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