New beginnings

As I'm learning to be better at updating (and viewing) our blog...I realized that the posting I wrote a month ago never actually posted. It stayed in draft mode! Oops...I guess that's the balance I need to learn! Here is the previous update and the most current will follow....so I apologize if some of this info is old news or redundant! October: As most of you already know, I (Bethany) have the privilege and blessing of staying home with Holland. He will turn one at the end of this month! How times flies. Holland has brought about many changes for us and is the best blessing we could have received. It is amazing to watch him grow and learn new things. I never anticipated the excitement Granger and I would have watching him learn and explore this new world for him! Becoming a parent has opened up so many wonderful and challenging adventures! Going anywhere no longer allows flexibility to just throw on a coat and jump in the car. It requires bags and diapers, and food bags and extra clothes, strollers, pacifiers (which are a must!), pack'n'play's, and more! I'm not meaning that as a complaint, things that I never thought about that I now have to plan for! Since I am staying home, I have had the opportunity to start focusing on how we can help grow the Young Life ministry that we are a part of in Kenai. Granger and I have been helping lead the Kenai Young Life team since spring of 2010. This has been a big blessing for us, but has also been challenging. Working full time, being active members of our church, and doing Young Life keeps us very busy. It has been challenging being a volunteer area because most of the people involved work full-time. We are in the process of trying to raise support to allow me (Bethany) to spend more time focusing on developing key components of the ministry that will help strengthen it. Our hope is to develop three main areas in the ministry. 1) Raise up a prayer team to meet regularly to pray for teens in our area 2) Develop a committee to come behind and support the ministry 3) Build a base of people in our area who are committed to supporting the ministry financially. We hope that you will help us pray for these foundational components to be developed to help the Young Life leaders in Kenai be able to continue reaching the teens in our area. Granger has started a Master's program. He is studying to become a Teacher of the Visually Impaired as well as an Orientation and Mobility Specialist. This is a two year program and has kept him very busy. He is doing a great job finding a balance between working, going back for his Master's degree, Young Life, church, and family!

November: Holland is officially 1 and learning so many new things each day. His new favorite thing is to have his mouth packed with food signing for more!! He's a little bundle of animation. You know what he is feeling by looking at the look on his face. He's very expressive and knows how to entertain a crowd! He is solely walking....crawling is the thing of the past with this new found freedom! It's faster and easier on the knees. He's also starting to get tall....things once "out of reach" are now becoming reachable! This poses all sorts of fun chasing games with items that he should not have!! He loves phones, in fact, it is hard to get a conversation in without him screaming to be in control of the phone, in which he usually pushes many buttons, and often hangs up on people. Some of his new words include, mama, dada, hi (that's his favorite), ball, uh-oh, wow. Next week we have his one year check-up. He seems to be growing well, and becoming quite the picky eater (a little too familiar to his mother!) We had our Young Life banquet at the end of October and it was a success. We had new faces that were able to come and learn about the ministry. We were able to get caring adults on board and commit to helping the ministry financially. We are in the process of getting together a Prayer Team/Committee/Leader interest meeting on the 14th. We pray God will bring those who are passionate about teens and want to help reach them and come around our leaders to support them. God is truly doing great things in Kenai and we are excited to see what he has in store for the youth here. We so appreciate all of your love and support and hope that we will get to see/talk to you all soon! We are planing on going back to Michigan the week between Christmas and New Year's. Dad Klunder has officially retired and we have the privilege to go back and celebrate with him! :) I'm so thankful for my dad, who worked so hard, not only as a minister, but as a cement man, coach, and whatever else he needed to do to provide for us.He is a great example of what it means to be a faithful follower of Christ, a loving husband and father. I will always be his little girl! :) Thanks dad. We love you more than you'll ever know!