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We wrote a Christmas letter, but we never got around to sending it. It’s a bit late, but we can at least post it here. Enjoy! Merry Christmas!

Greetings and Merry Christmas from the Lofbomms! This is our first annual Christmas letter, an extension of the long-standing tradition of Rau Christmas letters. We desire to use this letter to share with you our joys and happenings for many years to come. We hope this letter finds you and yours very well as you prepare for the coming of Christmas, the celebration of Christ’s coming to us.

This year has easily been the best year of our lives, to date. So much has happened this year, it is hard to fathom. We should start our 2004 recap a month early, on November 30, 2003. That Sunday evening, after a wonderful Thanksgiving with family in Maryland, Adam proposed to Jessica at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. It is our hope that our life together will resemble a house of worship, built on the cross and a refuge for those who seek the Lord’s truth and care, so it was only fitting that we began our life together in that majestic church.

Jessica thrived in the role of wedding planner, and Adam was an extraordinary groom-to-be, involved in lots of decisions men don’t normally concern themselves with. Preparing a Nashville wedding with Jessica’s parents 500 miles away in Chicago was a challenge, but it ended up a great experience for all of us. All of our family was involved—help came to us from Nashville, Chicago, and even California. We are so grateful for all of the help we received. The day came, and everything really did fall into place. It was an extraordinary day, and family and friends came from all parts of the States to surround us with love and support. We had a two-week honeymoon. We spent the first week relaxing and swimming at Jeff and Meg Rau’s amazing resort timeshare in San Jose del Cabo and then spent a week with Jeff and Meg at their apartment in LA. We had fun seeing the sights of Venice Beach, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Downtown Disney, and we even saw a Thai Elvis. We love California.

This year has been a year of many transitions. We have both transitioned jobs a few times. In just one year, Adam has installed recording studios and home automation systems, sold security systems, waited tables, and sold his own artwork. He is now working hard on our new financial services business with Primerica, learning about investment real estate and catering together with Jessica. Jessica also transitioned this year from her office assistant position at a law firm to helping Adam with Primerica, beginning to record her album that will be complete in the summer, and doing temp work with EMI Christian Music Group. All this, and we’re looking at even more change. You see, as we discussed what our future life together might look like, we realized that we were feeling a call to something out of the ordinary.

We have found ourselves most excited about traveling internationally, living simply, and serving in foreign missions. This trajectory has begun to impact our decisions. We enrolled in a fifteen-week course on foreign missions called Perspectives that we just recently completed. It rocked our world and solidified our passion to share the message of Jesus Christ globally. Our current work and Adam’s new entrepreneurial streak are putting us in the financial position to travel for an extended period of time and explore our options. We are planning to leave toward middle/late 2005 for a year of “reconnaissance” travel through Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. If you have friends, family, or other contacts in those areas, we would love to visit them, serve them, and learn about their culture.

In the meantime, we are loving our life in Nashville. In addition to our work, missions class, Adam’s painting and Jessica’s singing, we are enjoying many other things. We have become members of First Baptist Church of Nashville, where we were married. Jessica attended there through college and has been a member of the choir all along. Adam has now been a member of the choir for several months and is enjoying learning the techniques of choral singing. We are also involved in the newlywed class at church and enjoy the friendships that are growing there. Additionally, Adam has a men’s bible study that he hosts in our living room once a week, and he is building great friendships and habits of prayer. We have developed a habit of reading together and having completed the Chronicles of Narnia, we’ve begun working on The Lord of the Rings. We are also taking a lot of time for other reading and self-education. It has been a great year of growth and learning.

We have really enjoyed making our little duplex just off of Music Row our own, and we have loved hosting family, friends and strangers alike. We love having guests, so please take this as an invitation to come stay with us in Nashville as soon as you can. Please keep in touch and have a blessed 2005. You can keep abreast of our happenings through our weblog: www.xanga.com/adamandjessica.

Much love,

Adam and Jessica Lofbomm

Lofbomm@Gmail.com

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