May Update

Spring has finally arrived in Denver…we think. Of course we’ve thought that a couple times so far this year and been surprised to look outside and see snow flurries! Just your typical springtime in the rockies! As the weather has warmed we’ve enjoyed getting back outside to enjoy the park, visiting with neighbors on our front porch, going to Rockies games, and watching Ethan play another season of soccer.

Yes, Ethan, our tireless little sportsman, finished up basketball and rolled right into soccer again. We’re playing with the Colorado Fusion Soccer Club again this year, which is great, because this program keeps the same team together season to season so we’re getting to know the parents and kids better than other sports leagues we’ve done. We also got Ethan up on the slopes again several times before ski season ended. He continues to progress and even was able to do a few blue (intermediate level) slopes on our last trip! Ethan is also starting to get excited about starting kindergarten this fall and keeps asking about when he gets to go to his “new school,” the local elementary school in our neighborhood.

We’re slowly coming to grips with the fact that our little Andrew isn’t a baby anymore. In April he turned three and as with Ethan, we’re finding that “terrible threes” may be more appropriate than “terrible twos” in our household! We had a big birthday party for Andrew with friends from church and from our neighborhood. We had snacks, cake, ice cream, and the big hit of the day, a jumpie house! After months of frustration watching his big brother play sports, Andrew is finally getting his turn. We just signed him up for tee ball for the summer, and he’s so excited! We’ll see how tee ball for three year olds turns out…Stephen’s still praying they don’t ask him to coach!

Kate continues to wear more hats than anyone else in our home and doing her best to keep her three boys in order! She continues her work as a financial planner with Ronald Blue & Company and recently got involved with an association of Christian financial planners called Kingdom Advisors. She still loves what she does and feels that it is the ministry that God has given her. She also stays involved with her family’s ranch in Wyoming, Willow Creek Ranch at the Hole in the Wall, helping her mom and sister however she can. In April Kate traveled with her sister to Seattle and to the San Juan islands off Washington to celebrate her upcoming birthday (we won’t mention which one this is but it starts with 4 and ends with 0). They had a great trip and both enjoyed getting away from the normal busyness life for a little while.

Stephen remains busy working in his role as a pastor at New Denver Church. In April he had the opportunity to preach a three-week series entitled The Good Life. He enjoys the opportunity to preach and teach but is very grateful to be part of a teaching team so that he doesn’t have the pressure of doing it every week! Things continue to go well at New Denver, and we continue to be encouraged by what we see God doing every week at our church. Starting a church from nothing is hard, slow, tireless (and sometimes thankless) work, but it continues to be our driving passion. Life hasn’t been all work for Stephen though. It took him a little while to get motivated, but he finally began scheduling days to get away for some snowboarding this season and loved every minute of it. With summer approaching he’s ready to put down the board and pull the backpack out of storage! In the midst of all that we also made time to celebrate the last of Stephen’s 30s with a little birthday trip to the Rockies game with some friends. As you can see from the picture, Andrew didn’t quite make it all the way through the game!

At the end of April we got the chance to be a part of a very special first for our church. We traveled back east to North Carolina for Stephen to officiate the wedding of our good friends Matt and Molly – the first wedding for New Denver attenders. Matt and Molly were at one of our first informational meetings for New Denver and have been committed members from then on. They’ve been in our small group for a little over a year now, and it was such a joy to be part of their special day. Of course the traveling Reddens didn’t miss the opportunity to take the whole family out for a visit to Kate’s aunt in Chapel Hill, NC and her grandmother in VA. We always seem to be traveling somewhere don’t we?!?

Thanks for continuing to track with us on this journey. We are so grateful for your friendship and your support along the way. Please stay in touch and let us know what’s going with you, and remember, you’re always welcome to come visit us in Denver!