Babcock Family Forum

Hello everyone,

Please find hereunder a few pictures of our family Christmas party in Brussels.
My sister Catherine, and her daughters invited us in their home in Brussels.
2012 was a very busy year for us here in Belgium.
Denis (19) spent six months in South Africa, in Cape Town to learn English. He came back in June and started Law School in September. He is right in the middle of his first exams right now.
Olivier (21) finished three years of College in landscape architecture. He is now studying environmental management at the Brussels University. He is also studying for his exams.
Marine (14) had a horse accident in September and broke her spleen. After one month out of school, she got back and studied hard to recover the missed class days. She did well on her finals in December.
They are of course doing many other things than school and we enjoy them very much. Olivier shares an apartment in Brussels but comes back home on the weekends. Denis is happy to be back home after one year of studying languages (Dutch in Antwerp and English in Cape Town).
Françoise is still a psychologist here in Louvain-la-Neuve where she helps students of the University having trouble with their studies.
I am quite busy at the Federation of Enterprises in Belgium and at the University. The EU crisis is hitting the economy quite hard and we hope for a recovery in 2013, early 2014.
We were very happy to receive Mom and Dad's Merry Christmas Card and thought that it would be nice to answer them by using the Babcock Forum. We sure hope to hear from you or to have the visit of some of you in Belgium in 2013.
Meanwhile, we wish you all a very happy 2013.

Philippe, Françoise, Olivier, Denis and Marine

It sounds like a very good year for the family! except for the accident with the horse.

Merry Christmas and the all the best for the New Year.

Thanks David. Good to be in touch.
All the best to you and your family !

Philippe

Hi Philippe! Great to hear from you! Sounds like you have a very busy house with the comings and goings of the kids and your respective careers. It sounds like they are all doing very well. We have enjoyed watching Jordan go off to university and settling down into the student lifestyle. Currently he is majoring in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Medical Science. He's not fully sure what he wants to do but is getting the course work done that hopefully will allow him to keep his options open. It looks like Andy will be joining him at Indiana University in the fall. Not sure exactly what he wants to do either. Currently he is into art and science so not sure which way he'll go. Plenty of time to change his mind a time or two. It will be strange to be 'empty nesters' by this time next year. Just us and the cats!

Work is going well and get a few opportunities to do some traveling. Hope to get to Belgium one of these days!

Best regards to you and the family Philippe. if any of the clan get's to the US keep us in mind for a visit.

Hi Jon,

Thanks for your nice update about your family. It is good to hear from you and to see that your children are doing well. It would be great to see you in Europe. So, if you get over the ocean, do not forget to visit us.
Now that I finally found out how the Forum works, I hope that we can keep in touch more regularly.

Kind regards to your family and yourself.

Philippe