HAPPY NEW YEAR!! 
We hope this letter (or blog) finds you enjoying time with family and beginning to relax after the fun and festive events of the holidays. Our holiday celebration was fairly low key which is just perfect for us. This was the first time in 5 years that Monica had 4 days off in a row around Christmas! She does still have a deep appreciation for those working in retail, especially during the holidays.
Here's a little recap of 2011:
In April we bought a townhouse after Daryl's mom graciously let us (+ 3 cats and a bunny) live at her house for 6 months. As you know, home ownership comes with a long list of endless projects, but we love having a place of our own again. We also narrowly escaped the September flood in 2011 with the water coming within 15 feet of our basement since the creek behind our house overflowed it's banks (see pictures below).
Daryl is very busy with the children's ministry at Lebanon Area Evangelical Free Church. He is so thankful for a great job, which he loves and is very rewarding. The AWANA program is in full swing and has had an extremely successful beginning at LAEFC with an average of 100+ kiddos every Wednesday night. Daryl is thrilled at the progress and the excitement of the participants each week. During January, he will begin interviewing canidates for a much needed part time administrative assistant position to help alleviate some of the workload for the children's ministry program.
Monica has been at Physicians Surgical Center (outpatient surgery center) as the full time Instrument Tech for 6 months and things have been busy (which means great job security since I'm the only Instrument Tech). For those of you wondering "what's an instrument tech?", I'm the lucky girl who cleans and sterilizes all of the instruments after being used (including dirty endoscopes after colonoscopy proceedures). I don't mind the work since I have the privilege of working independently and with my iPod. This job has been a good choice as far as scheduling since it's day shift, weekends off and better income.
On to 2012:
We will be celebrating our Christmas this year in March as we jet set to the beautiful island of Hawaii to visit Daryl's brother who lives and works in Oahu. Daryl's mom and youngest brother are going as well and it will be their first trip to the island. March canNOT come fast enough...
Our biggest adventure for the new year starts immediately. We are in training for a foster to adopt program! We will attend a 9 week program 1 night per week for 3 hours. There are so many children just in the state of PA who are waiting their "forever families". The Peters household is excited, scared and realizing that our little world is going to change in a big, amazing way! The surreal potential is "overnight instant family" without much room for pre-planning the age and the quantity of children. Thankfully God has put some great foster parent role models (you know who you are :]) in our lives for solid resources and great support. We sure do appreciate your thoughts and prayers for this upcoming life change and will try to keep you posted on the details as best as possible.
Thank you all for your friendship and support and IF there were a Starbucks nearby we would
love to catch up over coffee! 
