Christmas

Strikwerda Christmas at Rob's


Our First Christmas as a Family of Three


Sinterklaas Visits the DeWitt Christmas


Greatgrandchildren last Christmas - 3, Greatgrandchildren this Christmas - 7 WOW!


Christmas Presents -new booties and a canoe paddle (someone's a little eager...)

Family Time

Jude is only one week old and already has had so many visitors - including much of his extended family who were eager to meet him!



As Kurt's Aunt puts it, "Welcome to parenthood...and remember you are not an island but a tree in the thick, dense in places, but a nurturing place of growth, the forest of deWitt, touched by many other forests', Strikwerda for example, and the Nicolian forest...the list is endless...yet the rain always comes from above, a gift and the necessity and sustainer of all life.." Beautiful words to describe the world Jude has entered.



Here are just a few of the supportive family members who have turned up with lots of love and support:



Proud Pops Strikwerda


Beaming Bepps Strikwerda



Also Proud Gazendam Grandparents


Oh so proud Auntie Naomi


Getting tired from all this visiting, that's a lot of names and faces to learn!


Little tadpole fast asleep

Jude Andrew

It's a boy! At 5:45 am, Dec. 11th, weighing 9 lbs 3 oz Jude Andrew Strikwerda finally decided to arrive into this world (a little reluctantly as things got started around 9:00 am the day before!). He was totally worth the wait and Kurt and I are both in love with him.

Have patience, have patience

Have patience, have patience, don't be in such a hurry.
When you get impatient,you only start to worry.







This little tune from one of my favourite childhood records, "Music Machine" has been echoing through my mind. I always sing this song to myself when I need to be pateint. I actually used to threaten my students that I would start singing it if they were being impatient (worked like a charm, it drove them nuts when I would sing it!). But this week I find myself humming this little tune quite a bit.



Sunday morning we went to the hospital to check up on the baby, and everything was great - too great in fact. The heart rate was great, activity wonderful, fluid levels perfect. No wonder my little jelly bean is being stubborn and staying put, I have no idea where it would get stubborness from...certainly not his/her mother! While I am happy that the little bean is all healthy, I really want to meet him/her. In the meantime I will keep playing Tom Petty "the waiting is the hardest part" - thanks for the live anthology Scott!

Overdue Blues

Okay, so I am not exactly blue yet, and only two days overdue. But...mentally I had only prepared up to this point, now I don't know what to do! So, I go in for a non stress test to make sure my little jelly bean is still happy in there (obviously, otherwise he/she would have begun to arrive, unfortunately absolutely nothing is happening in that department). And so I sit and wait, well more like walk a lot and wait...