Warm greetings to relatives and friends in this Advent/Christmas season! This millennium year has been a memorable one, but not for the reasons that the "prophets" were predicting a year ago. For our family, if ever there was a year that could be summed up in one word, this was the year of "Goldenrod."

Due to our hasty and unsystematic attempt to get out the word, some of you still may not be fully aware of our move. As we wrote our last Christmas letter, we were very much wondering what the year 2000 would hold, since we had made a trip out east and then decided not to pursue opportunities that were available there. We did not have to wait very long into the new year before we got a call from Mennonite Disabilities Committee (MDC) in Goshen, Indiana wondering if we might be interested in helping to open up their new Goldenrod Community east of Middlebury, Indiana.

Goldenrod is a developing community on 18 acres of land in the heart of the Crystal Valley, northeastern Elkhart County's Amish country. We were drawn by the vision of Goldenrod, "a place of belonging" and described as "a unique, inter-dependent, inter-generational community where adults with developmental disabilities prosper through residential, vocational and recreational assisted living."

Well, a month of negotiations led to our acceptance of this call to a ministry that has benefits for our family as well. It seems hardly possible looking back that we were able to move as quickly as we did, but God's timing was perfect. On the early morning of March 25, we signed an agreement to sell our home in Fort Wayne. Then relatives and friends came and packed our belongings into a truck for the 1 1/4 hour trek north where we were joined by more relatives and new friends of Goldenrod who moved us in and set up housekeeping in the North Unit.

Thus, the residential program began in early spring with our move into the first unit of the first of four planned duplexes for adults with developmental disabilities. Each duplex is to have two living units with each unit consisting of a large common area which serves as living room, dining room, and kitchen, along with three bedrooms, one for each resident. Attached to each unit is the caregivers apartment which has two bedrooms.

We were asked to begin the program as live-in caregivers for the first unit, with Nathan being our first resident in one of the three bedrooms off of the common area. After two weeks of training, we welcomed our second permanent resident to Goldenrod. His name is Eric and he is a lively addition to our household. He and Nathan have become good buddies. Since the late spring months, we have also cared for several other young men for a few days at a time in the third bedroom in our unit. These are persons whom we hope to serve on a permanent basis in the future. Having them come for a few days at a time for respite care allows us to get to know them and help make decisions about what combination of persons works best together once the second unit opens.

We are learning a lot, building on our 22 years as parents of Nathan. His fragile X syndrome is just one of a number of conditions known as "autism spectrum disorders" or "pervasive developmental disorders" which are seemingly becoming more prevalent in our day. Many adults, especially those on the more severely affected side of the spectrum have pretty severe communication difficulties and therefore cannot function without some form of supervision throughout the day. Goldenrod residents will generally require more care than the residents of the other family living units that MDC operates in Goshen. This means that we also have support staff that help us maintain a one-to-one ratio most of the time.

Obviously, this move from the heart of the city to a country road known for its horse and buggy traffic has affected us all in many ways. We are making the adjustments quite well and learning to live at a different pace of life which still has many unique challenges. Renita is in the middle of her second year as a student at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. As it happened, she was headed to Hawaii for spring break right at the time of our move. One of her best friends lives on Oahu and invited her to spend the break in her home. We were very pleased that

Renita came to her new home over the summer and worked as a writer and photographer for the Goshen News. Among other things, she collaborated on a front-page feature story of our new roles here at Goldenrod. Back at DePauw this fall, she has complemented her many fall writing classes by serving as Assistant Photography Editor for the student newspaper. She also participates on the College Bowl team, known as the DUCKS (DePauw University Competitive Knowledge Squad!).

Nathan has adjusted well to his new home. He likes having his own bedroom and space that is a little more removed from Mom and Dad. Over the summer, Nathan experienced some health problems that ended up with overnight hospital stays on successive weekends. Fortunately, he has recovered well, and the experience has reminded us how blessed we are to have good health.

This fall, Nathan finally got a job after leaving his old job behind in Fort Wayne. He now works at Oaklawn, a Mennonite-related psychiatric hospital, as a kitchen helper. He gets to do a variety of tasks ranging from preparing the bacon and sausage for the oven to helping with the serving cart on the hospital units. He loves his work and his supervisors can't seem to get done praising him. We are hopeful that he can get a few more than his current 2 1/2 hours a day and we can find a consistent means of transportation (no buses between Middlebury and Goshen!).

Nathan also enjoys bowling with his buddy Eric and, of course, listening to his music. His latest love is Latin music, starting with Ricky Martin. He has also made friends through his job retention program which includes many great socialization activities.

Nancy, besides being the lead caregiver at Goldenrod, is also the Staff Trainer for MDC. She has recently added the title of Goldenrod Residential Manager, especially since the coming of another live-in caregiver that she is training in preparation to open the other side of our duplex. For now, we are praying for more support staff in order to serve more persons.

For me (Paul), this move represents many changes. Even though, I've moved back to the county where I was born and raised, I have moved decidedly away from my former identities as an urban pastor and a music minister to a very different kind of ministry in about as rural an area as you can find in this county. My role at MDC (besides caregiver) has also been in flux since coming here. Although I started out working in a computer-related role, I am currently serving as Goldenrod Office Manager and moving into a second role coordinating MDC's annual Benefit Auction. I am also concluding work with our church conference and mutual aid society, but continuing to do some work on the side for MennoLink, a Mennonite computer network, as well as my own ministry/business called Companion Resources.

As a family we have much to be thankful for as we think back on the highlights of this year. The challenges are great and we appreciate your prayers. We also enjoy hearing from you about what life brings your way!

May the peace of Christ go with you in these exciting and turbulent days of a new millennium.

Paul's Web Site

Paul's Home Page

Leichty Family

Nathan's Graduation

Renita's Graduation

Companion Resources Site