Happy Holidays! We hope your Christmas season has been full of love and happiness, and that the New Year finds you toasting to your own good health during the coming year! The turn of the year finds us looking back on our first year of marriage: plenty of hard work, lots of fun times, a great bunch friends, some crazy adventures, and many wonderful blessings! Last year at this time, as the holiday season was winding down, we were just starting our first year of marriage, and we decided to lay the ground work by putting down some new hardwood floors in the house!  Figuring that it was easier to get the floors installed before we moved all of Pam's furniture in, we spent the first couple weeks of January 2003 dancing around a flooring crew as they installed new hardwood floors in the living room, dining room, kitchen, and hallway.  After that, we went right to work, moving the contents of the townhouse that Pam was renting before we were married into the house that we now call home.

Somehow, we managed to squeeze all that work at home into two already packed work schedules.  In February 2003, Bryce took a new position at VeriSign as Senior Network Security Engineer in the Operations & Infrastructure Division (same company, new job).  The new position came with lots of new tasks, responsibilities, and opportunities, and before the year was over Bryce had traveled to Raleigh North Carolina, Savannah Georgia, Downers Grove Illinois, and São Paulo Brazil (twice!) for work.

Pam's year at work was equally as adventurous.  After nearly three years as a contractor for Fannie Mae, Pam felt the winds of change blowing in, and followed the breeze to another contracting opportunity, this time for Freddie Mac.  Pam's duties as a Business Process Engineer and Documentation Specialist at Freddie Mac have lightened her workload to the point where she has been able to spend less time at work, and more time at home.

As a result of her less-restrictive schedule, Pam has had more time this year to focus on her passions at our church, New Life Christian Church.  Pam has put lots of time and effort into building up the Community Care Ministry at the Dulles campus of New Life.  In 2004, Pam will travel to Orlando, Florida for Stephen Ministries leadership training, which will ultimately help our church develop lay ministers to care for people in need, in both our church and the surrounding communities.  Bryce's passion for the Men's Ministry has taken up a fair amount of his time as well, and he continues to lead and host a men's life group, the infamous "Boyz in Da Hood".  The couples life group that we led and hosted for most of last year has changed and evolved during 2003, with several of our friends moving to Fredricksburg, VA to start a new church, Common Ground Christian Church.  As we enter 2004, we're looking forward to starting a new bible study group called Genesis.  "If you want to read the Bible, this is a great place to start!"

One of the things that we both enjoyed at church this year was New Life's participation in the 40 Days of Purpose, a church-wide event in cooperation with hundreds of other churches around the country.  The 40 Days of Purpose challenged us all to find answers to the questions, "Why am I here? What is my purpose in life?"  As a church, we read and studied a book called The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.  Both Bryce's men's group and our couples group participated in the 40 Days of Purpose, with video lessons from Rick Warren and some great small group discussions about what God has in store for our lives.

It may not seem like it, but we still found time to play with our toys during the year!  We bought a jet-ski from a friend at church and took several trips down to Lake Anna in Spotsylvania County, VA for some fun and sun, and SPEED on the water!  We also added a 1995 Corvette convertible to the toy box this past summer, fulfilling Bryce's dream of owning one of the coolest sports cars ever to grace the road!  For Bryce's birthday on Labor Day weekend, we drove the Corvette back to it's birthplace in Bowling Green, Kentucky, home to GM's Bowling Green Corvette Assembly Plant and the National Corvette Museum.  We had a great time in Bowling Green, attending the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Corvette at the museum, as well as doing some underground exploring at Mammoth Cave National Park.

In July, we took two trips down South, one to Alabama and one to Florida.  We spent the 4th of July with Pam's family in Tuscaloosa, AL, and enjoyed the festivities downtown with our friends Sonya and Jeremy.  Later in July, we headed down to the Florida Keys with Bryce's good friend Joe to do some diving and relaxing.  While Bryce and Joe went explored the underwater wonders of the Keys, Pam got some quality R&R on the beach.

In November, we headed North to New York City for Pam's first visit to The Big Apple, and our second annual "Weekend on the Town".  We stayed at the New Yorker Hotel, shopped at Macy's, went to a Broadway musical, had a wonderful Sunday morning at church in Times Square, went to the top of the Empire State Building, walked around Grand Central Station, saw the off-Broadway shows Stomp and Blue Man Group, toured Battery Park, took pictures of the Statue of Liberty, walked around Wall Street, visited Ground Zero (site of the 9/11 tragedy), strolled through Central Park, and went to a Rangers game at Madison Square Garden!  WHEW!  It was quite a weekend!

As much as we love to travel, we also love to stay home with our lovable dog Logan.  Logan turns seven years old in February 2004, and he had a great time this past year bounding around the house and entertaining friends and family with some tricks that Bryce taught him.  We were very proud of Logan this year when he earned his certification by Therapy Dogs International with both Pam and Bryce as certified handlers.  In 2004, we have plans to bring Logan to some area hospices and elderly homes to visit with folks whose spirits might be lifted by his silly doggy grin!

As for our families, Bryce's father, COL Larry Porter, recently retired after 25 years of faithful service in the Army National Guard, and was awarded the Legion of Merit by Lieutenant General Schultz, Director of the Army National Guard.  Both sets of Bryce's grandparents were able to make it down to Virginia from their homes in Massachusetts for the retirement ceremony.  Pam's cousin Darlene and her husband David are in the process of building a house in the Tuscaloosa, Alabama area.  Pam's mother Linda is working as a nanny and living in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, where she is very active as a Mary Kay Cosmetics consultant.

On a sad note, Bryce's family suffered a devastating loss this past year, as his cousin Kyla was killed in an automobile accident in October 2003.  Kyla was a fun and free-spirited teenager, and she will be sorely missed.

Looking back on our lives during 2003, we feel truly blessed with all that God has given us, and we are thankful.  We also recognize that there are millions in the world who are not as blessed as we are, and who struggle every day just to survive.  This past year, our church sent a second missionary team to Haiti, and we continued to provide gifts and financial support for our "adopted" Haitian boy, Mackindy Joseph.  We feel blessed to be able to provide for Mackindy in this way, and we hope that his life is better as a result of our love for him.  Pam wrote a great letter about our love and support for Mackindy, click here to read more about this precious little boy.

God continues to bless us in our lives, and we continue to strive to return that blessing to Him by serving others.  As we celebrate Christ's birthday and the coming of the new year, we hope that everyone who reads this letter will know how blessed we are to be saved from our sins by God's gift of Jesus Christ.  If you would like to learn more about Jesus, please don't hesitate to contact us! We would love to spend some time with you! Have a Merry Christmas, and a very Happy New Year! Peace and Joy, Bryce and Pam Porter bryce@bryceman.com pam@bryceman.com