Winter Whassup

It has been a long time since we last wrote. On September 21 our son Aaron David Clark was miraculously born and tarried with us for a few hours before passing away. Though we were saddened at his passing, we had much relief that he had a peaceful life without pain or suffering. We are grateful all four of our parents could be there to meet their grandson. We had a brief graveside service for him on September 24, which was attended by our parents, Grandpa Clark, David’s sisters, and Emily’s brother Nigel. We feel very blessed to have had so much love, support, faith, and prayers from so many of you.

In October we made the rounds in Texas to visit David’s Grandma Evins and Grandpa Clark on the way to his second major board exam in Houston. After a brief stop at our home, we then drove up to Rochester, Minnesota for David’s 4-week rotation in neurology at the Mayo Clinic. Emily’s sister and family live in town and were gracious enough to put us up in their basement for the month. This was an excellent experience for David career-wise, and the whole family enjoyed the visit with family as well as the different weather. We raked quite a few leaves and also saw some snow, and William went trick-or-treating for the first time. After a few houses, he got the routine down and was knocking on the door. We spent a few days in Kansas City around Thanksgiving visiting Emily’s parents in their new home, along with Emily’s two sisters and their families. It was fun to be together.

David interviewed for neurology residency from November to January, going to Rochester, Atlanta, St. Louis, Nashville, Iowa City, and Cincinnati. We will find out March 20 where we will go. He had most of January off, and is in the middle of a Radiology rotation right now, which is rather light. We have really enjoyed having David around so much more the past few months.

At the end of December David’s sister Melanie moved to Lubbock, Texas to start a new job at Texas Tech in its architectural library. She has been happy to finally be on her own after earning her master’s degree.

Early in January we were happy to welcome David’s brother Matthew back from his mission in Bolivia. It was fun for William to meet him for the first time. Matthew began his semester at Texas A&M the very next Monday, and is doing well.



William has made many new developments the last several months. He now climbs all over, shakes his head “no”, opens doors, eats with a fork/spoon, does somersaults, and is learning new words every day. William can now say his name quite well, and has started putting two words together. Just today he learned how to give us kisses, just in time for Valentine’s Day! He also loves to give us hugs, but he is 100% boy—being into cars, trucks, trains, blocks, destroying things, running and jumping, and playing outside.



Emily’s favorite recent incident happened last week when she left the kitchen for a couple minutes. She returned to find William sitting in a chair, shaking chili powder (that she had left on the kitchen counter) into a bowl. When he saw her, he said, “Happing! Happing! [Helping]”. He really is a good little helper—loving to sweep, vacuum, put his shoes and clothes away, and put his dishes in the dishwasher.

We had a big scare this week when we found he was missing from the backyard. After an eternal three minutes of sheer terror and a 911 call, Emily discovered him in the car. He had gotten in, closed the door, and started playing with the CDs. We didn’t even know he could open the car door on his own.

In anticipation of moving, we have taken on some home improvement/remodeling projects, including resurfacing and painting our bathroom, installing a new toilet, repairing the backyard fence, and painting several other rooms.

We were saddened to learn of the passing of our dear prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley, but were happy to sustain President Thomas S. Monson as the new president of our Church today in our Stake conference.

We hope you are all doing well.

Love,
David, Emily, and William