring Himself glory and to encourage and strengthen us. 

Before getting to a few individual updates, here are a few quick event highlights from our year:

Trip to The Ark Encounter in Kentucky in March

We stayed in an Airbnb with family from both sides and enjoyed a visit to the Ark together. It was a pretty incredible sight that we’d highly recommend!

Micah & Kari’s 11th anniversary

We managed an overnight getaway to Chapel Hill and thanked the Lord for yet another year of married bliss! ;) 
Jonathan (Kari’s sister) got hitched to his sweetheart Kimberly in May, and our whole family traveled up to Maryland to celebrate with them. 

Trip to Holden Beach 

Every year when we ask the kids what the highlight of their year was it’s almost always unanimous...our week-long trip to the beach with family!

Trip to Carowinds in August

Micah, Kari, Blake, Seth, and Owen spent the day at Carowinds (amusement park) in August, and the boys got their fill of rides and coasters. It was a blast! Blake and Seth worked hard over the summer to raise money to go and to build up their savings accounts a bit more as well. 

Seth and Blake were baptized in August

After the boys came to the Lord and were saved in 2018, they decided they were both ready to be baptized in August of this year. It was such a special event, and as parents, it’s a delight to see the Lord work in your children’s hearts to draw them to Himself. It’s a work of the Lord and not of ourselves!

Here are a few individual updates to wrap it up with a bow!

Last year’s little surprise baby, Ian, has been SUCH an incredible blessing to all of us this year. With some pretty intense ups and downs, his easy-going nature has brought so much joy and laughter to us and helped eased tension many times. He turned one this fall and has such an agreeable personality that he been our first baby to not have the word “No!” in their first three words ever spoken. He has only recently started to learn how to throw little tantrums, and we can tell we are definitely becoming more lax in our parenting as we just sit back and laugh. The last baby is always the most spoiled. :)

Liza turned four in May and has been our resident nanny as she has shared a room with Ian this year. She is becoming more “girly” even among four rambunctious brothers (although we are still working on not pretending to burp as loud as possible at the table, just to earn a few snickers from the boys). She is passionate about, well, everything and is especially into coloring right now. We are noticing that the frequency of tantrums as decreased this year (praise GOD!) just before Kari lost every bit of sanity, and they have been replaced by an increased number of tea parties instead.

Owen turned six this year, and through many tears and toil (tears on his part, toil on mom’s part), he finished his reading lesson book this summer just before our beach trip. Owen continues to be our all-around sports champion and can whirl a back-handed frisbee with more accuracy than either of his older brothers (don’t tell them that). He still has a tough job being the third boy, but it just means he gets extra helpings of love and attention from mom and dad.

Seth’s been taking leaps and bounds in his advancement in piano playing this year. We have all benefited from his love of piano as we listen to him practice or just play for fun. He turned nine this summer, and he loves to spend his free time outside. Micah helped the boys build a workbench this summer, and Seth has been creatively constructing various items such as a three-legged stool and wooden boxes.

Blake turned double digits this summer! (Does that mean we are officially grown-ups now?) He has stepped up this year in his role as the firstborn and almost always has a good attitude. Blake still shows a knack for academics and is excelling in math and language arts. He likes to think deeply and asks great questions during our devotion times. Acting is one of his passions, and he is super enthused about writing and directing a short Christmas skit for church this year.

For Kari, this year has held some intense times of both trial and growth. At times it has felt like her health has dominated much of our spare time and emotions this year, but we are so very thankful that the past three months have been more stable for her. She has relished having her sister, Joy, live in the same town and gets to indulge in girls’ nights out more frequently. Homeschooling takes up most of her time and energy on an average day. Kari and the kids both have enjoyed taking one school day per week for a field trip instead of bookwork, and that has helped everyone not get bogged down. It’s a full season of motherhood with both babies and biology lessons in the house, but it’s just that, a season. She is so glad to feel well enough lately to start getting back into a few activities outside the home. She is still not where she’d like to be health-wise but is learning to trust God for the future and to find joy in each day.

Micah celebrated his 10-year workiversary this summer at North Star and continues to be a valuable member of the team there. He had the pleasure of visiting an axe throwing venue for the first time for his brother’s birthday, and we’re pretty sure his beard grew about three additional inches. Micah has gotten into a solid running routine this year and ran a 10K in September with a personal best time. He hopes to run a 10-mile race in April! Micah continues to be an awesome servant-leader in our home and frequently amazes me with his selfless attitude. (Kari here) :)

If you are still reading here, thank you for enduring to the end. We love you all, and we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Much love,

The Foxes

Dec. 2nd, 2018 - July 1st, 2019

Hello Friends and Family,

It's been a while since our last update. :) Over six months! It's been hard to for me to sit down and write this post as the last few months have been...hmmm... difficult to put into words. Trying, difficult, challenging, scary, memorable... Honestly, it's been pretty tough over here with lots of ups and downs, unknowns, and coming to grips with a new "normal" in our lives that I'll explain below.

My digestive tract (a thrilling way to start any good story) started having issues around the second week in December after a combination of stress, months of sleep deprivation with a new baby and hormone imbalances and by January my body finally had enough. I ended up being hospitalized on January 14th for seven days with acute pancololitis which was later diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. 

During that very long week in the hospital I was on strong steroids to control the inflammation in my gut as well as several other meds to get my body to rest and sleep as I had been running on adrenaline for a while had gotten to the point of being "too tired/wired" to sleep. It was really quite horrible. I don't know if it was the steroids, sleep deprivation, my hormone imbalance or a combination of everything, but I experienced of some of the most intense fear and anxiety I've felt before. I simply could not calm down. So many thoughts (rational and irrational) ran through my head as the fear took over for a time. What did this autoimmune diagnosis mean for me and my future? What if the steroid doesn't work? What if it continues to get worse? And on and on... 

It was also terrible being away from my sweet Ian (2.5 months old at the time) and the kids as they were not allowed on the hospital floor. I had to give up nursing while my body was recovering, which was and has been a source of grief for me. I did get to see them a few times when the nurse allowed me to be wheeled down to the lobby to see them. All of those factors combined meant that I was one big emotional wreck and basically in a constant puddle of tears during my stay. Thank goodness for Netflix, which I turned on frequently during my stay to watch nature episodes which helped keep my mind distracted. 

I was incredibly blessed to have the support and doting love of my amaaaaazing husband who slept on the recliner in my room each night and drive the hour back and forth from home to help with the kids and take care of me. My sister, Joy came and visited and bringing me magazines and hugs. My church family took care of my kids and cleaned my house (!) and brought us meals. 

Home at last!

I'll spare you the details of the many ups and downs over the past five months of my recovery and summarize it by saying God has me slowly brought me to a much more stable place emotionally and physically. Thank you, Lord! Physically, as I've been pensively watching and waiting to see if the current medication will be enough to keep the inflammation at bay, meticulously tracking everything I eat, and working with multiple doctors, I'm thankful to say that I'm currently holding steady, gaining some weight back and seeing small increments of improvement as each month goes by. Emotionally, I'm much more myself, but still struggling off and on with anxiety and fear. Let's just say the past few months have given me a whole new empathy for those dealing with chronic mental health issues! :) I'm learning how critical it is to surrender everything into the Lord's hands. Notice I used "learning" and not "have learned". Yes, I still have a very long ways to go in that area. I have learned just how miserable I can be when I let my mind travel to the land of what-if's. While I still struggle with bouts of fear, I am working with an excellent counselor and learning to lean into the Lord and letting go of my perfectionism, among other things! Whatever the trial, I know in my head that He is faithful even when I'm struggling to trust Him in my heart. 

Lots of this...

and this. Thankfully, I'm not taking 90% of these anymore.

It's still a bit of a day by day waiting game to see how my body will respond on this current medication while slowly adding new foods back into my diet and seeing what my new stress tolerance level is. You can pray with us that this current medication would be enough to keep the inflammation at bay so we don't have to move to more aggressive options. The plan is to do a colonoscopy in mid-July to assess how much damage was actually done in January and to help decide about medication moving forward. Pray for us as we are also seeking the Lord for wisdom about other treatment options as I'm not a fan of the idea of being on medication indefinitely. 

Okay, that's enough on that topic! 

Although my health has pretty much been either all-consuming or a huge part of our lives the past five months, life does go on and we have been glad to have reprieves from thinking about it here and there. Even in just the past month, life has been quite a bit more like normal and I tell you what, I have a whole new appreciation for enjoying and cherishing the ordinary days. 

Obviously, he's been doing just fine on formula!

Happy boy!

Ian is now 8 months old and almost walking (seriously?!). The little stinker. Ya know, God knew what we needed when He gave us Ian last year. I can not tell you how many many times during these past few months of dealing with intense fear and anxiety that being able to scoop him up in my arms or just watch him play or make him laugh as been incredibly therapeutic and soothing for me and Micah. God gave us an easy-going and happy baby who is now sleeping through the night- thank GOD! He is just what we need and we thank God for giving him to us even though he wasn't "planned". He brings us so much joy I can't imagine life without him.

Visit with Big Nana!

Those eyes... how can one say no?

Liza turned 4 in May and her personality is continuing to blossom into....hmmm...intensity.? There's a little poem we learned last year and we have to laugh when she recites it... 

"There was a little girl, 

Who had a little curl, 

Right in the middle of her forehead. 

When she was good, 

She was very very good, 

But when she was bad, 

She was horrid." 

Except Liza pronounces it "horwid". :) Despite those rare "horwid" spells here and there, she is loving (maybe aggressively loving is a better term) and has the cutest little voice ever as she cannot yet pronounce her K's or G's. She loves to keep up with the boys and even begged me other day to give her a buzz cut like they were getting. Her strange catch phase at the moment is "Bewli Comellin" I have no idea where it came from, what it means, or why it's so fun to say at completely random times. Usually, makes an appearance when she's super excited about something. Or, sometimes it's just "You are a Bewli Comellin", "I want a Bewli Comellin", "Bewli Comellin, yes." or "Bewli Comellin, no." or just an exclamatory "Bewli Comellin!!!" when there's just too many emotions spilling out at once to put into actual words. We just smile and knod most of the time. 

Someone got a new bunkbed! He now has bragging rights of having the highest bed in the house. :)

Owen is six now, making headway in read skills, has the best freckles and has definitely grown a few inches since December. He loves Ian to death and maybe a little too much as we frequently have to tell him to let Ian go, put him down, or give him back to so and so. (Ian is much like the family pet at the moment, everyone wants to play with him, but no one wants to deal with the poop.) We've figured out that Owen's love language is physical touch and closeness which on the unfortunate side means that any physical pain inflicted by another sibling, accidentally or not, is immediately translated as a sign of distain for him. Anyway, we are working on that. :) 

Blake and Seth are doing well and loving summer break from school almost as much as I am!! Blake has a big birthday a few weeks and is turning 10! That's two full hands!

A few highlights from the past six months...

As I was thinking about it, truly the best highlight of this year so far is the fact that my sister has officially moved to the area! I cannot express how deeply happy I am to have her and her sweet family close by. Something we've been looking forward to for years! :)

Charlotte loves to dote on "da baby"!

Liza and Clark are pretty much best friends and are thick as thieves any time he comes over. They like to tell each other what to do and oddly take orders from each other swimmingly.

We traveled to Tennessee to the The Ark Exhibit with the Mahers. I was soo thankful to feel well enough to go on that trip in March. What fun!

I had never thought about how complex the Ark must have been!

A huge highlight last month was the wedding of Jonathan and Kimberly! So grateful to add another sister to the family!

Of course the best thing about weddings is getting to get back together with family! Picked up this guy at the airport...

Scott is doing well and has a few more months stationed in Japan and then on to California for some training.

Charlotte was not too sure about this dude.

Another favorite Grandfather :)

The cousins! Chillin' with a movie before the wedding.

Did I mention Ian is happy ALL the time??

Love this picture!

A few funnies...

"Dead as a dailnor"  Liza
"He totally denominated you!" Blake 
"Is Alexa in charge of us?" Liza
"I don't have to because I'm Liza"  Guess Who
"Well, I love you mucher than that!" Liza
"Can we watch Jack and the Bean Box?" Liza
As Ian had a delayed reaction of crying after being buckled in his carseat, Liza said "He just figurized that he was in his seat!" 


Thank you for your prayers for us. Love to you all! 

Kari & All 

Have had this on the wall next to my computer as a reminder that God's got my future in His hands.