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I see in my mind’s eye a big healthy baby – 9 pounds, 10 ounces. Two weeks past her due date, she arrives: peacefully, happily. She settles in as the newest and final addition to the home of love being built by my lover and me. She is the object of affection and delight to her four older siblings. She is a reward and gift to her mommy and daddy.
Chunky at birth, she elongates into a tall-for-her-age, skinny pre-schooler who uses her voice, sweet and syrupy, to melt us and get everything she wants.
She is 5 with a tiny heart-shaped face and big, expressive eyes. There is a big yellow bow in her tightly permed hair and she twirls in a polka-dot skirt. She doesn’t just like school, she looooooooves school!
She runs, during the elementary days, to keep up with her brother. If he is playing baseball, so is she. If he is madly roller-blading – she will keep up. Though we fear her tiny frame may snap from the pace, she is ever just an “nth” of a step behind Rocky.
As a teen, she follows Jesus with all her heart. She prays her sister, with tears, back from the brink. She becomes a stained glass artist and stars in the school play. She learns to drive while worshipping her head off in the car with her mama. She is a blessing.
Age and maturity reveal one of the kindest people I have ever known. She serves and cares and quietly sets things aright. She is 23 now. The baby is 23. And I love her.
I don’t know where the years have gone, Stormkins, but I cherish every moment you have been mine. I love you so deeply, my sweet baby girl. All 23 candles on represent a wish I have for you this year.
Happy Birthday, my baby. Twenty-three years ago today was such a blessed day in my life. I didn’t even know how much at the time, but, wow! God was so good to have given you to me! I love you, babykins!…mom
NOTE TO SELF: Take Stormie to Anthropologie for her birthday. Buy her something sweet.
pictured: I was trying to find a good pic of Stormie’s eyes because I love them. This was as close as I could get; Stormie on 4/15/86 with her daddy just a little while after her birth.
We got together over the weekend to celebrate Stormie’s birthday, just the fam. She didn’t know it, but we decided we’d do a Twilight – themed party since Stormie loves the books and movie by Stephanie Meyer so much.
There were pepper, onion and roast-beef stuffed chimichangas along with cilantro-lime rice and all the other fixings. Tara made her excellent guacamole while Rocky and Jovan served us sizzling sausage and cheese-stuffed jalapenos, “poppers” as they should be. Food everywhere! No special cake, but as Stormie requested, her usual fruit pizza.
The movie soundtrack provided the musical backdrop, and naturally the flick was playing continuously for ambiance. There were red apples (see the book cover), red ribbons and chess pieces (Stephanie-the-daughter is in to the details), quotes everywhere (oh, how our family loves movie quotes!), and Tara painted a black sheet with the title. We used it as a backdrop for some silly pictures.
I “invented” a Twilight-Mad-Lib kind of thing. I asked each person to give me a noun, a thing of any sort AND to name a characteristic or physical attribute of Stormie’s. They didn’t know why, but then I used the line from the movie: “Your scent is like a drug to me…” and filled in people’s responses for Stormie. She got stuff like:
I wish I had thought to also ask them to name their own secret obsession, too, because I could’ve added from the rest of the quote: “Your scent is like a drug to me, my own personal brand of heroin.” Then Hunter’s might have read, “Your heart is like an egg to me, my own personal brand of candy.” And Jovan’s would probably have read: “Your eyes are like a shoe to me [which she really said]…my own personal brand of Edward Cullen!” Which, if you keep up on Jovan’s blog – you know she actually has her own personal brand of Edward!
Feel free to use ”my” invented game at your next party! :]
A couple of the girls re-enacted their favorite neck-biting scene from the movie and everybody held an apple in their hands like the cover of the first book of the series, referenced then in the movie when Edward is talking to Bella at the school cafeteria salad bar. She accidentally knocked a very red apple down and he, with lightening-quick reflexes, kicks it back up, catching it in his hands. Fun!
Gavin fixed his own hair to look just like Edward’s and is already talking about being Edward for Halloween this year. Gemma thought if they were handing her an apple, she may as well eat it. Stephanie got shy about the neck-biting.
There was an Easter-egg hunt for the Grand-bebes.
No. Don’t even ask. I will not share the video of Dave and I reprising one of our greatest wedding-singing hits ever: Always by Atlantic Starr!
‘Cuz she’s the baby. Gotta love her!
Stormie won the t-shirt design contest for Extreme Community Makeover-Denver. She did a “paint effect” background with a paint brush look coloring in the Denver skyline.
Extreme Community Makeover (www.extremecommunitymakeover.org) is a cool non-profit birthed out of Confluence (Tredessa’s day ministry) that has beautified and blessed families in the city.
Tredessa and Stormie are going to kill me for this, but seriously – there is no room for another worship-leader/musician/ministry/missionary guy in the family! What we really need is some one who can work on cars.
Of course, I am kidding. Sort of. But maybe not, really. Because we are just not that great with cars or any sort of weird sound, smell, emission, transmission, filter, fuel pump, guage, heater core, thermostat, alternator or anything connected to any of those things having to do at all with cars or anything closely resembling a car.
So when Stormie and I left for Target earlier today and were barely around the corner before we heard a hissing noise coming out of the vents, there was immediate alarm. PsssssSssssSsssssssssst…
“What is that noise?” Stormie asked with the appropriate concern, you know, because of our lack of car-luck.
I tried to play it down. “Oh, it just sounds like the release of some pressure in the heating unit or something.” Didn’t I sound like I actually knew something?
Stormie: (adjusting the the heater, off, then on) No, I have never heard a sound like that.
Me: (leaning forward to adjust the vent opening and closing, playing it cool; sounds subsides mementarily) Oh, it just sounds like a release of pressure – oh, there it went. It is fine. (I settle back and suddenly the sound gets loud again)
Me: (inside truly believing some majorly important hose has come loose and is shooting in all directions under the hood and probably will be the demise of Stormie’s Corolla, but still needing to make it to Target! Stormie is madly pushing buttons and being very concerned) Oh, hmmm…I don’t know what that is….
Stormie: Wait-what is that smell? Mom-you are stepping on my hair spray!
All I can say is I was wearing my Danskos, made for shopping like a maniac, and I didn’t feel a thing.
We now roll the windows down choking from the aerosal hairspray fumes which are about to overcome us.
Stormie: Mom, you were sitting on my CD.
Me: You need to clean up your car. (I now discover I sound just like my Grandma Hallet used to sound when she was laughing like a banchee with her asthma-hiss. This is no good).
Ok-so in this case, a mechanic was not needed. But for the future…
Tredessa and Stormie, Niece-Elise and Mary Jean, plus the rest, left for Honduras today. They go. I pray. If they cross your mind, will you pray, too? While they pour out, I am praying they will get filled!
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14.18
Father, heal both the children who reside at the Home of Refuge and the ones who have gone to minister to them from the orphan spirit. Reveal Your love and do a deep work in their hearts. May the team return renewed, hearts healed, and energized by Your grace.”
Stormie sent me this recently:
While I was in Missouri, Stormie-the-baby was in a serious, car-totaling accident. Yes-her beloved Toyota Camry (which was getting about 38 miles per gallon in the city!!) got majorly crunched when she t-boned some crazy driver who decided to shoot out of a parking lot on a whim.
Because there was very little reaction time, she really didn’t experience a lot of the stress pain you get when you anticipate a crash. Her air-bag deployed and protected her well. She is, however, left with a badly sprained left ankle and the bottom of her foot is still swelling from the bruising, as it basically took the full impact of the wreck as she pressed in on the clutch at the moment of impact. She is on crutches and in a wheelchair and takes f o r e v e r to get anywhere! It is pretty painful and purple.
We are blessed because they have accepted full liability so she should get paid for the work days she missed and the medical bills are being covered. She is driving a gorgeous blue Mustang rental presently, but will need a replacement here in the next few days. Help us pray she gets a good and safe car with extra good mileage (she drives across the planet to work daily)!
I truly believe she is recuperating extremely well under her mother’s loving care.
Thank-You for keeping our baby safe in a crazy world, Lord! …Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Get Stormie’s laundry done. 
pictured: the crunched car, Stormie’s pretty little seatbelt burn (glad she was wearing one!), and her bruised-up arm.
