A year in review...

and what an eventful year it was...

• we all got older
• some grew taller
• some grew wider
• Cam got a new job
• sweat Hanna came home from Ethiopia
• the girls spent a week at camp
• this blog began
• school ended
• school began
• 5 babies were born
• 2 babies died
• our annual trip to Michigan's Adventure with the Roelofs
• Cam and Shann took an anniversary trip to the U.P.
• construction began on the Nienhuis cabin
• teeth were lost
• teeth grew in
• Tate hunted for the first time, shot a gun for the first time, and shot her first duck
• we spent great times with family, cousins, and friends
• we were loved
• we loved
• we stressed (some of us more than others)
• we laughed
• we cried
• we took steps forward
• we took steps backwards
• and...through it all we did our best to trust Gods plan for us

And now...we look forward with great excitement to what the Lord has in store for us in 2008!!
Happy New Year to you and yours!!!
"May the Lord continually bless you with heaven's blessings as well as with human joys." PSALM 128:5

it's a sad, sad, day in VK-ville...

Have you ever been at the end of your rope?

The new theme at our house is "if it works at all, it doesn't work well".
They say that bad things come in three's...but it must be multiples of three's...
because we are on #5...and counting.
I'll spare you the details...but pray that we are able to start climbing our rope again...
and soon!!

to every man according to his ability

kinda long...but very inspiring...

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/pastors-challenge-shocks-congregation/20071220192509990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

I've said it before...and I'll say it again...

snuggling babies is one of my most favorite things in the whole world...and I had the privilege of being invited to do just that yesterday. I got to hold sweet Hannah Noel. She is SO amazingly tiny. At 3 months old she is weighing in at an astonishing 5lbs. 9oz.!! She is eating like a little oink-er, which is an answer to prayer. So...she hopefully will begin to pack on the pounds and catch up with all the other plump 3 month olds soon.

I also had the privilege of taking some photos of the little peanut...if they turned out one of them will hopefully serve as the birth announcement/thank you card. So...hopefully we captured a good one. I took most of them with my film camera...but here are a couple that I took with the digital...

**to give you an idea of how small she is...that is a normal infant sized pacifier...these pictures are so deceiving...she looks way bigger than she is!**

Just maybe...

we should hope for enough happiness to make us sweet. enough trials to make us strong, enough sorrow to make us human, and enough hope to make us happy.

Just maybe...

when the door of happiness closes, another opens; but, often times, we look so long at the closed door that we don't even see the new one which has been opened for us.

Just maybe...

the happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

Just maybe?!!

Can you hear it?

It is the sound of the Hallelujah chorus...I've been hearing for about an hour now. It started right after I handed in my final final exam!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited to see the end of the hardest trimester I have endured so far in my college career. Now comes the wait for final grades to post.

I now have a whole 20 days off of school...and I finally feel like I can dive into the Christmas season wholeheartedly!! (and stress free)

a weeks worth of food around the world...

I found this today and found it very interesting...

http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/2007/12/one-week-food-around-world.html

because laughing is good for your health...

so laughing your a*@ off...must be so much better for you!!

stick a fork in it folks...

I am pleased to announce that at 10:35 this morning all 50 drug cards were handed in. Neatly housed in their 3-ring binder, with a beautiful cover sheet and index page. I had the glow of a proud mother. I was so proud in fact that it was hard to just set them in the pile and walk away!

I got back my Presidential paper and grade sheets for both the presentations I did on Monday, and it is with great enthusiasm I announce that I was given 100% on each of them!!!

Another wonderful surprise today came when our Pharmacology teacher announced that our final would be in the form of a TAKE HOME TEST!!! We all about sang the hallelujah chorus...and a few (myself not included) actually hugged the teacher. This is fabulous news considering the amount of anxiety this final was causing me.

So...on Monday I will have my Human Disease final...(this is one of my favorite classes, so the stress level is low for this one), my Pharmacology final will be graded in class...(I get to do this one this weekend, with the aid of the textbook, if I can't manage to pull out 100% something is seriously wrong with me), and my Math final...(this one is responsible for the greatest feelings of stress...math is not my thing...math and I, we have a love-hate relationship...it loves to make me hate it!!!). Thankfully God is on my side, and this is a 2 day final, and I am predicting that I will be using every last minute of the 3 hours given to me!

So...we are T-minus 168 hours...and counting until this semester is done...finished...adios...stick a fork in it!!

I am so looking forward to the Christmas break...I need a break...my family needs me to have a break...HOORAY for breaks!!

conversation with a 6 year old...

While working feverishly on my drug cards today, Haidyn was desperately trying to find/get someone to play with her. While I was unable to do it, I told her that I was sure her father would LOVE to play with her...

To which she replied... "I would really like to play with someone that is NOT hairy everywhere."



(she also went on to rule out parents altogether in a valiant attempt to get her sisters to play with her...it worked...they caved (after some prompting from their mother...who really needed their help today!)

Can I get a loud HALLELUJAH!!!

I just sat down to check my email, and found an update on our sweet Hannah Noel.

Here is what it said...
(written by Dan)

"I'm packing up cameras and car seats and the kids and we're all on our way to the hospital to bring our little girl home. We just got the OK from the doctors.

Hopefully we'll be home by 3:00 or 4:00, resting and enjoying a return to normal (for us) life."

After spending 80+ days in NIC and NIM at Spectrum, after way to many ups and downs, after losing her sister, and coming close to losing her too, after thousands of prayers form all over the country (literally)...one of Gods sweet little miracles is coming home!!!!!!!

On a VERY selfish note, I am sad that, once Hannah is home, no one will get to see her til spring(insert sad face). But...I am going to praise God for this miracle...and thank him daily for answered prayer. To quote one of my fav hymns, my Lord "HOW GREAT THOU ART"!!

The mountain is shrinking...

Presidencial paper and power point DONE!!!

Drug rep research DONE!!

Now all that is left is...

• write drug rep presentation


• put together drug rep power point

(this is a 3 to 5 minute presentation...so preperation should not be all that time consuming!!)

• 25 Drug cards!!!

The end is in sight folks...the end is in sight!!!

I should not be here...but...

This was entirely to funny not to share...

ENJOY!!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Interesting...

In my absence from the blogger world I have been doing a lot(read mountains) of homework. I am down to the final 2 weeks of the semester and I have procrastinated, leaving myself with 2 projects, one paper and about 25 more drug cards to complete in this short time frame.

It is my fault, I did not budget my time as well as I could have. But...in my researching I came across this interesting document. I was amazed and a little creeped out by it, but I wanted to share because is it very interesting.

(I am doing a report on the medical ordeals of JFK, and because he and Abe Lincoln were the only 2 Presidents to be assassinated...I came across this in my research)

• Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846
• John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946
• Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860
• John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960
• The names Lincoln and Kennedy both contain seven letters
• Both were particularly concerned with civil rights
• Both their wives lost children while living in the White House
• Both Presidents were shot on a Friday
• Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy
• Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln
• Both were assassinated by southerners
• Both were succeeded by southerners
• Both successors were named Johnson
• Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808
• Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908
• John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1939
• Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939
• Both assassins were known by 3 names
• Both names comprise of fifteen letters
• Booth ran from the theater and was caught in the warehouse
• Oswald ran from the warehouse and was caught in a theater
• Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials

OK...now that is just a little weird...right?

I'll be back in a few weeks...a whole lot less stressed and ready to celebrate Christmas!!