Christmas Letter
King Family News for 2019
Art and Ronda King sending you warm Christmas greetings!
February Art and Bethani fly to Colombia. Bethani wants to figure out how to help Venezuelan refugees who are flooding into Colombia. Art spends three weeks with her, talking to lots of people and traveling along the refugee walking routes. Art flies home, Bethani stays.
April Art is diagnosed with “Hairy Cell Leukemia” Though cancer is always scary, this particular type is treatable. We remember two years since the loss of our beloved son Theron.
May Art and Ronda visit Alaska to see Elissa, David and their four children. Tyler and Sierra go to Colombia to help Bethani with a construction project for Venezuelan refugees.
June Art begins chemo treatments and spends a lot of time napping and neglecting his household chores. Caleb and Willa fly to New York and perform in Carnegie Hall with the University orchestra.
July Caleb works a summer accounting internship in Seattle. Taylor puts in long hours at his job with Anchor Gutters in Walla Walla.
August Art’s Leukemia treatments are complete and he starts feeling back to normal. Rylee begins her sophomore year at WWVA.
September Willa joins her sister Bethani in Colombia. She will be in South America for this school year. Caleb starts his senior year of accounting at WWU.
October Bethani’s non-profit “On the Ground International” is now helping hundreds of Venezuelan refugees every week as they pass through Pamplona, Colombia and over a 12,000 foot mountain pass. Davd, Elissa and children move from Alaska to the small town of Fremont, Michigan, where Mossen and Cheyenne begin 5th and 3rd grade. David joins a dental practice with a Navy friend.
November Sierra is home for almost 2 months on “rotations” at Providence Hospital. She will complete her Physician’s Assistant degree next May. Art and Ronda visit Brenden and Moeko in their new home in Memphis, Tennessee, where Moeko does cancer research at St. Jude’s Hospital and Brenden works at SunTrust Bank.
December 40 happy years of marriage calls for a celebration. Ronda and Art spend 10 days at a remote cabin high up on the Hawaiian volcano overlooking the sea. That’s our excuse for this letter’s tardy delivery.
Wrap-up Children are in Fremont MI (Elissa and family), Memphis TN (Brenden and Moeko), Pamplona, Colombia (Bethani and Willa), Lincoln NE (Sierra and Tyler) Medford OR (Hannah). Rylee and Caleb are living at home. Taylor and Ian both live nearby in Walla Walla. We are thankful for each of them, and for the times we have been together with them this year.
Our very best wishes to you this new year!
Art & Ronda, David & Elissa and their children Mossen (11), Cheyenne (9), Ryder (5), Hatcher (3), Brenden & Moeko, Bethani, Tyler & Sierra, Ian, Hannah, Taylor, Caleb, Willa, Rylee
Favorite Books of 2019
- Art: Picking Cotton - Cannino
- Ronda: A Voice in the Wind - Rivers
- Bethani: When Breath Becomes Air - Kalanithi
- Brenden: The Spy’s Son - Denson
- Sierra: The Curate’s Awakening - Macdonald
- Tyler: The Last Castle - Macdonald
- Hannah: Rosie Project - Simsion
- Caleb: Factfulness - Rosling
- Willa: The Nightingale - Hannah
LINKS kingfamilypage.com
Left to right:
Art, Ronda, Willa, granddaughter Cheyenne, Rylee, grandson Hatcher, Elissa, grandson Mossen, Taylor, grandson Ryder, Caleb