She's Home

AFter 4 months, Katelyn has returned home. It was an exciting day. She had a plane delay of 2 hours but we were so thankful to have her back. She had a lot of interesting things to tell us about her whole time there. What a wonderful Christmas!

















Here they are!
























Showing us the henna she has on her hands




















The family is complete!

She's Off to See the World

Katelyn left this morning to begin her 4 month internship in India. While it was a sad time for me (and a few others), it is also exciting. I can only imagine the things she will see and do. The Taj Mahal, Indian weddings, riding camels and elephants, working with autistic children in the center.....She sure is doing a lot more than I ever did at this age. She gets to do this with her best friend and roommate from college - Kath. I'm so glad they have each other. Geeta is their supervisor while they are there. She has been so helpful and supportive for all of us. We are praying for safety while traveling and while they are there. We also pray that they will be a Christian witness to those they will be working with. I know it's time to let my child spread her wings and fly (although I wish I had clipped them a bit shorter so she couldn't fly quite so far. :)




Here are the sisters one last time together.









Katelyn and Kath - best friends and traveling buddies.












This is Dr. Roels and his wife. He is the former president of Kuyper College. He has been extremely helpful getting the girls prepared. He came to the airport to pray with us all and help send them off.






Katelyn, Kath and Alex. She was another one of their roommates. She is sad to see her friends go. We are planning on adopting her into our family for these next 4 months to make up for losing a daughter!

Katelyn's College Apartment

We moved Katelyn's things into her apartment on Saturday. She's excited to be in an apartment with 4 other girls. She is in a room with 2 others and down their hall is the other bedroom. She came back home Saturday to celebrate my birthday and go to a family picnic today but headed back out tonight- with classes starting tomorrow. Take a look at some of the pictures I got.




Working on her desk area














The Kitchen














Her bed - ready to finish getting put together















Katelyn and Amanda - one of her roommates
















Here is her apartment building. They share with 3 other rooms

Goofy Girls

Katelyn and Shaelyn decided to do their own "photo shoot" the other day. Here's some of what they came up with. What goofy girls! (but kind of cute too!)

Happy Birthday, Katelyn!

Today is Katelyn's birthday. She is turning 19!
Here you are at 6 months old. You look so sweet and innocent! Even though you started off awfully small, you grew quickly. You were an easy going baby, except for those 2 nights. Dad was working nights and it was just you and me. You decided that you did not want to sleep at all and just cried. Your monitor would go off when you cried so I could not just let you sleep in your crib. Dawn B. decided to keep you for the next night so that I could get some sleep. Do you remember the drawer that she let you sleep in?




















This is your 3 year old picture. I love your curls here. All I had to do was wet them a little and let them go. This was just like my hair at this age! You're just like me!

















Here you are at 6 years old - getting older and going to Kindergarten.


Katelyn means: pure beauty.
Leigh means: either Gaelic form of male Lee or Hebrew form of Leah which means delicate.

I think I did a great job of choosing your name; even though you don't like it. I think you are beautiful, inside and out. And at the small size you were when you were born; I'd say you were fairly delicate.



This is your senior picture from last year. I just love this picture.


Now you have completed your first semester in college. I think you are making a wise decision to go into the field of social work. You have a very caring heart and you do great with kids. I'm very proud of how you have grown - aside from 1 or 2 blond moments. But hey, who's counting. At least you're staying true to your natural color! Katelyn, I hope you have a great 19th birthday! I love you!

Wordless Wednesday

This is Katelyn and her friend Erin (who still is her best friend) 8 years ago.
They were 10 years old and obviously trying out different hair styles and makeup.
It just makes me laugh.

The Sweet Smell of Christmas!

Saturday was a busy day at our house. It was the day we chose to make a lot of our Christmas food. It's become a tradition to do this on a Saturday. Lets see, we made:
Puppy Chow, White Christmas Mix, Toffee Cereal mix, fudge, pretzels with chocolate, tiger butter, pretzels with kisses, truffles, peanut butter balls, and toffee squares. Can you smell it all through your computer? We each had certain things that we made. 2 years ago, Katelyn tried fudge which never hardened so she took over the white Christmas mix. Last year, she added the wrong cereal, so Dave and her picked through it. She started with it this year and Wow, it worked. So she proceeded to do the truffle mixture. Chelsea was a bit concerned but I told her that Katelyn could handle it, I mean how hard is it to melt chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk? Well...... do you know that 3 cups of chocolate chips is 1 1/2 bags - NOT - 3 bags total? Needless to say, we have a lot of truffle mixture here! It's kind of becoming a tradition to get a few laughs out of Katelyn's baking. After a weary afternoon, we have quite a bit of food. I have some frozen to take out as needed. You're all welcome to stop over and sample... hmmm...maybe just some of you!



Chelsea busy stirring her chocolate for the puppy chow.













Look at that concentration!















Shaelyn made chocolate pretzels and pretzels with kisses and M&M's.

















Here is Chelsea with her puppy chow and tiger butter. Tiger butter is a mixture of peanut butter and white chocolate swirled with milk chocolate.



















This is the puppy chow, white christmas mix and toffee cereal mixture!
















Here is some more of the finished food.

Who's the Stranger in my House?

Katelyn's home for Christmas. I realize that she does come home throughout the week, but now she is home until early January. She's 1/2 way through her first year in college!
I'm hoping we see a little of her because I was informed that she's got plans with a lot of friends and she's working full time. I'm guessing that she will be around on Christmas Day though!

Wordless Wednesday

How do you spell LOVE? Put Katelyn and Missy together!

Katelyn's all moved in

We got Katelyn all moved in! I thought Dave should come along to help because she had so much packed. I was wrong. We drove in and there were all kinds of upper classmen there to carry all her stuff. Dave carried in her printer and I carried in my camera and her water. They plan this for the freshmen. It was great. Her roommate wasn't there yet so she unpacked. When Liz arrived they decided to bunk their beds, so in come about 3 other students to take care of that for us. They ended up not having any suite mates so to their "horrible disappointment" they have the bathroom all to themselves. Around 11:30, we all (liz & her parents) headed for lunch - chicken parmesan, mashed potatoes, lasagna, carrots, rice, rolls and cheesecake. (No wonder kids gain weight their first year in college!) Then we went to a dedication ceremony at the chapel. Later on there was an orientation type of meeting. Katelyn had to go to a technology meeting at 3:00 where they get all information for their computers. They're pretty much set up in their room except for some final adjustments. Last night, everyone was going to a baseball game. Today she has to take some freshman tests and then they will be having a campus "Meijer" run for anything that has been forgotten. Sunday, they will be having campus worship
Monday is a fun fest for all and Tuesday, classes start. She will be coming home next Friday. Here's some pictures of the day. I've got some of all her stuff packed, students helping, her dorm and room, their community kitchen, Liz & her, and me with her. I think she's off to a great start!