Forever my baby.  Born on “tax day” (finally, the day was redeemed) and during a freak ice storm in Sioux City, Iowa.  She was a big baby, even though we were total vegan at the time.  And she was born to applause because the doctor, at the teaching hospital there, was so impressed with how well Dave and I were handling the labor process (I’d been through it…a few times, very recently, actually).  He asked more than once if they could bring the students and interns in to observe us.  I said no several times, but when it got to the “really fun” part, my defenses were  low and when I said yes, the room filled with 20+ observers who cheered us on and affirmed our expertise in baby making and birthing.

But even though she arrived center stage, the star of the show, and though she holds the position as baby-of-the-family, Stormie has never been the “typical” version of that.  She was never an “absent-minded, friendly manipulator with a craving for the spotlight and everyone’s rapt attention,” those things commonly used to describe her birth order ranking.

Stormie Dae, born with a headful of dark hair, just entered the family quietly and sweetly, enthralled by all the activity in a home with 4 older siblings, 1 1/2, almost 3, almost 4 and almost 7 years of age (that’s right: 5 kids in less than 7 years).  She brought joy and a certain sweetness.  She got her daddy’s personlity: easy-going, peaceful, servant-hearted and deeply loving.  She got his dimples, too.  And she won my heart.

Today, Stormie Dae, I thought I’d give you words

Because words and song are how I show my love.  So when I started listing my words, I couldn’t get Michael Buble’s song “Everything” out of my head, so it was hard not to turn this into a song-lyric-poen thing, but maybe that is as it should be.  Because, “You Took My Heart by Surprise” and since the day you came I have wanted to be “Close to You.”  But maybe none of this means anything since I have also been singing Stephen Bishop’s “Save it for a Rainy Day” for 3 days now, too?   

And etc.  {a mom is allowed to be corny on her baby’s birthday}

But I mean these words.  And I could have gone on.  Yes, I could have. But I ran out of space…

You may need to open another screen to see all 50 or 75 of them?

created at www.picnik.com (just plopped lots of words with 3 different fonts onto a photo from Stormie’s (and Steph’s) www.maydae.com blog

Love you, sweet-pea.  So proud of you.  Happy Birthday.

Stormie had the privilege of designing the insert for the new, luxurious pillow by American Down and Feather to benefit Love146, an organization set on ending child sex trafficking and providing restoration for those rescued.  We {heart} Eric Weiland and we {heart} his heart. 

Us and Eric and Heather Weiland, some of our all-time fav people), Sept. ’10

BTW-I have this pillow and it is…dreamy!  Amazing.  Soft, pillow-y, yet supportive and yes.  I guess I do love it.

{Isn’t this beauful?  It is by www.cutarts.com}

We have always been an us.

On July 23, 1981, we became a family.  Me + Dave + Tara.  And we started adding to our collection.  We were avid collectors, apparently, for we added 4 more in less than 4 years.  By the time of our 5th anniversay we were 7.  Me + Dave + Tara + Stephanie + Tredessa + Rocky + Stormie.  A full, loud, happy nest, a family!

The numbers have changed over the years,  especially as kids turned into high schoolers and then college students and started getting married, and they have gone up and down, then slightly up again and even had a few cousins sprinkled in here or there and children of the faith added to the mix.  But the house, the us, has always had other people besides me and Dave breathing in some adjoining room, or another.

Stormie bought her own, first house yesterday, signed the final papers. 

And just like that, pouf!  Our nest is empty.

This was the goal, right?  This is why we taught them to tie their own shoes, be good citizens and get out there to fulfill their destiny for God in their generation.  We were populating the earth with godly seed, right?  Making sure to produce history-making, Holy-Spirit-filled sons and daughters, prophesying, praying, singing and worshipping, spiritual activists and icnonclasts for Jesus?  Wasn’t this the very goal of it all?

Stormie at her new house, images from www.maydae.com

She will sleep in her new house tomorrow night for the first time (today painting and polishing and preparing for the moving van tomorrow, all exciting rites of passage).  It is a sunny spring day and I am here, at home, on the couch and I can hear the distinct tick-tocking of various clocks throughout our home (I also, apparently, collect clocks) and they seem louder now.  They seem to fill a bigger quiet than before, understanding the expanded space they will now inhabit.  Children on the next block, rambunctiously enjoying spring break echo exactly the sounds of my own little ones - wasn’t it just yesterday?

We’ve spent 30 years building this nest for these people.  And now they are building their own.

And it is good.  And it is God.

And we have always been will always be an us.

Dave + me.  And all the storage and space I always thought I needed….and the mutt.

google image

NOTE TO KIDS:  Dad says to call if you’re coming over in case one or more of us is naked.  Yes.  He really did say that.

You can slow down or speed up the slideshow by using the {+} or {-} symbols in the bottom, left-hand corner. 

I also wrote quick captions which can be read by putting the cursor at the bottom of the images.

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.

Twenty-three Wishes for Stormie on Her 23rd Birthday

1. I wish for you to “prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”  3 Jn 1.2 nkjv
2. I wish an unending smile for your face – so your dimples will deepen and delight will spread over your whole head.
3. I wish the warm and cheerful feeling of yellow flowers to surround you no matter where you are, regardless of any circumstance.
4. I want your heart to be in peace.
5. I want you to always and forever know what it means to be free in Christ, totally, completely free!  And I rebuke the enemy.  I rebuke Satan from even trying to enslave you in any way.
6. May God’s will be done in your life, all the days of your life, as you bring Him glory – on earth as it is in heaven.
7. I hope dad and I have given you what you need to be everything God intends.  If we have forgotten anything – you know where to find us.  It’s not too late!
8. Never forget how many people adore the stuffing out of you!  You are loved-like-crazy by me and dad and Tara and Dave and Hunter and Stephanie and Tristan and Gavin and Guini and Gemma and Rocky and Jovan and Averi and Tredessa and Elise and all the cousins and all the aunts and uncles and don’t forget Grandma and Grandpa Moslander…
9. “Be-member, mama, we like to ‘shnuggle.’”  I will never forget those words nor your voice when you were 4 telling me that.  I wish for you to remember it always, too, because I am still happy to ‘shnuggle’ with you!
10. For the man.  The one.  The right time.  I wish him for you, Stormie.  I am praying for him, too.
11. I wish for you a bunch of cute little Stormies.  Oh-even if you only get one like you, she will make you so happy.  I guarantee it.
12. I wish for you to reap all the seeds of godliness and generosity that you have sown.  I wish for the bread you have cast upon on the waters to now be found!  May it come back to you.
13. I pray for the heavens to open and loud, clear-cut direction and guidance for your life to be announced with trumpets and singing.  I pray you will never wander aimlessly.
14. I am believing for continued favor on your life.
15. I remind God about showing you mercy and gracing you mightily (empowering you to be everything He created you to be; empowering you to do all He has called you to do!).
16. My wish is that you will be full (all the way to capacity and running over) of the Holy Spirit.
17. I wish for you to always walk in truth.
18. I will always believe in you.  There has not been even moment I have not loved you fully, madly.
19. I wish you could see what I see when I look into your eyes.  There is eternity behind them – there is joy and love and life and lightheartedness – so much life.  You’re barely out the starting gate…
20. I wish for you to have no heartbreaks or sorrow.  But if you must, I wish for the LORD to be your comfort (your keeper and the Lover of your soul) so you’ll look back and say, “I would not trade the pain for how I know Him today.  It has been worth it.”
21. My prayer is that you’ll have joy and rejoicing in these early twenties: “in the days of your full-grown youth.” (Ecc. 11.9 Amp).  I hope you will relish your youthful vigor and live fully from the heart, seeing and pursuing whatever brings you happiness and pleases the Lord.
22. “Oh how sweet the light of day, and how wonderful to live in the sunshine!  Even if you live a long time, don’t take a single day for granted.  Take delight in each light-filled hour…Live footloose and fancy free.  You won’t be young forever.”  (Ecc. 11 The message)
23. May the LORD bless you and keep you, my Stormkins.  May He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.  May the smile of the LORD be on your life and may you bring Him joy and be His forever.

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.

A Twilight Movie Party

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.

A Twilight-Movie Party Game

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:

• Your love is like a picture frame to me. (Cousin Elise)
• Your heart is like an egg to me. (Nephew Hunter – reference to the Easter eggs he had just colored with his daddy)
• Your chameleon-like hair is like a golf ball to me. (dad)
• Your beautiful smile is like the Eiffel Tower to me.  (Dave/DP)
• Your buns are like the D-Note to me. (said by a certain ornery brother; the D-Note is a very hip indy-style restaurant where they do live music in Olde Town Arvada)

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! :]

Scenes from Twilight

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 Easter stuff, too

There was an Easter-egg hunt for the Grand-bebes.

There was some Karaoke

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!

But mostly – we love Stormie!

‘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.

Yay for Stormie!  Good job, sweetie pie. 

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….

The sound is discovered.

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.

We arrive at Target.

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…

“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.”