Twins

Twins would be fun I always thought, or maybe even triplets! Especially when I poured over the Martin book and read about the famous family that had twins and triplets -  plus a few more children. 

Ellis and I never experienced anything close to twins. Five years passed between Jeremy and the arrival of Evan. Then 20 months later Deanne joined our family.  After that five more years went by until Jorgan showed up. And Krysta came four years later. 

A year has gone by since these little girls came to our family through foster care.

This is how we could tell them apart. Krysta painted a toenail on one little foot. It would have been terrible to get them mixed up.

Jasper was 6 months going on 7 months when these little ladies arrived. What a whirlwind of days and months took over after that special day - May 25, 2022.

My mom came to help at least one or two days every week. My car automatically drove to Krysta's house after my bus route. Deanne was on night duty to help Allen and Krysta with night time feedings.  

Krysta organized a team of girls from our church and our girls club here in Blooming Prairie. She was rarely at home alone with the three babies during those first few months.

         We were charmed with these three grandbabies through the summer and fall. 

                           July 4th

Celebrating Jeremy's 40th birthday at the same time as Pearl's 2nd birthday in Heaven.

Picking wild raspberries for pies. Well, Papa and Marmee weren't picking  ... we were watching the babies while Allen and Krysta picked raspberries!

          A favorite picture last summer .....

This summer we'll say goodbye to these sweet girls. Hopefully we can keep in touch with them as they grow up. Our lives will never be the same and our hearts have been comforted in a way that's hard to explain.

Memories

January 2023

Fear thou not; for I am with thee:

be not dismayed; for I am thy God:

I will strengthen thee; yea, I  will help thee;

yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand

of my righteousness.

Isaiah 41:10

The eternal God is thy refuge,

and underneath are the everlasting arms:

and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them.

Deuteronomy 33: 27

These are the verses I read this morning.

The sermon yesterday was titled 

                   Thy Will Be Done

                    God is in control

What is my response when control is taken from me? We explored three common responses. 

Anger 

Blaming someone else

Worry

Ouch! My toes were stepped on. I've been guilty of all three responses. The main thing to remember is: "God is God and I am not."

I know that phrase isn't original with me. I looked it up and found a song written by Steven Curtis Chapman   -- God is God --

where this phrase is found.

A thank you to Japheth and Aimee Stauffer for visiting church yesterday. Japheth brought the message. I'm thankful to be reminded of who is in control.

My mom and my siblings and I traveled to PA last week for a funeral. Mom is from a family of twelve. There were six boys and six girls in this family. Lloyd is Mom's brother. He was married to Dad's sister, Sharon. Sharon died rather unexpectedly 13 months ago with heart trouble. Lloyd was surrounded by family members who helped him in the grieving process. But now he has joined his bride in Heaven and sees Jesus face to face. 

Parents, siblings who have gone before, a son, Rodney, and many other family members and friends who went on ahead to that beautiful land are there to meet him.

Lloyd and Sharon have twelve children. Eight girls and three boys. In my family we have four girls and one boy. When Lloyd and Sharon visited us or we traveled to WI to visit them there was always someone close to our age to play games. We always had a grand time. So many memories....

I'm glad we could go to Lloyd's celebration of life. 

Look at those drapes and the chair. Yellows and oranges are coming back. And avacodo green. Well, that's come around full circle in my life time. 

Dawn, Maria and Hans standing in the back

Trenda, Mom and Ladina sitting in front 

February 15, 2023

Well, nothing like finding this all ready to send and here it is - still in my drafts - unsent.

Just like finding an envelope with an unfinished letter folded up inside.

I never thought the shortage of formula would affect me. This past summer found me at Krysta's house filling bottles with water and formula, feeding babies, washing bottles, changing diapers for twin girls who were in Allen and Krysta's care. They are foster parents. 

This brought back many swirling memories. My Grandpa and Grandma were foster parents. My uncle and aunt, Paul and Mary Stoll cared for three girls. Those three girls are my cousins even though they don't look like the rest of the Martin cousins. 

Later on Jerry and Trenda and John and Ladina became foster parents. Many children were cared for in their homes.

We don't know the future of these twins. Is there anything more charming than a cuddly baby drinking a bottle? Tiny, dimpled hands clutch my fingers or try to hold the bottle. Sparkling brown eyes stare up at me, searching my face. I am holding a miracle. 

Here we are on Pearl's 2nd birthday in Heaven. This weekend overlapped with our celebration of Jeremy's 40th birthday in October 2022.

We don't know the future, but our hearts have been comforted as we cared for these sweet girls this past year.

Waterloo

This morning, Tuesday, August 2nd, we were near Waterloo Ontario.

 

In the evening we drove through Waterloo Iowa on our way home. We decided to skip as much of Chicago as possible and drove west into Iowa and then north to our place. 

It's always amazing to me how far a car can go in a days time if you keep on moving. We stopped at Cracker Barrel for our supper. 

No, this isn't Cracker Barrel. This is a wedding venue in Brussels Ontario where our nephew had his wedding.  

           Congratulations Nico and Rianna!

                             July 30, 2022

    

     A good occasion to get a family picture 

  Photo credits go to many family members.             who took pictures and shared them.

                              Thank you!   

         John and Ladina, Jerry and Trenda 

      Ellis and Dawn, Mom, Doug and Maria 

                        JoAnna and Hans

                          August 1, 2022

         A late birthday celebration for me. 

       Here is a bit of the background story. 

                         

In February 2001 my sisters came to MN to.              surprise me for my 40th birthday. 

                          I was surprised! 

In 2002 it was Ladina's turn. We managed to shock Ladina with the help of John and their daughter, Janine. (Even though she knew we would arrive sometime that spring.) Dad and Mom and all of us girls with our daughters drove to Dryden Ontario.

In 2004 we repeated this scenario for Trenda. Jerry had arranged for an Airbnb for us to stay in. (Before that was even a thing!) 

Then in 2006 Ladina, Trenda and I flew to Toronto Ontario to surprise Maria. Mom and Dad were visiting at their home near Stratford. Dad was helping Doug on some part of their renovation project. Through some careful planning and strategic timing Dad and Doug picked us up at the airport. (All without lying to Maria as to their whereabouts for the past 2 - 3 hours =) Dad and Doug went in the back door while we waited for a short time then knocked on the front door. A🚪 they didn't use very often. It was sweet to pull off all of these events... 

In 2007 there was a family reunion at Doug and Maria's place and we had a birthday party to celebrate Hans and his 30th birthday. 

          Photo credits to JoAnna Skrivseth 

When Trenda asked what we were doing for my 50th birthday I was ready to say, "It's been fantastic! But how about not going to a lot of drama for this decade?!"

I was out voted. So we celebrated again in 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2017

There was an extended family reunion in 2019 celebrating Mom's 80th birthday 

I don't want to mention what happened in 2020 since we are all sick and tired of         #@&/%

It put a wrench in any plans for family reunions. So my 60th birthday went by quietly. Here I  should give you a link where you could go back to February 9, 2021 in this blog and see what happened. My family gave me 60 gifts so it wasn't very quiet - now that I think if it. (And I am not up to date with putting in links and all of that stuff.)

Ladina celebrated her 60th birthday in April of this year recovering from major heart surgery in Baltimore, Maryland. Janine put together a card shower for Ladina.

Next spring Ladina has plans for a belated party on the North Shore. Which was all very long winded to bring you up to date for my belated birthday party at a lovely park in Stratford Ontario. 

                A novel way to find dinner

             Doug grilled sausages/braats.

There was a gigantic salad with everything in it except onions and celery. Chips and hummus dip, buns and ketchup and mustard to go with the sausages and sauerkraut, too.

After delightful strolls through the gardens and more family picture we went back to Doug and Maria's place for ice cream cake and coffee.  A wonderful day! My main idea for this celebration was that we could all be together and the whole weekend was one long family reunion.

    Ice cream treats in Shakespeare Ontario 

Traveling

"Do you have Grandpa's book?" I asked my children on our family chat. I found some extra ones in my book shelf that need to find homes in some other book shelves. A small start to begin emptying our house. 

🌺  Cheers!!  💕 

We went to Nevada over Easter vacation. 

    Blue sky between rain and snow showers. 

          I'm not very good at taking selfies.

     Here we are with our beautiful rental car.

We came to southern Idaho to visit Deanne and took a road trip to Nevada.

                 The scenery was amazing!

                          Shoshone Falls

We heard about record breaking snow fall in other parts of the states. Fortunately - for us - north of where we were. 

    Of course we missed Jasper immensely!

         He is learning to sit up by himself!

                        What big eyes!

The pictures are backwards in time. Here we are on March 30th having coffee cake and tea for Krysta's birthday. 

(Photo credits of Jasper go to Krysta)

Last, but not least, my beautiful sister, Ladina. She is back home in MN after heart surgery. We are all so grateful for healing and thankful she is on the road to recovery. (Photo credits go to my niece, Janine.)

winter wonderland

"What's the first thing you think of when you go through a tunnel?"

My sister, Trenda, asked me this as we traveled on the PA turnpike that last week of December. 

I thought for a little bit and then said, "Princess Diana."  (The bigger answer is her accident and death)

Trenda said, "Only a sister would get that answer right."

I tried the same question on Ellis as we traveled north on Hwy 61 with Lake Superior visible out the passenger side window. We went through several short tunnels. He was stumped and couldn't think of the right answer. When I told him - Princess Diana - he asked, "Was that accident in a tunnel? I didn't remember that."

Why would we travel to the north shore in March where the temperature next morning was -5?

Naniboujou Lodge near Grand Marais MN

My sister, Ladina, discovered this lovely place a few years ago when she and John were on a ride on Hwy 61. She happened to glance back and saw a large building through the trees. They turned around and went back and had a meal there. 

They have weekends open in the winter (February and part of March)  then open again in the summer. 

John and Ladina and Ellis and I braved the cold and snow and went North for a get-a-away in March.

photo credits of the lake: Ladina Martin

view from our room

We explored the town of Grand Marais and also took a site seeing drive on the Gunflint trail looking for moose. These cute moose painted on a tray were the only moose we saw.

We were on a search for books and baskets. 

Sisters

In the room next to the grand dining room there were tables and couches and conversation nooks where we played games, read books and caught up on life.

One of the other guests asked Ladina and me if we are twins. We are 14 months apart in age. Mom has been known to say she felt like she was raising twins when we were little.

If you want to go north in the winter this is a great place to go. Now, of course, we want to go to the north shore in the summer and find some Lake Superior agates and wade in the water.