The Cochran's Now...

Many of you have already seen our yearly letter and picture for 2015, but for those of you who haven't, I thought it would be a nice update on our family.  After this, we'll be finished with our review of the past couple of years and ready for posts from 2016!!

Greetings Family and Friends!

This is Savannah. ☺ I have the pleasure of typing our letter this year!!  I’m going to keep it brief because of time (or rather, lack thereof!!), but hope to give you a good update just the same!! 

As you may remember from last year’s letter, we bought some land. Our biggest news for this year is…we’ve moved!!! We went from 5 acres to 160 acres - wow! It has been an exciting year between selling our home, temporarily living in a small apartment in downtown (right down the street from a coffee shop – what could be better?!), and building on our new land. We’ve done the vast majority of the work ourselves (with the help of friends!), so it has been a big learning opportunity for everyone. We certainly know our building inside out and from the ground up!! We are currently completing a shop/apartment which we will live in while we build our house (can anyone guess what next year is looking like for us?!). Thanks to being a military family, we have taken to calling this building our TLF (temporary lodging facility for those of you who don’t know)!  

We’re all doing well. Not much has changed on the animal front – we still have quite the zoo (which is temporarily spread out all over the state [slightly less so now that we have the cows and dogs back!] – special thanks to various friends who are keeping the animals for us during the move!). I think it has been a couple of years since we gave an explanation about each member of the family, so I think I’ll do so now! Sabrina is 18 and finishing some final requirements before graduating! She is looking into getting started with meat rabbits and constantly blesses us with scrumptious kitchen delights. Sienna (15) has probably had the most difficult time adjusting to the move, but has been a trooper. She loves all things military and war history and is also quite the wonderful storyteller. We keep telling her she needs to become an author! Stasia (14) is our resident seamstress. She is very gifted when it comes to making her own patterns! Although the goats have historically been Sabrina’s “thing”, Stasia and Sayer are taking over and are excited about expanding the goat operation together. Seth (12) is quickly maturing into quite the young man. He and Sayer have become quite the help to daddy between building and work on the property. He is also one of the primary milkers of our dairy cow (along with Stasia).  I think one of the highlights of Seth’s year is that he is quickly passing all his siblings (and mom!) in height!! I’m still holding out as the tallest of us kids, but not for long!! ☺ Sayer (10) is trying to catch up in height to Seth!! Besides what I’ve already stated above, he has a love of all things flying and the Air Force and still wants to follow in daddy’s steps one day. Shenandoah (or Shen, as she is commonly known) turned 7 the beginning of December. She loves to read and is learning to be more and more of a help around the home. She does her best to get in on building projects whenever possible and wishes she could do more! My father and mother are doing well. I’m so blessed to have them for my parents (and no, I didn’t have to say that!). They celebrated 32 years of marriage in June and have spent most of the year planning various aspects of our building and moving process. They’re excited about seeing their dream of living off the grid come into being (and if it continues to work, we’ll be all the more excited! ☺ Second solar array is on order!)  Hmmmm….as for myself, well, I’m told I should include something about me, but it’s more fun writing about everyone else! I’m now 23 and very blessed to be a daughter in my father’s home. I’m also very excited about our new home and property! I still have bees and actually hope to get a few more hives in the spring. I enjoy working with daddy, helping teach a couple of subjects to the boys and Shen, and pursuing some various interests on my own. In my spare time (haha), I started learning guitar over the summer and quickly decided it was a favorite. I look forward to advancing in my playing ability!

Well, this wasn’t quite as brief as I originally intended – I think I got a little carried away! ☺ We always look forward to hearing from you each year and pray this letter finds you doing well. 

One of my favorite verses is also a wonderful promise: “And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.” – Deuteronomy 31:8   

Love and blessings from all of us to all of you! ☺ Savannah – for the crew!