Merry Christmas

Child of God, raised with hope, love & faith

We are blessed to be a part of a beautiful extended family that includes our church home. During the adoptive process and once we brought Blen home, our church family has embraced Blen and watched her grow in so many ways over the past 10 months. Baptising Blen was never a question, but with such an overwhelming year, timing was our biggest challenge.

During the past year, Wendy has been working with an

amazing young woman, Megan,on her conformation journey. Megan decided she wanted to become a member of Christ's church at the same service Blen was to be baptized. Our friend and pastor, Bill Johnson officiated, Joel and the children's choir sang to begin the service, and our dear friend, BrieAnna Zweip wrote and performed a song about hope for Blen's future in Christ. We dressed Blen in an outfit we purchased while traveling in Ethiopia.

God gave us Blen, we lived on hope during the two years we waited to bring her home, our love for her grows deeper each day, and our faith in the path God has led our family has never been stronger.

Blen will continue to be raised with hope, with love, and with faith. And we continue to thank God for this beautiful child.

Fall

The past months have flown by. Joel started kindergarten in Sept., Blen still (I'm writing this in December) asks where he is during the 3+ hours he's away. Thankfully, she takes her nap during that time, so the questions don't continue the entire duration. Typically the first thing she asks each morning is "Joel"? And anyone familiar with two yr. olds can guess -anything Joel does, Blen follows. Anything Joel says, Blen repeats, or at least tries to make the same sounds. Her speech is improving rapidly, she's now talking in sentances.

Fall continued to introduce Blen to new wonders. Pumpkin patches & pumpkin guts, jumping in leaves, trick-or-treating, even four days with grandparents so mom and dad could leave to celebrate their 10yr aniversary.

We've spent now spent nearly every season with Blen. The wonder and joy she has with new experiences continues to brighten our days and enrich our lives.

vacation with Mooma

August brought Boompa's birthday & what would've been Mooma & Boompa's 40th wedding anniversary. To honor the occasions, we had a great time with Mooma visiting Grand Haven and a week later, Frankenmuth. Joel and Blen loved the pools, beaches, the hot tub, dancing to entertainment during dinner, the pools & hot tub....

We learned on both trips that Blen makes noise frequently thru the night, and while the hotel crib fit nicely in the closet area...sound clearly carried throughout the room.

Backpacking the wilderness dunes

Our favorite backpacking spot in Michigan (so far) is Nordhouse Dunes wilderness area (North of Ludington). we've gone a handful of times with Joel and thought it was time to take Blen. It was a 24 hour 'in-and-out' and she walked about 60% each way, we'd expected less over the one mile path to Lake MI and back. We caught toads, played in mud, ran along the shore, ate lots of fruit snacks (we found bribery CAN get you somewhere when hiking), watched the sun set and thanked God for Boompa and all the blessings in our life. John and I even slept a minute or two that night.

Bye bye, Boompa

Two weeks ago Boompa died at the age of 65. He courageously battled the progression of ALS for over 3 years. He laughed and smiled, joked and kissed through his final days. Mommy prayed you'd get a chance to meet each other. He hugged you & welcomed you home in February and was able to celebrate your 2nd birthday at his home over 4 months later.

At the visitation and funeral, I told you Boompa went "bye bye". I'm glad I have pictures of you with him to share, and I look forward to sharing many wonderful stories. As I stood outside the church holding you after his funeral service, I watched Boompa's casket get loaded into the hearse. I couldn't begin to grasp how big a loss he will be from our lives. At the same moment, you raised your little hand, waved at the coffin, and said "bye, boompa".

God has a plan, no question. Our family is changed and blessed in ways we never could've imagined. I watch you with your daddy and realize you are forming the same bond I was blessed to have with mine. You also will probably always be daddy's little grill, Blenny. And, believe me, that's a good thing.

Upper Silver Lake

Last week was the 35th annual Brookhouse/Looman trip to Upper Silver Lake. Of course it was Blen's first trip, but she handled it like a seasoned pro. She loved the tube ride and always wanted to ride in the boat for other rides. She started jumping off the dive dock (holding dad's hand) and was happier in the water than out. She also is quite a little fisherwoman. She caught a bunch of bluegill and even contributed to the Friday fish fry with a couple keepers.
All four of us sleeping in one room was not a highlight as Blen has a habit of grunting and groaning about an hour before she gets up and then every 15 minutes or so until waking. By Thursday morning this started at before 5 AM and daddy and Blen were fishing by 6:20. i think she's already looking forward to next year.

Blen is 2!

Blen turned two years old yesterday! Daddy, Joel, Blen & I celebrated with a picnic at Millenium park. We chased seagulls - Blen would spot one, then ask: "Ready?" & we'd run until the gull had a narrow escape. repeat. repeat. This activity brought Blen & I to the splash pad where she fearlessly ran through water tunnels and waited for large buckets of water to fill and spill to the ground. Luckily the water never poured directly on her head, while she's fearless, 23lbs isn't much to withstand that torrent!

We ended the evening at home eating cake with our neighbors, Mary(7), Alan(3), Timmy(1.5), & Makenna(9). Blen's cake was covered with her favorite treat, fruit snacks.

She also celebrate in style this past Sunday with her cousin Brandon who turned 8. The whole family was there & Boompa led the singing. Blen blew out all candles & after two re-lights, Brandon held her back so he could blow & make his wish.

Thank you, El Shaddai, for this precious gift to us.

Happy Birthday, sweet girl. And many more...

May moments

One world, One Heart, & Hair

I'm(Wendy, which will be made clear soon)so proud to announce I 'did' Blen's hair today! Did as in 2" twists extending from her scalp. My goal was the seven sections ended to look like a crown of hair (kinda like she had a headband on, but of little ponies instead) all thanks to my girlfriend Kristie-proud mama of Ethiopian beauty, Tarikua(TARR-Rea-Kwa), who shared a utube link to African hiarstyling. btw, Blen does NOT thank Kristie.
Many African American women have threatened our lives if we destroy Blen's hair. Apparently Shiloh?, Brangelina's African dtr, has hair that is dried & fried, I'm starting to appreciate the complexity of this hair, so foreign to mine.

My dad currently has home health aides as well as Hospice nurses that visit daily. All are amazing African American women with hearts and humor that brighten his day. My mother has inquired to each of hair tips, and guidance. It's great we women can all universally bond over this. That brings us to the picture you see with this post. I was visiting my parents(as was my Aunt & Uncle from Colorado) when Grace, a gorgeous Hospice nurse full of smiles and open arms, arrived to help my dad. She saw Blen and exclaimed, "Oh looky here, you're doin good, momma, her hair looks just right". I had an African American woman in an store specializing in various hair care products once tell me, "honey, y'all think greasy hair is a bad thing, when our hair looks greasy, it means it's healthy and we're doing something right!" So, this compliment from Grace was outstanding. I mentioned to her I was mainly putting a barette or two in the sides of her hair for now since it was too short for much else. She immediately said, "well, let's see". We spent the next 20min putting microscopic ponies in Blen's hair, stopping only b/c I ran out of everything I had; the little rubberbands, then barrettes, then clips. Blen cried so hard John woke from his post work-weekend slumber and thought she was in need of medical attention, which, ironically, Grace could've gived. Instead, she said, "don't worry, she'll cry, but you keep it up 'cause you don't want her to get tender-headed". Really? Isn't that a nice way of saying, "she needs to learn how to suck it up"?

During our styling/Blen's tirade, my Uncle Ken took video. Hours later, after Grace had left and shared her hairstyling expertise, he said, "that was so wonderful to see. I couldn't have imagined two women from such different backgrounds sharing such a wonderful thing. I hope soon, my reaction will be unheard of, that race, culture, won't matter, it will be natural to everyone to interact like that and share simple, basic, moments like that". I learned awhile back my great uncle was racist, I never heard any of that firsthand, but what a long way my family has come.

So, today, Blen screamed and writhed in my torturous grip. I eventually strapped he into the highchair. Early on she began pleading for daddy, who was running errands. Even fruit snacks didn't distract her. After ~45min and re-doing each small twisting 'braid' at least 3x,we were done. Immediately, she reached to hug me and wouldn't losen her grip(maybe hoping to prevent any more attention to her hair). I called my mom to share my amazing accomplishment. Five minutes into our conversation, Blen had fallen fast asleep. This was shortly after 11am, she doesn't usually nap until ~2pm. It's safe to say we were both exhausted.

Well, I'd better go wash my hair 'cause it is getting greasy after nearly two days. Then today I need to buy more product for Blen's hair since it's not greasy enough most days. It's comforting to know, in this crazy world, women can always bond over hair.