ShenanINGRAMS

2020 has been quite the year for everyone.  Learning how to protect yourself and others in the best, non-political, Christ-like way has been a roller-coaster of thoughts and feelings.  If you're reading this, I hope you're doing well.  I'm going to treat this particular blog post as an update on all of us so that anyone who hasn't kept up over the years can get a glimpse of where we all are now.  I considered changing the name of the blog, but the 5 Ingrams moved to Germany before Facebook and Instagram were a thing, and creating a blog was the natural thing to do for my family to be able to hear about our traveling tales and see the most current pictures.  So, 5Ingrams it is and will always be.  Well, maybe not always.  I'm not good at infinitive definites. Joe is a federal background investigator and although the initials are the same, he is not a part of the FBI.  We do call him our "secret asian," and our "special asian," and, no, we aren'

 It's December 2020.  The last time I wrote in this blog, Joe was deployed to Afghanistan, we lived in Valdosta, GA, Caylea was 17, Chloe was 14, and Josh was 12.  Buddy was 6 months old.  Josh was significantly shorter than me, a master Lego-builder, and had begun inventing things like his "shocking glove."  Chloe was volunteering at a local vet clinic, pursuing her dream of being a vet. Caylea was taking college courses (dual enrollment) and applying to colleges.   Some time ago, I coined the term "Blink."  I've asked Caylea to write a song about it, and hopefully she will one day. It's a word that describes the passage of time that happens so slowly day by day, but so quickly year by year. I remember holding Caylea for the first time.  She was over 8 pounds, 2 pounds heavier than the doc told me she would be. She had curly hair when she was born, these soulful eyes, and she made eye contact with me and just held it.  It was miraculous.  It was love at