Our Holiday Letter 2008

Well, as for an update on the Bacak Nation, it was a pretty uneventful year in that we didn't adopt, foster, or birth any new babies. I know...BO-RING! Our kids are ages 2, 4, 6, and 8, so we were due for one, but God is choosing, in all His infinite wisdom, to keep us where we are! Our house is full, busy, and fun! We are still homeschooling, as long as we feel God's directing us to, and really enjoying it. Our little sponges are soaking in so much, and most importantly, growing in their relationships and understanding of our Savior.
As for a little news, Rusty is moving his practice from Bryan to College Station. Not a huge move, but still pretty significant to us. This will be a huge undertaking during the holiday season, but we are thrilled to have a new office in a building that is on the feeder road from our subdivision. Literally, it's about one minute from our house. That was just too good to pass up. We are praying for God to grow our practice and bless this new location. Much prayer went into this, and we are relying on Him in this change.
More importantly, I guess I would just like to share what God is doing in our hearts as pertaining to the holidays. Every year I feel like He is pushing us to understand what this season is about and how to make it all about Him. Hopefully, we are "getting it" more and more. But we are trying to drown out the white noise of a busy holiday season and focus on Him. We are trying to spend less money on the mounds of gifts we would normally give, and give more to organizations like Living Water who provide clean water wells all over the world and share the Gospel as they go, bringing physical and spiritual life to the nations. We are making more and more handmade and thoughtful gifts, hoping to understand what giving from the heart means instead of just from the wallet. We are hoping to not overextend ourselves during the Christmas season (which includes me getting projects like mass Christmas cards out before December to alleviate stress) so that we understand what it means to take time to reflect and enjoy God's presence during the time we celebrate Jesus. There's so much for us to learn about this, but we are aiming to learn to worship Him more, and teach our children true worship at Christmas time.
The Lord used this passage to speak to me recently:
1 Kings 19:11-13
11 "Go out and stand before me on the mountain," the LORD told him. And as Elijah stood there, the LORD passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.
Elijah wanted to hear from the Lord. But he had to attune his ears to hear a whisper. Rusty and I want to make sure we have eliminated the white noise in our lives enough to hear God whisper to us. We want to be ready to hear what He has to say.
We pray God's nearness to you this season, and that you can drown out some of the white noise in your life as well and hear the Savior whisper to you.
Happy Holiday season! Enjoy a season of thankfulness and of worship of our King!
The Bacak Family
Jenn, Rusty, Emma, Jax, Justus and Treston