Christmas Letter for 2012

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Waine Kong Family. 2012 was very exciting year for my bride and I. For starters, Stephanie and I have a new baby. Her name is ZOe. We started a Pediatric practice in Thomaston, Georgia. Even though we started the practice on the promise of support from the hospital, that financial support never materialized so Stephanie and I know FIRST HAND what "Trusting in the Lord to meet all your needs" mean, as we assumed the financial support of the practice and all the employees. My wife is one hard working woman and I am the guy who never pass up an opportunity to promote ZOe Peds. I believe that Stephanie and I have been preparing for this for all our lives. Stephanie is such a blessing to the community. The practice name is ZOe Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Health. ZOe (pronounced Zoway) is Greek for God's Blessing. We have endless stories of positively impacting on the lives of our patients. This year also saw the Home Going of my mother Violet. Our family has her for 89 years and she passed quietly in her sleep in February. She was remembered fondly by all her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. I miss her Sunday dinners. In my retirement, I was able to spend a lot of quality time with her and I wouldn't trade those visits of memories for anything. Jill's thriving immigration practice in Phoenix continues to grow. Mackenzie is a full fledge teenager, a vegan and a budding scientist who is interested in biomedical engineering. It just seems like yesterday that she was this toddler that traveled the world with her Nanna and Poppop. Would you believe she wrote a proposal to a community Foundation and got her project funded? Brooks has a black belt in Taekwondo and a gifted writer. Freddy and Tracy have two wonderful children who shower us with hugs and kisses on a monthly basis. Kai is quite the athlete. He loves to climb anything and is frequently caught on the highest limb of a tree. Hailie is known as Hail Storm the Drive by kisser. She runs to everything and then stops to kiss you and she is off again. She truly channels her "Gandma" Stephanie. Melanie has expanded her business Play Connections. Her waiting list of students continues to grow and her business is thriving. Our granddaughter Audrey is a budding philosopher and continues to be a great "Big" sister to Vincent. She loves to share jokes with her Pop Pop. Vincent is six and is still very BIG on negotiating everything. The Great Northwest continues to be very good to them! Aleron is finishing his residency in internal medicine and is now interviewing for full time employment as a hospitalist. For those of you who have seen him grow up, he is quite the handsome man and is an excellent clinician. All my prodding to entice him into a cardiology fellowship has not paid off yet, but I will keep on trying. Stephanie’s 60th Birthday party at the Tradewinds Hotel in Tampa was simply marvelous. The entire family showed up and all the grand children performed for her. When our family get together, we hug and catch up, tell jokes, play games, lounge in the sun and swim in the ocean, most importantly, we dance! It was a really great party for a really great lady. Hint, hint, I turn 70 next year! These annual reflections are very meaningful for Stephanie and I and we appreciate your presence in our lives. In our celebrations, I hope you don’t overlook the reason for the season. We are celebrating the 2012th birthday of our Messiah who came to establish a new order of love for our fellow travelers on our planet. “And when we give each other Christmas gifts in His name, let us remember that He has given us the sun and the moon and the stars, and the earth with its forests and mountains and oceans--and all that lives and move upon them. He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit and all that we quarrel about and all that we have misused--and to save us from our foolishness, from all our sins, He came down to earth and gave us Himself.” (Sigrid Undset) Waine and Stephanie